Drake star Liam Robbins transfers to Minnesota

[OhRotanes]

My brother who follows Minnesota basketball pretty closely said that Liam's uncle was recently promoted to associate head coach on their staff, and Minnesota might be the favorite to get Liam

[Da Coach]

I like Danny, and I am happy for him that everything eventually worked out well, and he had a successful career.
But I am sure Danny's side of the story is different, and people can believe whatever they want. Danny at first denied that he had been illegally contacted by Broussard, but it was proven that he was. So he was not truthful with that, though I can understand that he was trying not to get anyone into trouble. But, as far as the abuse claims, none of it is true, IMO. He was simply held to the same standards as every other player.
I know there was friction between him and Les. But a lot of it stemmed from Danny's tendency to be late for practices and bus trips and he expected special treatment because he was the star. The final straw was when he was quite late for a bus trip to Evansville for a game on January 11, 2003, Coach Jim Les' first season at Bradley. Coach Les had put up with enough, so despite Danny being the star of the team, he ordered the bus to leave without Danny. The bus was scheduled to stop at The Beef House at exit 4 on I-74 for the players to eat lunch. When Granger realized the bus left without him, he called Danny Adams, a freshman who was redshirting that season and was not allowed to travel with the team. Danny Adams had a car and Granger asked Adams to drive him to meet up with the team at The Beef House, which he did. Granger did not start the game that night in Evansville. I think it might have been the only game in his Bradley career that he did not start. But he did play a lot and was the leading scorer that night. That was the last game he played for Bradley. He quit the team as soon as the bus arrived back in Peoria. Later we learned he had received numerous phone calls from Duane Broussard, who was an assistant coach at New Mexico, and he quickly announced he was transferring there.
I am sure Granger has a different story, but there was no other player who backed up his stories of abuse. And all of this, including the episode of January 11, 2003, was well documented by the Peoria Journal Star sportswriters.
And Jim Les went on to coach 9 seasons at Bradley and another 9 at UC-Davis, and oddly, there has never been any another claim by any other player for Jim Les of player abuse. Every player who has ever played with or for Jim Les has spoken highly of him, and not a single one ever alleged abuse.
I also know Jim Les quite well, and attended numerous practices and went on road trips with the team as a member of the Braves Scholarship Society (the BSS did not start until around 2006), and can vouch that he always treated players, as well as everyone else, fairly and respectfully, and is not a guy who would ever abuse anyone.

Many of the sources that verify all this have been long since purged from the internet, including the PJ Star articles and the Albuquerque Journal articles about all this.
If anyone knows how to find those, let me know.
Here are a couple others-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...8081#post38081
https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php...rts/ci_2533843
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...155-story.html

http://a.espncdn.com/ncb/news/2003/0304/1518186.html

https://www.theintelligencer.com/new...n-10508124.php

Here is one that includes the worst allegation that Danny Granger could muster, that after the loss at Evansville, the bus came directly home and did not stop to "let the players eat". Granger was the only one who made any issue about it.
https://www.koat.com/article/lobos-t...coach/5014986#

Of course, they were able to eat as soon as they got home. But then Granger made up a story about being hypoglycemic, which nobody believed, and which curiously never resurfaced again despite a long career at New Mexico and in the NBA.

[Da Coach]

My brother who follows Minnesota basketball pretty closely said that Liam's uncle was recently promoted to associate head coach on their staff, and Minnesota might be the favorite to get Liam

Yes, I believe Minnesota is at the top of the list of likely places he'll land. Richard Pitino likes to raid midmajor rosters for talent. I suspect Iowa State might also be a possibility, though current coach Steve Prohm is not as aggressive in recruiting transfers as Fred Hoiberg was. Both Minnesota and Iowa State have openings.

As OhRotanes said, the Minnesota Associate Head Coach under Pitino is Ed Conroy. He is a Davenport, IA native (the hometown of Liam Robbins)-

https://gophersports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/ed-conroy/1991

[JC]

Clipped from that link from the Salt Lake Trib ...

Les screamed foul and school officials decided not to release Granger from his scholarship, but McKay proclaimed New Mexico's innocence in the whole matter.
At one point, Granger Jr. held a press conference in Albuquerque, where McKay allowed him to tell his side of the story.
"The purpose . . . is to let Danny speak his mind," McKay said. "I think he was a little frustrated as to all the accusations that have been out there."
Les saw the press conference from a different angle: "It's disappointing that the University of New Mexico would use a student-athlete as a shield to deflect attention from their admitted NCAA violations."
McKay admitted that Broussard broke "the spirit" of NCAA laws by talking to Granger, but not the "letter of the law" because transferring to New Mexico was never discussed.
I have a question.
If someone made 42 phone calls from Kerry Rupp's cell phone to Andrew Bogut or his father . . . if he ended up leaving Utah next week . . . if he surfaced at Indiana next season, could anyone possibly believe they did not talk about changing schools?
I didn't think so.

I joined Bradleyfans after all the Danny Granger drama, but I do remember some of it. But this quote from the Utah writer is how I feel about it. It there were over 40 documented calls from the New Mexico coach to Granger and his dad, anyone would have to be insane or have an agenda to believe there was never any talk of transferring. But regardless, even one call constitutes an NCAA violation, regardless of what was discussed. I'll bet if someone uncovered 42 phone calls between one of Bradley's coaches and Terry Nolan, Jr. prior to his transfer, Bradley would have gotten the death penalty.

[Da Coach]

Liam Robbins has announced he will transfer to Minnesota.
https://www.thedailygopher.com/2020/...s-daniel-oturu

http://verbalcommits.com/players/liam-robbins

Also note this tweet. It makes sense to me...
https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/stat...38284976193536


The top article makes the claim "The thing that stands out about Robbins is that the led the nation in blocked shots this past season."
But that is not true. Here are the official NCAA stats-
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketbal...individual/138

Robbins ranked 5th in blocks per game, and 3rd in total blocks.

