BU coaching candidates- where are they now?

[Da Coach]

The resignations of Ray Giacoletti (Utah) and Steve Merfeld (Evansville) have made me think about how the coaching candidates for the Bradley job back in 2002 have done in the past 5 years since Bradley hired Jim Les. So here is what I could find about those candidates. Please feel free to point out any inaccuracies.

58 men applied for the job in March of 2002 after Jim Molinari was relieved of his coaching duties and his contract was bought out. 10 were selected for an initial round of interviews at the Final 4 in Atlanta in 2002, by the 6 person search committe headed by Athletic Director Ken Kavanagh. Only 9 candidates interviewed, as Jimmy Collins did not show up for his scheduled interview. He later blamed it on confusion from the Bradley people, then said he got lost trying to find his way to the interview, then said he wasn't really interested in leaving UIC. He was eliminated from further consideration. Here is a followup on 8 of the candidates, plus 1 other coach (Rob Judson).

Note- I am unable to recall who the other 2 candidates were. If anyone remembers, please let me know.

Jim Les--
Jim Les' record
2002-03...12-18....400...8-10....444
2003-04...15-16....484...7-11....389
2004-05...13-15....464...6-12....333
2005-06...22-11....667...11- 7...611 NCAA
2006-07...21-12....636...10-8....556 NCAA or NIT?
Totals.....93-72.....584..42-48...467

Rob Judson--
Rob was not one of the 10 candidates. Though there was support for Rob Judson to be included, Rob had just taken over the head coaching job at Northern Illinois the year before the Bradley coaching search, and he was not interested in interviewing. Rob has had a tough time in his 6 seasons at Northern Illinois. Though Judson made a name for himself as a recruiter at Bradley under Jim Molinari and as an assistant at Illinois fro 1996-2001, he has not had much recruiting success at Northern Illinois in his 6 years. His overall record is 74-100, and he is just 7-22 this year. He has yet to make it to postseason play. And this season they are one of the worst teams in Division I with an RPI of 298. Here is a recent article about some of the struggles Rob has had. I haven't seen anything about his being in jeopardy of losing his job, but it may not be far off. And you won't find his name on anyone's list of candidates for Division I jobs anywhere.

http://www.star.niu.edu/articles/?id=35131

Wayne McClain--
Wayne McClain was the other finalist for the coaching job, along with Jim Les, in 2002. He had a lot of strong support from a few Bradley boosters, and a lot of support from some in the community. Since 2002, Wayne has remained an assistant on the staff at Illinois. Initially hired by Bill Self, he stayed on as an assistant under Bruce Weber. He has not surfaced as a candidate for any head coaching jobs since 2002, and to my knowledge has not been contacted or interviewed for any other coaching positions, except he was briefly considered as a candidate to take over the head coaching job at Manual high school a couple years ago. He has not coached or won a Division I game in the 5 years since the BU coaching change.

James Jones--
James Jones was an up-and-coming coaching prospect in 2002. He had a successful 2001-2002 season as the head coach at Yale, and lead them to Yale's first Ivy League title since 1962-63. They also won 1 game in the NIT that year, the first post-season win in the 107 year history of Yale at that time. After the first round of interviews conducted in Atlanta in March of 2002, he was invited back to the Bradley campus for a second interview. He seemed to have a lot of support for the job among some Bradley supporters. However, after he was interviewed, he withdrew his name from consideration.
He decided to accept a contract extension and stay at Yale. He is still the head coach at Yale, but he has not had much success the past 5 seasons. Since that very good 2001-2002 season, he is 14-13, 12-15, 11-16, 15-14, and 14-13 this year. In the last 5 seasons Yale's RPI has been 148, 224, 190, 197, and 138 this year. They have not made the postseason again since 2002. Jones is 104-119 in his 8 seasons, but just 66-71 since 2002 with no postseason appearances.

http://yalebulldogs.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/jones_james00.html

Brian Gregory--
Brian Gregory was another candidate that after his interview in Atlanta, was invited back and was interviewed on the Bradley campus in 2002. But after the interview by the coaching search committee, he also withdrew from consideration. At the time, he was the top assistant coach on Tom Izzo's staff at Michigan State. His name was mentioned for several other possible coaching spots, in addition to Bradley that year, but he decided to stay on at Michigan State as an assistant. He later became the head coach at Dayton in 2003. He took over a pretty good team (ranked in the Top 25, 24 wins, and NCAA bid) from Oliver Purnell (who moved on to Clemson), and took his first team to the NCAA with a 24-9 record. But he has not had as much success the past 3 years. He was 18-11 his 2nd year with mostly the players he inherited from Purnell, and did not make the NCAA. He was 14-17 his 3rd season. And Dayton is currently 18-11 with an RPI of 74 in Gregory's 4th season. He is 74-48 overall in 4 seasons at Dayton with just 1 NCAA appearance in his 1st season. They are not likely to make the NCAA this season for the 3rd straight year, and there have been talks by fans on their message boards that he should not have been extended. Gregory signed a contract extension through 2012-2013.

