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Originally posted by lefty
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Look at that picture and then tell me there aren’t more than 3000 there. Not saying they have that every game, but what I’m saying is I wish we could fill up the Civic Center again like they filled up that place.What part of illegal don't you understand? -
UC-Davis Aggies won again last night to forge a tie for 1st place between them and
UC-Irvine - who they play their finale against Saturday night. Winner will be regular season champs.
This was supposed to be a partial rebuilding year when they graduated 4 starters, plus they lost their best player in the middle of the conference race, yet they have now gone 5-2 without the probable Big West Player of the Year (had he been able to play).
This will be the 3rd out of the last 4 years that Coach Les has either won the championship or battled for it right down to the wire, and next year they return virtually everyone of significance who are playing now, so should be a threat again.
...not to mention that their home attendance averages of 2,500 to 3,500, tho small by our standard - are still 2 to 3 times their historic averages back before Coach Les made them into a winning team.
Congrats to Coach Les & Kyle VogtComment
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UC Davis is now 20-9 with at least a couple more games left to play. They have won 20 or more games 3 of the last 4 years, easily have the best RPI in their conference, and have become the dominant team in the Big West. Not bad for a team that never even came close to a winning season in D1 before Jim Les got there. And there were clueless people who predicted he would fail.
Tough luck they lost their leading scorer, leading rebounder, and the preseason Player of the Year, who was suspended a month ago or they would have already clinched the league title by now. But it's even more evidence that UC Davis is a well coached, good team, and they have recovered and climbed back into contention for the league title.Comment
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Their non-conference SOS (59) and non-conference RPI (39) would argue even for an at-large bid (BOTH numbers are better than Loyola has)
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that they play in a conference with so many weak teams, that almost certainly they are a one-bid league
Jim is just a winner along the lines of Dick Versace, Hersey, etc... and would have built a consistent winner here had he been given even a fighting chance instead of being undermined at every opportunity by an administration that had made up her mind she was going to fire him and bring in her own choice no matter what
- so she torpedoed him by firing his assistants & the AD that had hired & supported him and hiring her own, vetoing multiple of his own recruiting choices and cutting his budget. Then she even went against many on the Board of Trustees - angering many who pulled their support & quit the Board (examples: Hersey Hawkins, Brian McGough, Puterbaugh, Turner & others) and even overruling her own puppet, Dr. Cross who wanted Les to stay.
The JL-haters and Joanne got their wish and they and the ignorant little minds on the Board that backed Joanne nuked the entire athletic Dept. & Basketball program back to the dark ages for a decade. Most of those "grass will be greener" fans are now gone, but a few still linger on other message boards - acting like experts but rarely adding anything that they don't poach from BradleyFans. They are the ones tho blame for the horrid state that BU basketball has been in since 2009...and are just now battling back from.
One more thought - not only did it take somewhere in the range of $20 million to cover the costs of buying out all those failed admins and coaches and paying for the losses and waste they generated in Athletics, but it also cost millions more fighting lawsuits they stupidly triggered with their cluelessness, and just a casual glance at attendance since 2009, shows that roughly 150 home games have each averaged 3.000-4,000 fewer fans in the seats over that span. Given the average cost of a ticket & concessions - that's another ~$20 million in LOST REVENUE directly attributable to Joanne's incompetence. ...but don't get me started...because the loss of the Puterbaugh Naming-Rights gift, and the donations form Turner, Hawkins, etc...cost Bradley another $20 million or so - bringing Joanne's total damage to somewhere in the $60-70 million range!! Incomprehensible....Comment
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Sickening
I am still angry with Yoko and I don't believe I will ever forget how horrible the past administration disrespected a loyal fan base and a once proud program. We will get back there, but the whole history of that stuff just makes me sick!!Originally posted by tornado View PostComment
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UC Davis wins the regular season championship of the Big West 90-84 in double overtime.
They lost 4 starters from last years team that won the conf tournament (and got their first four victory) and then lost the Big West player of the year a month ago but still pull it off. Good coaching along with good recruiting perseveres.
T
Congrats UC Davis, Coach Les and Coach Vogt.houstonbraveComment
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+1000Originally posted by houstonbrave View PostWhat part of illegal don't you understand?Comment
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2nd regular season championship to go along with a Big West Tournament championship in the last 4 years.
now go win the Conference Tourney Championship!!
Coach Les will be their Big West Coach of the year again!!
Exciting, incredible win -
Came back from 10 down in the 2nd half in regulation then
even coming back from 5 pts down with Irvine shooting 2 FT in the final 40 sec in OT to force Double OTComment
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It was one of the best college games I've ever watched.... innumerable ties and lead changes, both teams had chances to win and the other team made great comebacks, great shooting, few turnovers, two exceptionally well-coached teams. UC Irvine and UC Davis are the 2 teams that have dominated the Big West the last 5 years. Irvine had won 3 of the previous 4 regular-season titles, UC Davis has now won 2 of the last 4.
