Coach Les gets a raise

[tornado]

The salaries of state employees is searchable and this year Coach Les' salary took a huge jump

Coach Les' contract was "backloaded"....
so in years 1, 2, and 3 he earned $125K, $126K, and $127K (but he does teaching also)

But, now in Year-4 he suddenly jumps to $250K, then $275 next year (base salary but more for radio, promotions, camps, etc..)
...that makes Coach Les the 2nd highest paid Big West coach behind Dan Monson LINK LINK

[Buesch N Chips]

How long was he still being paid by BU?

[Da Coach]

He was owed 3 years at around $450K from BU.

[Chico]

Cal-Davis is starting a stretch of 4 road games in a row. Air Force, Northern Colrado, Washington St and Seattle. Should tell Jim a lot about his team. Wish them luck.

[tornado]

they did pick up two wins on a long road trip all the way out east earlier this season

[Da Coach]

UC Davis won again tonight at Northern Colorado- a very tough place to win. Northern Colorado was 5-0 on their home court this year, before tonight. They had won 14 straight games at home over the last 2 seasons.
UC Davis won 73-63; they lead almost from start to finish, shot 51% from the floor, 39% from three, and outrebounded No. Colorado 41-31.

Corey Hawkins, who would have been playing for Bradley if not for the coaching change, was UCD's leading scorer again with 17. His 20 ppg scoring average is among the top 20 in all of Division I, and he is shooting 53% on three pointers, which also is among the top 20 nationally in D1!

UC Davis improves to 8-1 against D1 opponents, 9-1 overall, and 4-1 on the road.
Their 4 non-conference road wins so far this season equals the total number of non-conference road wins that Bradley has had in the entire 3 1/2 seasons combined under Geno!

They are also 2-0 east of the Mississippi this season.

UC Davis' RPI drops down to 98, approximately 200 slots ahead of Bradley's.

If anyone senses a bit of sarcasm, it is because many here will recall that I predicted UC Davis, one of the worst programs in Division I when Coach Les took over, would become a consistently winning team before Bradley would again. Of course, there were a few ignorant fans who ridiculed and mocked me for making such a prediction. Anyway, there isn't much to be happy about now for Bradley fans, but at least it feels good knowing I was right again.

[amckillip]

UC Davis would beat BU by double digits without much trouble.

[TheAsianSensation]

One non-conference slate, against a schedule that projects out to be the 329th toughest in the country, does not make Davis a "consistently winning team". Consistent by definition requires a couple years in a row.

That said, Les is legitimately doing a good job this year. 4 road wins! And we've seen, his peak is pretty good.

[tornado]

if you play a weak schedule then you just go out and beat all the teams you're supposed to beat
- nothing complicated about that...
UCD is getting it done, we are not.

[amckillip]

One non-conference slate, against a schedule that projects out to be the 329th toughest in the country, does not make Davis a "consistently winning team". Consistent by definition requires a couple years in a row.

That said, Les is legitimately doing a good job this year. 4 road wins! And we've seen, his peak is pretty good.

If you're going to schedule down, you better win. JL is doing that and generally he minimizes bad losses, not always, but he doesn't usually lose to teams he should be, where he struggles is coaching up a team that 'should' beat top tier teams.

[Da Coach]

One non-conference slate, against a schedule that projects out to be the 329th toughest in the country, does not make Davis a "consistently winning team". Consistent by definition requires a couple years in a row.

Welcome back, TAS. I believe it was you who said you have to wait until the end of the non-conference season to be able to put any stock in the RPI numbers. Well, we are just about there, and UC Davis' RPI is 98 (Bradley's is close to 300!). That is so far better than any RPI Bradley has seen in the last 3 1/2 years, it is embarrassing. If we can't use RPI's yet, then can you tell us when we have permission to use them?

By the way, UC Davis was a far, far inferior program when Jim Les took it over, compared with Bradley, their history, their facilities, the fan base, the financial support, and their tradition. UC Davis, on the other hand, had never even had a winning season in D1, while Bradley was just 1 injury-filled year from 5 winning seasons in a row, averaging over 20 wins per year.

You don't have to like JL, but you have to respect what he has done and it's impossible for anyone to deny that it's pretty impressive.

And I am sure UCD's schedule is a bit weak because they can't get good teams to play them, though I'll bet their SOS ends up a lot better than where the current projection is. We know from history that Jim Les has proven he does not shy away from playing good teams, compared with the intentional and embarrassing weak schedules Cross & Geno have concocted these last 3 years to try to make their disaster look better.

[tornado]

UCD is 3-0 against the Mountain West thus far!

[Chico]

Even though many of us are unhappy because Jim Les was fired, I don't know of any real Bradley fan who wants Geno to fail. I know I don't. I wasn't happy with a particular coach several years ago, but I went to every game hoping for a Bradley victory. Jim had the stands practically filled for every home game and the boosters and fans were mostly Jim Les fans as proven by their financial support to Bradley and their attendance at the games. Let's hope Geno can turn this thing around and get the support back.

[BU212121]

UC Davis is actually 9-1.

Two more road non cons left. Maybe they can get a split and then one more cupcake before Big West Season.

Thats 11 - 2 with a 16 game confernece season ahead.

Very good chance they are 21 - 8 or 22 - 7 going into the Big West Tourney. Pretty good season for a team thats never had a winning record.

[TheAsianSensation]

Welcome back, TAS. I believe it was you who said you have to wait until the end of the non-conference season to be able to put any stock in the RPI numbers. Well, we are just about there, and UC Davis' RPI is 98 (Bradley's is close to 300!). That is so far better than any RPI Bradley has seen in the last 3 1/2 years, it is embarrassing. If we can't use RPI's yet, then can you tell us when we have permission to use them?

By the way, UC Davis was a far, far inferior program when Jim Les took it over, compared with Bradley, their history, their facilities, the fan base, the financial support, and their tradition. UC Davis, on the other hand, had never even had a winning season in D1, while Bradley was just 1 injury-filled year from 5 winning seasons in a row, averaging over 20 wins per year.

You don't have to like JL, but you have to respect what he has done and it's impossible for anyone to deny that it's pretty impressive.

And I am sure UCD's schedule is a bit weak because they can't get good teams to play them, though I'll bet their SOS ends up a lot better than where the current projection is. We know from history that Jim Les has proven he does not shy away from playing good teams, compared with the intentional and embarrassing weak schedules Cross & Geno have concocted these last 3 years to try to make their disaster look better.

Nah, it's about time to start looking at the RPIs seriously. Late December. UCD has done a legitimately good job, full credit for their RPI (although I think the bottom half of that conference will be an anchor, and it's headed for the 150 range).

I'm all for giving credit for this year to Les (seriously, he does deserve it). I'm just saying that using the word "consistent" before "winning team" is a bit disingenuous. This is the first year where he's had any success (but it is legitimate).

Also I'm pretty sure I didn't reference any current Bradley factoid when posting my thoughts, so I'm not sure why the BU-related thoughts you had are relevant to my post