Fran McCaffery--
Fran McCaffery was the head coach at the University of North Carolina-Greenboro and was another "hot" name for consideration of coaching vacancies in 2002. He was one of the original 10 candidates schedulked for interviews in Atlanta, but was not included in the group that was invited back to a second interview at Bradley.
He stayed at North Carolina-Greensboro through the 2004-2005 season and then was hired as the head coach at Siena where he remain. At UNC-G he lead them to a 19-12 record in 2001 and an NCAA appearance as the SoCon tournament winner in just his 2nd year there. In 2002 UNC-G went 20-11 and finished in a tie for the SoCon's North Division title before losing in the conference tournament. They went to the NIT that year. In 2002-2003 they finished a woeful 7-22 and an RPI of 287. In 2003-2004 he finished 11-17 with an RPI of 255. In 2004-2005 he finished 18-12 with an RPI of 140. His only 2 post-season appearances were the NCAA in 2001 and the NIT in 2002.
He was hired by Siena in 2005, and in his first season with Siena he went 15-13 and an RPI of 125, not bad for a team that had finished 6-24 with an RPI of 297 in 2005 (the season before he got there). So far this season, Siena is 20-11 and an RPI of 128. McCaffery's overall coaching record since 2002 is 71-75 with no postseason appearances.


Jimmy Collins--
Jimmy Collins is still the head coach at Illinois-Chicago, though he has missed the last half of the season because of health related issues. UIC's record since 2002--
2002-2003 21-5, RPI 74
2003-2004 24-8, RPI 87
2004-2005 15-14, RPI 155
2005-2006 16-14, RPI 133
2006-2007 14-18, RPI 160
He made it to the NCAA tournament in 2004.

Ray Giacoletti--
Ray Giacoletti stayed at Eastern Washington for a couple more years, then became the head coach at Utah in 2004.
His record since 2002--
2002-2003 at Eastern Washington- 18-12, RPI 113
2003-2004 at Eastern Washington- 17-13, RPI 127
2004-2005 at Utah- 29-6, RPI 24
2005-2006 at Utah- 14-15, RPI 162
2006-2007 at Utah- 11-18, RPI 134
He was 69-50 at EWU in 4 seasons, and is 54-39 in 3 seasons at Utah. He made the NCAA in 2004 with EWU (0-1 record), and in 2005 with Utah (with Andrew Bogut) he was MWC Coach of the Year and made the Sweet 16 in the NCAA. He has resigned efective when Utha's season ends.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/03/04/ap/sports/college/d8nkc9m80.txt

Steve Merfeld--
Steve Merfeld was a success as head coach at Hampton with NCAA appearances in 2001 and 2002. He was one of the 10 initial candidates considered by Bradley, but was not invited back to Peoria for a 2nd interview back in 2002. But he did get the head coaching job at Evansville that year (2002). He has not had a winning season in 5 years at Evansville, and has not been to either the NIT or NCAA. Here is his record for the past 5 years at Evansville--
2002-2003 12-16
2003-2004 7-22
2004-2005 11-17
2005-2006 10-19
2006-2007 14-17

[tornado]

So you are agreeing with Judge Joe B. McDade that we made the right choice?

I will add some other thoughts, but not necessarily regarding inaccuracies, but I would add that I heard from a reliable source that 78 candidates asked to apply for the job, and the list was very quickly whittled to 58 who actually submitted the required paperwork and resume.

By the way, today is the exact 5 year anniversary of the day Jim Molinari was fired, 3/5/02.

Re: Rob Judson, Mike Nadel has a piece in today's paper...

http://pjstar.com/stories/030507/MIK_BCI3780M.080.php

One other thought...really the only candidate from that search in 2002 that's been having success of almost any degree as a head coach would be Brian Gregory...who was a very highly touted prospect for a head coaching job at that time.
But consider this....
Gregory did indeed take over an NCAA Tournament team with everyone returning from a season that saw their previous coach hired away for a BCS job.
They went 24-5 the year before Gregory took over, then in the next four seasons, they lost 8, 11, 17, then 11 so far this season. This is the season that Gregory himself predicted would be one of their best years as he finally had all his own recruits and several fine seniors that he had recruited including a preseason All Conference guard Brian Roberts.
But instead, the have gone 8-8 in a fairly weak Atlantic 10 Conference (the A-10 has six teams with RPI's worse than anyone in the Valley), and have lost 10 of their final 18 games, and have undoubtedly played themselves out of an at large position, and may even be a bubble team for the NIT unless they advance in their conference tourney.

