Post season summary

[tornado]

Dave Reynolds kinda summarizes a lot that we already know ..but at least he acknowledges this stuff instead of denying it...but still offers a ton of the injury excuses...

"Bradley’s 24 losses were the second-most in school history. (Geno also owns the worst record, too) The .376 shooting percentage was the worst in 60 years.
The 9.3 assists per game were the program’s lowest since charting for the stat began 49 years ago.
The 57.0 points per game were the second-lowest since World War II."


Nate Wells says he's not planning to leave...
"Fourth-year junior Nate Wells, who will receive his degree in May, might have been a logical candidate to call it a career until becoming a starter a month ago.
“Right now, I’m looking forward to playing at Bradley next year and doing the best I can for our school,” Wells said after the UNI game."

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150307/SPORTS/150309343/12701/SPORTS?rssfeed=true&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

biggest concern is the expected huge dropoff in attendance if we go one more year of this stuff --
45-50 points a game and more missed layups than defensive stops

[Jeffesh]

That article was another piece of junk, I especially took offense to the part where he writes that all of the coaches before Geno ultimately failed. They may have been fired but didn't fail. I'm not sure about Stowell but the others that KW mentions had success. Geno on the other hand had no success.

[tornado]

Versace was not fired - so he has that 100% wrong...
Versace was offered a one-year contract by Bradley, and for a guy who had done as much as he had done for Bradley it was a flat-out insult..
so he made one single phone call and instantly was offered and took a better job, much to the great dismay of Bradley fans...

[tornado]

yet another long list of things that might happen then again might not happen..

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150307/SPORTS/150309336/12701/SPORTS

sadly - the highlight of all of this is that he points our how little relevance Bradley has had in MVC basketball the past four years..
except for the losing, the turmoil, and the really bad decisions made by administration..
Nice legacy for those in charge...

[Chico]

KW likes to say the last 5 years have been bad, so he can get his dig in on JL. Guess he doesn't notice how many more empty seats there are now compared to 5 years ago.

[Chico]

Versace was not fired - so he has that 100% wrong...
Versace was offered a one-year contract by Bradley, and for a guy who had done as much as he had done for Bradley it was a flat-out insult..
so he made one single phone call and instantly was offered and took a better job, much to the great dismay of Bradley fans...

That's news to many BU fans. Never saw that mentioned anywhere before. If that was the case it was just about like being fired.

[tornado]

That's news to many BU fans. Never saw that mentioned anywhere before. If that was the case it was just about like being fired.

I guess so because there were those who wanted him out...and he would have likely been let go after 1987 but it never happened..

In July of 1986 after a great team and a good run in the NCAA Tourney
Versace signed a 1-year contract to stay at Bradley

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-08-06/sports/8602160060_1_dick-versace-bradley-university-ncaa

Two weeks later - after a couple phone calls to his friend Chuck Daly (Detroit Pistons head coach)
Versace told BU to stuff it and went to work for the Pistons..

http://pantagraph.newspapers.com/newspage/73623544/

[ghunt]

I guess so because there were those who wanted him out...and he would have likely been let go after 1987 but it never happened..

In July of 1986 after a great team and a good run in the NCAA Tourney
Versace signed a 1-year contract to stay at Bradley

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-08-06/sports/8602160060_1_dick-versace-bradley-university-ncaa

Two weeks later - after a couple phone calls to his friend Chuck Daly (Detroit Pistons head coach)
Versace told BU to stuff it and went to work for the Pistons..
http://pantagraph.newspapers.com/newspage/73623544/

I was surprised to see some folks apparently forget this and think Versace was fired when he was not, as it was big news at the time. Part of the perceived flap involved him doing a special TV interview with Dave, separate from the news, whereby he discussed the great season, but particularly the NCAA sanction controversy, and what he was going to do with his career, in which he said he was staying. And then within short time, he changed his mind and left on his own accord according to reports and his own statements.

The perceived "flap" was that folks felt slighted and left in the lurch because Dick said he was staying and then he changed his mind. Consequently, the administration and boosters scrambled to bring in Stan in a pinch. Rightly or wrongly, some felt he was disingenuous and could not take the political heat of bringing sanctions down on Bradley and he left. And, in some people's minds, that is why he pretty much stayed away from the program for several years. Personally, I think Dick was very likable, a dang good coach, and he brought BU into the big time just like he promised. However, although I can guess some will disagree, his program skirted rules on recruiting, but then again, although it is no excuse, many do.

[Da Coach]

The NCAA cited a few violations which all would have been considered minor violations, except Dick answered "I do not recall" to most of the questions he was asked by the NCAA. The NCAA investigator was an aggressive lawyer by the name of Janet Justice. She felt Dick was being dishonest, and she was determined to find something to nail him with.

All the other infractions would have probably just amounted to probation, but with Dick's failure to cooperate, they nailed Bradley with an unusually heavy penalty- 2 years probation, 1 year post-season ban, and 1 year of no off-campus recruiting. There were schools that were caught outrightly paying players to come to their schools who never got anywhere near as severe of penalties. Bradley offered Dick a 1-year contract with no chance of renewing it. Dick was offended and felt the University administration did not back him in this NCAA case, and thus he looked for and got another job.