UC Irvine's Russell Turner had won 2 of the last 4 Big West Coach of the Year awards, and Jim Les is now likely to win his second COY award this year. As mentioned, he lost 4 starters from last season's NCAA Tournament team, then he lost his only returning starter, leading scorer & rebounder, and Preseason Player of the Year in mid-season, and still won his last 5 games, 9 of his last 11, including 6 conference road games to win the league title.
Last night was UC Davis' 80th win in their last 4 years. Incredible for a team that had never come close to having a winning season of any kind in their Division I history prior to these last 4 seasons!
Note that only once in the last 20+ years has Bradley won 80+ games in a 4-year stretch, and it was when Jim Les won 86 games between 2005-06 and 2008-09.
Brief highlights-
Game replay
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I might also point out that FGCU is playing today for their Conference Championship and automatic bid - the 6th time in the last 7 years they have played for the title...
If they win (they are favored) it will be their 3rd consecutive NCAA appearance and 4th in the last 6 years..and their 6th season in a row that they have been playing in the post-season (the also have an NIT and CIT appearance)
Their Athletic Director Ken Kavanagh - who was sent packing here by Joanne Glasser, has built them into a solid, consistent winner and mid-major power - from literal non-existence - they weren't even eligible in DI until 2011! (Transitioning from DII)
They have won 140 games over the past 6 seasons and aren't done yet this year - that's almost 24 wins per year!Comment
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UC-Davis & Jim Les open tournament play Thursday as the #1 seed - Thursday at 2pm Central time
Thursday's games probably won't be streamed here - unless you have satellite & get FoxSportsWest ( http://www.bigwest.org/sports/mbball/info/champs/ -
https://www.foxsportsgo.com )
Friday's games will be on ESPN3 (8:30 & 11pm Central Time)
Saturday's Championship game will be on on ESPN2 but not 'til 11pm Central TimeComment
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Great job done by Jim Les.
Most likely 2 NIT??™s and an NCAA appearance in the last 4 years? 5 years? Would sound good here.
And he??™s doing it in a league where some pretty good coaches work. Beating Monson is a solid accomplishment. Always rooting for jim to do well.Comment
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plus this should be his 3rd time in the past 4 years with a player named as either preseason or post-season Player of the Year -evidence he can definitely recruit...Comment
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Jim was always a good recruiter. People sometimes say it's hard to recruit at Bradley, but try recruiting at a school like UC Davis. First, recruits sometimes see them as simply a state agriculture school, though they are in fact a highly respected and highly ranked school in many areas. And few recruits consider it a respectable basketball school, though that reputation is improving. But another obstacle is that they have extremely high admission standards that prevent Jim from recruiting many players that other schools in California and in the Big West can go after.Originally posted by tornado View Post
For example- I had a chance to talk to Jim and his assistant coach Kyle Vogt when they played at Eastern Illinois 3 years ago. Kyle told me about one of the point guard targets they thought they had gotten a commitment from.
It was this guy-
Tommy McCarthy- http://verbalcommits.com/players/tommy-mccarthy
He ended up not qualifying academically to get into UC Davis, yet he qualified and was admitted on a basketball scholarship to Harvard, where he has played for the last 3 years.
People don't believe that, but it's true. UC Davis has admission standards well above the NCAA's standards, and the Big West's standards, and is on par with Ivy League schools.
So considering some of the obstacles Jim has, he has done an incredible job recruiting.Comment
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Just a look back- (** WARNING** - message board opinion follows, that mentions Joanne Glasser! If likely to be offended, look away now)
...in March 2011, Kirk Wessler called for the firing of Jim Les then, claiming he had all the superior knowledge and all the answers....
he wrote this article lecturing the Bradley Board & administrators...
"Bradley can't afford to be wrong"
"...Bradley cannot afford to spin its competitive wheels for another decade...
Bradley cannot afford to fumble the hiring of a replacement for Jim Les..."
and after opposing the wacky idea to move to the girls gym, he suddenly sounded as if he would support it.
"..Playing home games on campus at the new Renaissance Coliseum won’t be a quirky idea. It will be the only move that makes sense....
Hire the right guy...Bradley president Joanne Glasser and athletics director Michael Cross have to get this right."
then when Bradley fumbled the process for several weeks and blew thru the first dozen candidates, ticking most of them off and watching them turn their backs on a great career position....they made their hire & Wessler praised their choices and actions, throwing his weight fully behind Glasser, Cross & Ford & touting him as the best man for the job.
In the end the very choice that Kirk warned could severely damage Bradley for a DECADE - ended up doing exactly that and Kirk helped it happen.
Meanwhile Ken Kavanagh (two-time National AD of the year at FGCU) now has to hire YET ANOTHER basketball head coach since the guys he hires keep repeatedly doing such a great job that they quickly get hired away to bigger & better positions. And Jim Les has turned a no-name institution into a perennial west coast power & won two Coach of the Year awards.
Would love to see a followup column from Wessler explaining his take on how he got it so incredibly wrong and how the guys he wanted fired from Bradley so badly ended up doing so incredibly well elsewhere while our guys did arguably the worst job in the history of DI athletics.Comment
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