So I would agree with your premise that NOT ONE of the other coaching candidate has done any better elsewhere than Jim Les has done here.

[it's boogie time]

I'm happy with Jim Les and I really like the direction the program is headed. However, I think many of the candidates could have been successful also. Maybe, maybe not. It's not like it has been smooth sailing for Coach Les. I don't think it is coincidence that the tide turned when Coach Buescher was hired.

[Braves4Life]

Re: BU coaching candidates- where are they now?

Fran McCaffery--
Fran McCaffery was the head coach at the University of North Carolina-Greenboro and was another "hot" name for consideration of coaching vacancies in 2002. He was one of the original 10 candidates schedulked for interviews in Atlanta, but was not included in the group that was invited back to a second interview at Bradley.
He stayed at North Carolina-Greensboro through the 2004-2005 season and then was hired as the head coach at Siena where he remain. At UNC-G he lead them to a 19-12 record in 2001 and an NCAA appearance as the SoCon tournament winner in just his 2nd year there. In 2002 UNC-G went 20-11 and finished in a tie for the SoCon's North Division title before losing in the conference tournament. They went to the NIT that year. In 2002-2003 they finished a woeful 7-22 and an RPI of 287. In 2003-2004 he finished 11-17 with an RPI of 255. In 2004-2005 he finished 18-12 with an RPI of 140. His only 2 post-season appearances were the NCAA in 2001 and the NIT in 2002.
He was hired by Siena in 2005, and in his first season with Siena he went 15-13 and an RPI of 125, not bad for a team that had finished 6-24 with an RPI of 297 in 2005 (the season before he got there). So far this season, Siena is 20-11 and an RPI of 128. McCaffery's overall coaching record since 2002 is 71-75 with no postseason appearances.

Here's an interesting piece of information on McCaffery and UNCG....

A friend of mine who was on the Board at UNCG told me that the reason that school can never attract and retain a top-notch coach is because of a goofy rule that says the men's basketball coach cannot make more than the women's coach (or there is a spread where he can only make so much more. Can't quite recall the details).

Anyway, I'd heard that McCaffery was only making around $60,000 and there was little the school could do to pay him more (even though he would have liked to have stayed at UNCG).

He made the right decision for his family as it was the only way he could be paid what he was worth. I'm sure he has no regrets.

[tornado]

One other thought...really the only candidate from that search in 2002 that's been having success of almost any degree as a head coach would be Brian Gregory...who was a very highly touted prospect for a head coaching job at that time.
But consider this....
Gregory did indeed take over an NCAA Tournament team with everyone returning from a season that saw their previous coach hired away for a BCS job.
They went 24-5 the year before Gregory took over, then in the next four seasons, they lost 8, 11, 17, then 11 so far this season. This is the season that Gregory himself predicted would be one of their best years as he finally had all his own recruits and several fine seniors that he had recruited including a preseason All Conference guard Brian Roberts.
But instead, the have gone 8-8 in a fairly weak Atlantic 10 Conference (the A-10 has six teams with RPI's worse than anyone in the Valley), and have lost 10 of their final 18 games, and have undoubtedly played themselves out of an at large position, and may even be a bubble team for the NIT unless they advance in their conference tourney.

So I would agree with your premise that NOT ONE of the other coaching candidate has done any better elsewhere than Jim Les has done here.

as a little catch-up on how Brian Gregory did this year...........

Now Gregory has basically all his own players, and in fact was said to have one of the best incoming recruiting classes nationally.
He had a decent year, but faded badly down the stretch, severely hurting their at large chances.

Dayton started off really good, at 14-1 and was getting votes for the Top 25.
Suddenly something happened, even the Dayton people don't know. One of their injuries was serious losing their best freshman, but none of their other players flunked out or anything.......
BUT........
then they went 8-8 in the Atlantic-10, and finished the season going 6-8.
They even had one stretch where they lost 8 of 11, including several home games.
Their 7th place conference finish has them in the play-in game for their conference tourney, with the winner getting the right to face the TOP SEED, Xavier, and an all but likely early exit.

