Could Cal Davis be the next Florida Gulf Coast?

[AZ BU Fan]

Woulda coulda shoulda

Les seemed to be a great guy and a great ambassador for the university. He was an average coach with a great run in 06. He seemed to get out coached in games and pick up silly technical fouls.

I don't think an average coach should have got fired with multiple years left on his contract and no real chance to utilize new facilities that he helped raise.

Jim should have been given another year or 2 to right the ship. Had he done that and I think he would have. We wouldn't be in this position.

However the people of peoria are interesting and have a strange perception of how things should be.

This got Jim Molinari and Jim Les fired too early.

That's why sports and sports blogs are so great. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and speculation/hindsight is the name of the game.

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, oh what a joyous Christmas we would all have."

If GF had some success coaching BU to top 4 finishes in MVC and made MVC Tournament finals by year 3 or 4 at BU, would anyone really have cared as much as they do now about JL being let go when he did?

I could see it now though: 'GF only had success at BU because of JL players'.

Did anyone, except zealots, really pine for JL at BU after he went 28-65 in years 1-3 at UC-D while GF went 37-62 at BU in years 1-3?

Wait, here it comes, but BU would have had Remy for all 4 years, but Nate Wells would have been all MVC, but Corey would have changed his mind and ultimately came to BU from ASU, but BU would have been injury free, but JL would have become a much better coach than he ever was in years 1-9, etc etc etc.

Time for the 'I called this disaster way back when' posts. Funny how many who speculate come out when they are correct, but often don't show when they are incorrect. I will predict every day the stock market will crash tomorrow. When it happens, I'll make sure I told you so....

[Da Coach]

Somewhere, Bob Vanatta is rejoicing. He will no longer be in the record books as the worst coach in Bradley history.

[tornado]

Time for the 'I called this disaster way back when' posts.......

so you don't believe plenty did?
..the company line was that we would be better right away and be competing for championships in no time....
that there was zero talent left in the cupboard when those were the only players that could win games for Geno (it's almost ironic that almost 4 years later, the only MVC road win Geno gets was at Evansville courtesy of Nate Wells!)
...the gushing praise never ended, aided by the PJS who were JG & GF's biggest cheerleaders.

..and yet, every aspect from the never-get -out-of-Thursday to the massive decline in attendance - even to the success by KK & JL elsewhere way earlier than we had success
..were precisely predicted by many fans...we all knew this is where we were headed....
now those who missed badly on their every single bit of their predictions are dissing on those who hit it right on the head.

I don't think an average coach should have got fired with multiple years left on his contract and no real chance to utilize new facilities that he helped raise. ...

In time people will come to appreciate how good Dr. Broski, Ken Kavanagh, & Jim Les were for Bradley, and how they were 80-90% responsible for all the improved facilities - despite the credit constantly being given to others who walked in here after it was already mostly accomplished.
Again - irony that the present people talk about how "deep the mess was" when they arrived - and yet cannot see how massively deeper the messes are now after they've had time to put their hands on it.

[Da Coach]

While Bradley was clinching last place in the MVC yesterday, UC Davis clinched at least a tie for the Big West Conference championship.

UC Davis won at Cal Poly 66-56, shooting 55.8% from the field on the road, and 47.1% from three-

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400596006

2nd place Cal Irvine lost at UC Santa Barbara 54-51 to fall 2 full games behind UC Davis.

UC Davis' last 2 conference games are at home next Thursday against UC Riverside, and Saturday against UC Irvine.

[tornado]

With Corey Hawkins' scoring last night - the duo of Hersey and Corey Hawkins have now scored a combined 4,688 points in D-I basketball...

This is 2nd all time in history -
Only Steph Curry (2,635) and Dell Curry (2,389) who total 5,024, have more as a FATHER-SON DUO

if Corey can score 336 they can tie - but he has only 2 regular season games left, plus max of 3 Big West tourney games, then another max of 6 post-season games - so he'd have to average well over 30 and make a very deep run - pretty unlikely

[tornado]

Chad Forde article - LINK


UNDER THE RADAR LOVE

Each week The Minutes will shine some light on a player doing good work outside the power-five mainstream. This week: Corey Hawkins (37), UC Davis. The Arizona State transfer and son of Hersey Hawkins averages 20.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Big West-leading Aggies. Hawkins ranks in the Big West top 10 in scoring, assists and rebounds.