They also say-
Robbins should be able to step in and immediately be adept at protecting the rim. Scoring and rebounding should be solid....
He is not a graduate transfer but it is widely expected that the NCAA is going to grant a blanket waiver this season for all transfers.

Of course, that is not a guarantee. He does not meet the current criteria for an NCAA waiver, though the NCAA has been overly generous with their handing out waivers in recent years, so I think the odds are good he will get one. The NCAA is scheduled to vote on a measure to allow all Division I student-athletes the right to transfer one time during their career without penalty.
However, there are reports that if this happens, it would not start until the 2021-22 season and would not apply to Robbins anyway.
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...11510804418560

[The Old Guy]

Why am I not surprised that a Pitino is involved in this situation?

[Da Coach]

Why am I not surprised that a Pitino is involved in this situation?

[buballer82]

Here is one that includes the worst allegation that Danny Granger could muster, that after the loss at Evansville, the bus came directly home and did not stop to "let the players eat". Granger was the only one who made any issue about it.
https://www.koat.com/article/lobos-t...coach/5014986#

Of course, they were able to eat as soon as they got home. But then Granger made up a story about being hypoglycemic, which nobody believed, and which curiously never resurfaced again despite a long career at New Mexico and in the NBA.

I keep in touch with several of the guys from that team and they all tell the same story.....Pizzas were ordered for the bus ride home which was typical, but Les refused to let them eat, instructing one of the managers to withhold the food due to them
losing. There was no need to stop the bus to eat, the food was there and Les intentionally withheld it. That was a terrible move imo. Nobody on the team was happy about this but in Danny’s case this seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back.

Danny wanted to leave immediately when Molinari was fired. He reluctantly stayed and did not mesh well with Les’ style of motivation which included verbal tirades laced with profanity, especially after losses. That was one of the biggest negatives from Danny’s point of view. Some guys can excel under this type of coaching, others hate it and want a different setting. Danny hated it and was looking for a way out. I can’t say I blame him.

[Da Coach]

I hope this is my last post about this topic, but I do have personal knowledge about what happened directly from Les and Ken Kavanagh, as well as others who were on the bus that day. I agree with you BUBaller82. I would never blame any kid who wasn't happy and wanted to transfer because they don't like the coach or their style of coaching. That is their right, and it happens a lot. There were about 1000 transfers in D1 last year and will be again this year, and many thousands over the last few decades. Granger should have done it the right way and the way the other tens of thousands of other kids did it through the years. He should have simply asked properly for his release, then withdrew from Bradley and transferred wherever he wanted. But that is far from what happened. Plus, when there was illegal contact with him, he should have informed Bradley, but he didn't. That in itself is an NCAA violation.

And I agree that what you describe did happen. Jim Les said so himself, and he regretted his decision about the food, learned from it (he was a 1st year D1 head coach and learned a lot his first year), and never did anything like that again. But I wouldn't put it in the category of player abuse, nor did Bradley, the NCAA or anyone else.
As I said, Danny was basically a good kid, but he was repeatedly late for practices, and that trip to Evansville was not the first time he was late for a bus.. Jim Les expected discipline, and Danny wore out his welcome. And, I believe by that point, he had already decided to leave and would have left at some point that season. That event just supplied him with a reason to do it then.
The whole thing was handled poorly from the tampering by Broussard, to their lying about it and claiming it didn't happen, to revising their story after the phone records became public. Plus, the same day Danny landed in Albuquerque, the people at New Mexico rushed together an unprecedented press conference for the sole purpose of bashing Bradley and Jim Les. Ken Kavanagh told me that Bradley would have released Granger if New Mexico had not run to the press and done everything possible to try to make it look like Bradley & Les were the bad guys, when they only wrongdoing in the whole story was clearly by New Mexico, and even the NCAA agreed.

[Chico]

Profanities? Don’t sound like the Jim Les I got to know.

[Tommy]

oh no, I didn't get my post-game pizza! Coach is abusive!

Wow! Maybe the saddest complaint of abuse I've ever heard and honestly not worth mentioning. If that's the straw that broke Danny's back, I'd say he needed more strength training.

[Stryker]

Well another nice MVC player gone. BU is shaping up to be in good position to finish in the top 3 in the MVC next year. Hate to see the conference get weaker though.

[The Old Guy]

Danny and his father came to Bradley to ask for Danny’s release from his scholarship. Nothing was said about Danny being mistreated by Coach Les or Danny being homesick. This was long after Broussard had started sending Danny e-mail messages. Seems like the story changed as the saga continued. Also when Duane left to take the job at NM his instructions to the rest of the BU staff were “keep your hands off of Granger- he ‘s mine.” The whole situation was a sorry mess, with NM getting a very good player and Bradley getting shafted. The same is true with respect to Joah Tucker. He had been contacted before he went to Milwaukee for a visit. At the start of his visit he was introduced as a new transfer who would be there in the fall. Before the workout even started, his transfer was already a done deal.

[Da Coach]

Liam Robbins has announced he will transfer to Minnesota.
https://www.thedailygopher.com/2020/...s-daniel-oturu

http://verbalcommits.com/players/liam-robbins

Also note this tweet. It makes sense to me...
https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/stat...38284976193536

.... He does not meet the current criteria for an NCAA waiver, though the NCAA has been overly generous with their handing out waivers in recent years, so I think the odds are good he will get one.

Liam Robbins did receive a waiver from the NCAA and will be able to play this coming season-

https://twitter.com/Sean02MTM/status/1301253026682789888

[houstonbrave]

I have a really,hard time trying to figure out the NCAA rationale re.what waivers are granted and which are not