Dayton is right where ISU is.... on the bubble and needing a good performance in their tourney.
One win in the play-in round against the 11th place team probably won't lock in an NCAA bid, they'd have to beat Xavier to do that.
If they lose either their first or second round games, they'll end with 10 losses and would have to hope for a long shot that the selection committee goes 7 deep in the A-10, something that would really send guys like Gary Williams, Digger Phelps, Billy Packer, and Tom Penders bananas!!!
These guys say the A-10 will get only TWO BIDS!!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08071/864142-135.stm

[beanocookschins]

I dont see how comparing how the other candidates are doing at their jobs has any relation to how Jim Les is doing his job at Bradley. It's not comparing apples to apples.

The fact that the guys knew they couldn't build their own staff really hindered the process and kept a lot of quality applicants from getting serious about the job. It was a weird deal from the beginning.

You want to see how a coach is doing on the job? Compare him to A) his peers in the league he competes and B) the guys who had the job before him. Relating how he does/doesn't do against coaches at totally different schools seems odd to me.

Each person weights things differently. From a league/regular season standpoint Jim Les isn't really doing a very good job in relation to his MVC peers or to the guy/guys who had the BU job ahead of him. However, the two NCAA wins were unique to Bradley for sure and something only a few other MVC coaches have done. His work in the MVC Tournament has been less than stellar as well. Two postseason appearances in six years doesn't standout but the Sweet 16 year was a special one.

Does a guy get judged more on the body of work over six years, or does a special two-week run trump that? Who knows.

[Drill]

Boogie time has it right

I still believe that the difference in all our seasons and the success we had was with the addition of Chuck Buescher. He knows how to coach and understands defense. I truely believe our Sweet 16 year was providing the defensive edge they needed and it took most of the year to develop that..........thus their success towards the end of that season. Without Buescher.......our defense is inconsistent.

[beanocookschins]

I still believe that the difference in all our seasons and the success we had was with the addition of Chuck Buescher. He knows how to coach and understands defense. I truely believe our Sweet 16 year was providing the defensive edge they needed and it took most of the year to develop that..........thus their success towards the end of that season. Without Buescher.......our defense is inconsistent.

I try not to give to much credit to assistant coaches. The head guys get the credit/blame. That said Jim Les is like 14 games under .500 in four years of MVC play without Chuck B on the sidelines with no postseason appearances and no MVC Tournament wins. Is that Chuck B or is it random? Who knows.

It would be nice to have a good year without Chuck B so we can put that stuff to rest.

[BradleyBrave]

I dont see how comparing how the other candidates are doing at their jobs has any relation to how Jim Les is doing his job at Bradley. It's not comparing apples to apples.

The fact that the guys knew they couldn't build their own staff really hindered the process and kept a lot of quality applicants from getting serious about the job. It was a weird deal from the beginning.

You want to see how a coach is doing on the job? Compare him to A) his peers in the league he competes and B) the guys who had the job before him. Relating how he does/doesn't do against coaches at totally different schools seems odd to me.

Each person weights things differently. From a league/regular season standpoint Jim Les isn't really doing a very good job in relation to his MVC peers or to the guy/guys who had the BU job ahead of him. However, the two NCAA wins were unique to Bradley for sure and something only a few other MVC coaches have done. His work in the MVC Tournament has been less than stellar as well. Two postseason appearances in six years doesn't standout but the Sweet 16 year was a special one.

Does a guy get judged more on the body of work over six years, or does a special two-week run trump that? Who knows.

Nice post. Definitely agree. Maybe he gets judged on things other than wins and losses altogether? Only a select few truly know the answer, and I am certainly not one of them.

Next year will say a lot about where we're heading. I will feel much more confident in our situation if I can say "20+ wins 3 out of the last 4 years, 2 NCAA's in the last 4 years, 3 postseasons in 4 years" and stuff like that.

[SaintLouBrave22]

I dont see how comparing how the other candidates are doing at their jobs has any relation to how Jim Les is doing his job at Bradley. It's not comparing apples to apples.

The fact that the guys knew they couldn't build their own staff really hindered the process and kept a lot of quality applicants from getting serious about the job. It was a weird deal from the beginning.

You want to see how a coach is doing on the job? Compare him to A) his peers in the league he competes and B) the guys who had the job before him. Relating how he does/doesn't do against coaches at totally different schools seems odd to me.

Each person weights things differently. From a league/regular season standpoint Jim Les isn't really doing a very good job in relation to his MVC peers or to the guy/guys who had the BU job ahead of him. However, the two NCAA wins were unique to Bradley for sure and something only a few other MVC coaches have done. His work in the MVC Tournament has been less than stellar as well. Two postseason appearances in six years doesn't standout but the Sweet 16 year was a special one.

Does a guy get judged more on the body of work over six years, or does a special two-week run trump that? Who knows.