"Corey is an elite scorer who is extremely efficient,??? coach Jim Les said. ???His ability to be a complete player has helped elevate our team."


But Forde does make one glaring error in his comments on the MVC
"In what everyone views as a two-team league, Redbirds are the dangerous third seed."

Forde makes the common error of looking at the standings and presuming the team in the 3rd slot is the 3rd seed - but of course that is wrong - Illinois State is the #4 seed.

http://cdn.streamlinetechnologies.com/mvc/53539AA2-BC37-492E-B5F3-44783420882F/Tourney_Preview.pdf

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25001

[tornado]

UC-Davis now leads the entire nation with its +13 win differential over last year - so they are THE MOST improved team in the nation - and they didn't just improve from 10th to 8th - they improved all the way to 1st in their league..

They have clinched no worse than a tie for the regular season championship with 2 games left to go...
But if they do lose both games and end up tied with UC-Irvine for 1st place- there is a tiebreaker system for the purpose of seeding - and as of now it appears UC-Davis would own the tiebreaker by virtue of their sweep of the 4th place team Long Beach State (UCI split) - so they are a virtual lock to get the #1 seed.

[Da Coach]

Here is a video story about UC Davis from a Sacramento TV station

http://www.kcra.com/news/uc-davis-mens-hoops-team-on-the-verge-of-school-history/31621568

UC Davis remains to top 3-point shooting team by a wide margin.
Bradley's next opponent, Drake, has moved into the #3 spot-

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/stats/teamsort/sortableTable/NCAAB/SCORING/regularseason?&_1:col_1=13

[tornado]

think of this....
if UC-Davis MISSES their next 50 3-pt attempts, they'd still the top team in the NATION!!!

That's how far ahead of the next closest team they are!!

[tornado]

Great audio interview with Coach Les...

http://www.foxsportsradio.com/onair/fox-sports-daybreak-46874/jim-les-talks-about-turning-around-13380494

[Chico]

think of this....
if UC-Davis MISSES their next 50 3-pt attempts, they'd still the top team in the NATION!!!

That's how far ahead of the next closest team they are!!

Thats got to fun watching a team shoot like that. We get to watch a team that has a hard time making layups.

[tornado]

UC-Davis wins - clinch the Big West League Title
Hawkins with the game winner, 19 pts, 6 reb

[tornado]

cutting the nets down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLgXeNxpvwM

"Les is More" - hmmm...that's original!

http://www.theaggie.org/2015/03/05/les-is-more-2/

[Tommy]

I just read a quote here that stated that Les was an average coach. I can see having that sentiment if you didn't really watch the games while he was coaching here.

If you did watch the games, what you saw was a coach that had teams that typically always adjusted after half time, was extremely difficult to beat at home, and how many times did we see a slam dunk coming out of a timeout? Guy could/can coach, and UC Davis looks to be a cinderella team for the immediate future.

How sad that Hawkins/Les aren't running the floor at Carver Arena. Travesty.

Hopefully they welcome Les back on campus after all of this is over. We'll never get Hawkins back on the board, but we can at least mend some fences and get the two of them back as alumni.

[lefty]

I just read a quote here that stated that Les was an average coach. I can see having that sentiment if you didn't really watch the games while he was coaching here.

If you did watch the games, what you saw was a coach that had teams that typically always adjusted after half time, was extremely difficult to beat at home, and how many times did we see a slam dunk coming out of a timeout? Guy could/can coach, and UC Davis looks to be a cinderella team for the immediate future.

How sad that Hawkins/Les aren't running the floor at Carver Arena. Travesty.

Hopefully they welcome Les back on campus after all of this is over. We'll never get Hawkins back on the board, but we can at least mend some fences and get the two of them back as alumni.

I think it was more about the conference finishes with the average coach remarks.....and while we have been beatable anywhere the last 4 years...I actually didn't think Les teams were especially tough at home...but they were able to win some road games that were pretty tough