The evidence against Bradley was obtained almost entirely from a single source- Anthony Webster, who is the recruit mentioned in the infractions. He was a disgruntled ex-Bradley player. He was a freshman on the 1982 NIT Championship team, but left Bradley the next season because of academics (he flunked out). He felt Bradley did not help him enough to stay eligible and stay in school, but his academics were a disaster, and thus, for some reason, wanted to hurt Bradley. The NCAA interviewed numerous other ex-Bradley players and many other individuals, but the only other testimony or evidence that corroborated a couple of the violations, other than the testimony which came directly from Webster, was from the booster who admitted he had helped Webster and his family with transportation and a job offer.

Here is the 1986 case from the NCAA database-

http://web1.ncaa.org/LSDBi/exec/miSearch?miSearchSubmit=publicReport&key=464&publicTerms=THIS%20PHRASE%20WILL%20NOT%20BE%20REPEATED

[Chico]

The way DV left, if all of this i'm reading is fact, he might as well have been fired. So I will continue to say Bradley fired a 32-3 coach.

[Vent]

The NCAA cited a few violations which all would have been considered minor violations, except Dick answered "I do not recall" to most of the questions he was asked by the NCAA. The NCAA investigator was an aggressive lawyer by the name of Janet Justice. She felt Dick was being dishonest, and she was determined to find something to nail him with.

All the other infractions would have probably just amounted to probation, but with Dick's failure to cooperate, they nailed Bradley with an unusually heavy penalty- 2 years probation, 1 year post-season ban, and 1 year of no off-campus recruiting. There were schools that were caught outrightly paying players to come to their schools who never got anywhere near as severe of penalties. Bradley offered Dick a 1-year contract with no chance of renewing it. Dick was offended and felt the University administration did not back him in this NCAA case, and thus he looked for and got another job.

The evidence against Bradley was obtained almost entirely from a single source- Anthony Webster, who is the recruit mentioned in the infractions. He was a disgruntled ex-Bradley player. He was a freshman on the 1982 NIT Championship team, but left Bradley the next season because of academics (he flunked out). He felt Bradley did not help him enough to stay eligible and stay in school, but his academics were a disaster, and thus, for some reason, wanted to hurt Bradley. The NCAA interviewed numerous other ex-Bradley players and many other individuals, but the only other testimony or evidence that corroborated a couple of the violations, other than the testimony which came directly from Webster, was from the booster who admitted he had helped Webster and his family with transportation and a job offer.

Here is the 1986 case from the NCAA database-
http://web1.ncaa.org/LSDBi/exec/miSe...0BE%20REPEATED

This is a very accurate account of what happened. In addition, the person performing the investigation for the NCAA had a power hungry attitude, that did not help the process either.

[tornado]

I believe the NCAA has always had a more aggressive attitude in investigating & penalizing midmajors than the big schools...
and this came just when Bradley had national caliber players, and were knocking off national power teams

In 1985-86 we knocked off Marquette, Northwestern, Villanova, Colorado and Wake Forest - then in the post-season - UTEP and threw a scare into eventual Champion Louisville.
I suspect that was enough to rattle a few cages at the NCAA and when they had a disgruntled player whose few minor tips on possible violations could be pursued, they went full bore after Bradley with the intent of finding something and nailing them no matter what.
Versace NEVER lied as was claimed by his detractors - he just never answered the questions the way the investigator wanted him to - thus she placed in her report that he changed his story and answered "I do not recall".
Pretty much everyone knows she was out to nail Versace & Bradley - it was the goal from the outset.
We are not the only up-and-coming midmajor that the NCAA has done this to...

[Chico]

They still remembered how upset he was, and he let them know, when BU was ignored by the NCAA after the 81-82 season. They proved they belonged by dominating the NIT.

[tornado]

... The NCAA investigator was an aggressive lawyer by the name of Janet Justice...

btw - it was Janet Justus - she still works as an assistant in admin in Athletics at a low level DI...never really got where I think she thought her aggressive actions would get her...
Her big claim to fame is hammering and destroying athletic programs in the pursuit of her perceived Title IX fairness....

[ghunt]

The NCAA cited a few violations which all would have been considered minor violations, except Dick answered "I do not recall" to most of the questions he was asked by the NCAA. The NCAA investigator was an aggressive lawyer by the name of Janet Justice. She felt Dick was being dishonest, and she was determined to find something to nail him with.

All the other infractions would have probably just amounted to probation, but with Dick's failure to cooperate, they nailed Bradley with an unusually heavy penalty- 2 years probation, 1 year post-season ban, and 1 year of no off-campus recruiting. There were schools that were caught outrightly paying players to come to their schools who never got anywhere near as severe of penalties. Bradley offered Dick a 1-year contract with no chance of renewing it. Dick was offended and felt the University administration did not back him in this NCAA case, and thus he looked for and got another job.

The evidence against Bradley was obtained almost entirely from a single source- Anthony Webster, who is the recruit mentioned in the infractions. He was a disgruntled ex-Bradley player. He was a freshman on the 1982 NIT Championship team, but left Bradley the next season because of academics (he flunked out). He felt Bradley did not help him enough to stay eligible and stay in school, but his academics were a disaster, and thus, for some reason, wanted to hurt Bradley. The NCAA interviewed numerous other ex-Bradley players and many other individuals, but the only other testimony or evidence that corroborated a couple of the violations, other than the testimony which came directly from Webster, was from the booster who admitted he had helped Webster and his family with transportation and a job offer.

Here is the 1986 case from the NCAA database-
http://web1.ncaa.org/LSDBi/exec/miSe...0BE%20REPEATED

Yep, I think there was controversey and disgruntled feelings on AW's part regarding his dad and a job at CILCO.