I agree to a certain extent as it is fairly disappointing that JL has been here for 6 years now and Keno along w/ Jank have risen to a higher finish in the conference than Coach Les has in just 1 year of coaching....and don't tell me they did it w/ someone else's talent bc obviously the previous coaches couldn't do the same.

Many of us are happy w/ the Sweet 16, however, was that just because of Chuck Buescher? It seems the 2 years Coach Buesch was here stand out among the trees....

and yes, we are still waiting for a conference and tournament championship...

I hope that JL can put it together for us in the worst way w/ all that he's done in the community and for the university...

I'm just hoping it happens sooner than later because we are now down to a VERY short list of those who have not won a tournament in St. Louis, and also those who have not achieved at least 2nd or 1st since JL has been hired at BU.

[Lakeview Brave]

I dont see how comparing how the other candidates are doing at their jobs has any relation to how Jim Les is doing his job at Bradley. It's not comparing apples to apples.

The fact that the guys knew they couldn't build their own staff really hindered the process and kept a lot of quality applicants from getting serious about the job. It was a weird deal from the beginning.

You want to see how a coach is doing on the job? Compare him to A) his peers in the league he competes and B) the guys who had the job before him. Relating how he does/doesn't do against coaches at totally different schools seems odd to me.

Each person weights things differently. From a league/regular season standpoint Jim Les isn't really doing a very good job in relation to his MVC peers or to the guy/guys who had the BU job ahead of him. However, the two NCAA wins were unique to Bradley for sure and something only a few other MVC coaches have done. His work in the MVC Tournament has been less than stellar as well. Two postseason appearances in six years doesn't standout but the Sweet 16 year was a special one.

Does a guy get judged more on the body of work over six years, or does a special two-week run trump that? Who knows.

Exactly! How many coaches went to situations were they get as much support as any coach gets a Bradley. How many of those coaches walked into a team with 1 future NBA player and 2 all conference guards. I would like to compare our coach to Dana Altman he is the leagues best and most consistant coach.

[J Money]

Exactly! How many coaches went to situations were they get as much support as any coach gets a Bradley. How many of those coaches walked into a team with 1 future NBA player and 2 all conference guards. I would like to compare our coach to Dana Altman he is the leagues best and most consistant coach.

I couldn't agree more. Comparing Les' job to what someone has done at schools like UIC, Eastern Washington, NIU, and Yale is an apples to oranges comparison. JL has recieved all the support in the world here and hasn't produced. It's that simple.

[tornado]

but people do and will always compare JL to the other candidates, and if Brian Gregory gets the NIT in his fifth year, with only one NCAA bid in his 1st season playing all of Oliver Purnell's players, then the argument can be made that we shouldn't still be seeing the "buyers remorse" posts we see here and especially on another board.

[beanocookschins]

but people do and will always compare JL to the other candidates, and if Brian Gregory gets the NIT in his fifth year, with only one NCAA bid in his 1st season playing all of Oliver Purnell's players, then the argument can be made that we shouldn't still be seeing the "buyers remorse" posts we see here and especially on another board.

So people should be happy with the production by Jim Les only because the other candidates haven't done well at their schools? That just doesn't make any sense.

The "buyer's remorse" has nothing to do with the other candidates. Absolutely nothing at all. It has to do with how the person chosen for the job has done. I certainly hope Bradley didn't just "settle" for the best of a bad pool of candidates. No one believes that right?

How does Jim Les being 49-59 in the MVC have any relevance to how Brian Gregory, James Jones, etc. are doing at their schools?

It seems like using the other candidates as comparison is a weird way to justify a position one way or the other. I can honestly say I've never heard an Athletic Director or President, etc. fire a coach because "he just isn't doing as well at our school in relation to the other guys we interviewed are doing at their schools".

Furthermore, I've never heard an AD say, "I know this coach has finished in 7th, 8th or 9th place every year, he has never been to the postseason and he doesn't graduate his players--but, he IS doing better relative to the other guys we interviewed so we will keep him."

Maybe it's just me but as a fan I never compare the coach of a team to how the other guys he interviewed against (if thats a phrase) are now doing. I only compare the coach to his league/conference peers and how the coaches did before him. Why would you do it any other way?

[Da Coach]

If it is relevant to some people to hold a coach like Jim Les up to some standard that they believe a different coach would have achieved (like statements saying he should have done better because he inherited an NBAer and 2 All MVC guards), than it absurd to suggest that it isn't relevant to point out that some of the coaching candidates that we heard proponents for in 2002 aren't looking like they would have been right for Bradley.

I still hear from people on a near-daily basis who think Bradley should have hired the coaching candidate that was runner-up to Jim Les. The same candidate that has as many college coaching victories as I have 6 years later.