Good luck Dr. Cross

[Da Coach]

Dr. Cross will be resigning after the MVC womens tournament today (March 16) after 5 years at Bradley. He is a really nice guy with a great family, and I hope wherever he goes, he and his family find success and happiness.
I want to wish Dr. Cross good luck wherever he goes.

[Da Coach]

Interview with Dr. Cross-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150316/SPORTS/150319345/12701/SPORTS

A couple interesting excerpts:

Ultimately, winning and losing matters to a lot to people.... Unfortunately, there isn??™t enough patience.

By pretty much any measure you want to look at, I think we??™re in a better spot as a department and have taken great steps forward. This place is positioned for more success. The one thing that??™s not easy to point to is miles and miles of Missouri Valley Conference titles. When you??™ve been last in so many things, getting to first is not an easy transition.

Everybody wants progress, but nobody wants change. That??™s a very apt description of the general environment. We have a high level of nostalgia that is very beneficial, but is also a double-edged sword with some significant downsides.

There are never enough resources.

So Dr. Cross obviously feels Bradley is going in the right direction, and all they needed was more time, and the fans and supporters just were not patient enough.
But how does that jive with the fact the performance in most of the marquee sports has gone backward? And other schools that have far less resources have moved ahead of Bradley?
I am sure everyone will have their own opinions, but I just can't agree with that assessment.

[Old Coach]

Dr. Cross will be resigning after the MVC womens tournament today (March 16) after 5 years at Bradley. He is a really nice guy with a great family, and I hope wherever he goes, he and his family find success and happiness.
I want to wish Dr. Cross good luck wherever he goes.

Please post only positive comments.

I agree. Mike is a very good man, and I wish him well.

[AZ BU Fan]

Thanks Dr Cross for helping get BU back on track (apparently) for future success. Good luck to you and your family where ever you end up.

NCAA DIV I sports is not like a university band program or club sport. Big donations are solicited and people/companies that support Div I programs and buy tickets will hold people accountable. 5 years is long enough to have shown some progress somewhere.

In the private sector, if I had the same resume as Dr. Cross's time at BU, I would also be looking for new employment.

Lack of resources, or time, excuses also don't cut it in the private sector.

I sense some classic university professor/administrator naivety on
Dr Cross' part.

Winning also helps reduce the resistance of nostalgic fan bases to change.

[Tommy]

Interview with Dr. Cross-

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150316/SPORTS/150319345/12701/SPORTS

[I]Ultimately, winning and losing matters to a lot to people.... Unfortunately, there isn??™t enough patience.

ok, I'm not letting this pass. Really? Fan base isn't impatient. Fan base sees the only program that really matters in the grand scheme of things (i.e. finances) going in the opposite of the right direction.

I met Michael Cross and know his wife a little bit. Very nice people for sure, and I hope they find success wherever they go. The reason he's no longer at Bradley has nothing to do with patience, however.

[Da Coach]

One more comment about this interview...this quote from Dr. Cross-
"Going back to the patience piece, there are things I’ve been interested in pursuing that may or may not be of interest to the institution. I can respect that. But if you’re going to be great, you’ve got to have progress. There’s no question in my mind that people in Peoria and at Bradley want progress...but nobody wants change....We have a high level of nostalgia that is very beneficial, but is also a double-edged sword with some significant downsides."

This is another shot at the great Bradley fans. I really wish Dr. Cross could have just departed without all these negative comments that the problem is with the Bradley fans who just aren't patient enough, despite suffering through 86 losses in the last 4 years, 19 more than in any 4-year stretch by any previous coach, and watching many of their sports teams (men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, and more) get progressively worse the longer time went on. And now we see more blame thrown at the fans- suggesting the fans can't accept progress because they are way too fixated on nostalgia.

As I have posted before, several years ago I heard it said at Bradley that "Bradley fans are way too hung up on their past". That has always provided the administration with excuses and a scapegoat for their failure. How anyone who has been in charge during such utter failure can try to blame the fans is mind boggling.



To paraphrase President Gerald Ford, "My fellow Bradley fans, our long national nightmare is over".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLyX4DbE6Hc

[tornado]

yeah, right -- Dr. Cross knows what's best for Bradley - LOL show me where even one move he's made has helped BU basketball?
Then he scolds us because we're stuck in the distant past - we're just too nostalgic to know we're actually doing better than we have for 30 years.

[ancona flash]

I'll give Cross props for calling me personally when I sent an email to him and Glasser about my displeasure of moving games to the RC. He was very cordial and willing to listen. I learned a lot and I think he's a class act but didn't get the BU culture and with a little PR skills and a better hire as HC for Mens BB he may look like a genius. He's gonna be fine. I wish you well Mr Cross.

[Tommy]

Some people just don't know how to walk away with dignity and grace.

[Chico]

He was a hire, not the first one either, who evidently didn't know how much Bradley basketball meant to Peoria and the Peoria area.

[Da Coach]

And instead of learning and embracing it, wanted to erase it and replace it.

[bigjimmy]

I have no doubt that Dr. Cross was just following the edict from you know who. His leaving might end up being the best thing that happens to him as long as he doesn't hitch his wagon to the person who just tried to drive it off the cliff. All you needed to know about how Dr. Cross and you know who felt about Bradley's tradition was bumping Roger Phegley for Quick Change. The quicker we're done with the past few years of the new tradition of Bradley the better.

[bradleyfan124]

I have no doubt that Dr. Cross was just following the edict from you know who. His leaving might end up being the best thing that happens to him as long as he doesn't hitch his wagon to the person who just tried to drive it off the cliff. All you needed to know about how Dr. Cross and you know who felt about Bradley's tradition was bumping Roger Phegley for Quick Change. The quicker we're done with the past few years of the new tradition of Bradley the better.

Amen!!!! Very good comment.