Coaching Carousel

[Tommy]

Indiana State is finalizing a deal with assistant coach Matthew Graves to become their next head coach - https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/stat...67230196269262

Graves had a previous Division I head coaching job at South Alabama for 5 years from 2013-2018.
He was not very successful. He never came close to a winning season. His record for the 5 seasons was 65-96, averaging over 19 losses per year.;

I’m still available at half the cost. Give me a shot.

[Stryker]

Indiana State is finalizing a deal with assistant coach Matthew Graves to become their next head coach - https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/stat...67230196269262

Graves had a previous Division I head coaching job at South Alabama for 5 years from 2013-2018.
He was not very successful. He never came close to a winning season. His record for the 5 seasons was 65-96, averaging over 19 losses per year. - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...-graves-1.html

Season.......School,,,,,,,,,,.Conf.......G....W... L...W%..

2013-14 South Alabama	Sun Belt	31	11	20	.355
2014-15 South Alabama	Sun Belt	33	12	21	.364
2015-16 South Alabama	Sun Belt	33	14	19	.424
2016-17 South Alabama	Sun Belt	32	14	18	.438
2017-18 South Alabama	Sun Belt	32	14	18	.438
Total- South Alabama		161	65	96	.404

This seems like a rushed decision with little leadership in place at ISUb. The team may not be competitive for years after this. Who knows though.

[egib52]

This seems like a rushed decision with little leadership in place at ISUb. The team may not be competitive for years after this. Who knows though.

I would assume they hope for continuity. I'm sure Schertz pushed for him too.

[yoda]

They'll be starting from about the spot Bradley was in, back when Wardle arrived in 2015.
There's no players of any significance staying on, & nobody of what's left averaged more than 1-2 pts.
It's also likely that the kids they have pledged & signed will also ask out,, at a time when it's pretty late in
the recruiting cycle to get anyone else, except by offering some of the portal guys massive playing time immediately.
But I wouldn't think any of the really talented kids in the portal would want to spend their last year or two in an massive rebuild.

...it all makes you pretty impressed & thankful that Coach Wardle started at that same abysmally low point & still won a few conference games
right off the bat, then won 7 MVC games in year-2, then by year-3 we won 20 games & won the MVC Tourney the next 2 years & have been competitive since.

[Stryker]

They'll be starting from about the spot Bradley was in, back when Wardle arrived in 2015.
There's no players of any significance staying on, & nobody of what's left averaged more than 1-2 pts.
It's also likely that the kids they have pledged & signed will also ask out,, at a time when it's pretty late in
the recruiting cycle to get anyone else, except by offering some of the portal guys massive playing time immediately.
But I wouldn't think any of the really talented kids in the portal would want to spend their last year or two in an massive rebuild.

...it all makes you pretty impressed & thankful that Coach Wardle started at that same abysmally low point & still won a few conference games
right off the bat, then won 7 MVC games in year-2, then by year-3 we won 20 games & won the MVC Tourney the next 2 years & have been competitive since.

Wardle executed a fantastic rebuild, and since then he has only really had one down year, which was derailed for reasons familiar to everyone here.

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

...it all makes you pretty impressed & thankful that Coach Wardle started at that same abysmally low point & still won a few conference games
right off the bat, then won 7 MVC games in year-2, then by year-3 we won 20 games & won the MVC Tourney the next 2 years & have been competitive since.

Absolutely. I think wardle is one of the best kept "secrets" in all of CBB. He's overcome losing key players (players he actually developed, not necessarily Terry Roberts) year in and year out. I suspect he will overcome losing Hickman (another player he developed) as well. He has been consistently good over the last 5 years. Championship season derailed by COVID, etc. The daggers he's taken over and over again and for him to keep finding a way is wildly impressive.

Unfortunately he hasn't had that GREAT team yet, and that's what seems to get the promotion. Either way, he's as consistent of a coach in all of the Mid-Major and much of the P-5 land. Accomplishing more than probably about 40% of all P-5 programs over the last 5 years. On far less of a budget.

I think in CBB the AD's value consistency less, and more of the "lighting in the bottle" peak of success. But I would imagine that is just how the dollars work out.

Schertz Vs Wardle is not even close when it actually comes to accomplishment at this level. Mullins watched 2 of his guys play in the Elite 8 from an assistant role at DePaul. None of it makes sense to me, but it doesn't have too. Glad we've got the guy we have, and hope someday Wardle gets the reigns in his hands to make the decision that's best for what he and his family wants based off of his successes.

[Tommy]

Unfortunately he hasn't had that GREAT team yet, and that's what seems to get the promotion.

Great post and I agree with all that you've said. The great team was probably the COVID year team that won the MVC tournament and never got a chance to go to the NCAA. That team was primed to win with a ton of upperclassmen and a chip on their shoulder. Travesty that team never got a chance to see how far they could have gone.

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

Great post and I agree with all that you've said. The great team was probably the COVID year team that won the MVC tournament and never got a chance to go to the NCAA. That team was primed to win a ton of upperclassmen and a chip on their shoulder. Travesty that team never got a chance to see how far they could have gone.

Absolutely. That's the heartbreaker. It's a very real possibility that without COVID, Wardle is already in the P5.

[Stryker]

Absolutely. That's the heartbreaker. It's a very real possibility that without COVID, Wardle is already in the P5.

Yep could very likely have happened. It almost makes me wonder if I'd rather see a coach at BU with conference contending teams every year and not much post season success so they can be retained. Probably doesn't make much sense though really.

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

Yep could very likely have happened. It almost makes me wonder if I'd rather see a coach at BU with conference contending teams every year and not much post season success so they can be retained. Probably doesn't make much sense though really.

This is probably going to be a hoity toitey long winded ramble for most but here goes.

I've been a Bradley fan since I was a kid, my God Mother used to take me to games in the mid/late 90s and I got hooked. I've stayed with this team through all the ups and downs. One thing that has happened is that I've grown to not just care about the team successes, but the team and it's people within the organization as well.

I moved to New York for about 6 years out on Long Island. One night in I think 2016/2017 I played in a charity poker event. There was a bald guy sitting at the table with me and his name was Geno Ford. Totally random. It was funny, when I introduced myself and told him I was from Peoria his exact words were "you must hate me". Anyway, he told me his side about how everything went down, almost as if he owed me some type of explanation. He didn't.

More importantly he told me all about how much he enjoyed the city of Peoria, and most things about the University. He also spoke incredibly highly of Wardle, and how he just needed a little time and he was surely going to bring great things to Bradley. I left that night with a new found understanding and appreciation for Geno, and a new found level of excitement for Wardle.

Fast forward 7 or 8 years and Geno went from an assistant at Stony Brook to the Head Coach, playing in the title game of the CAA tournament. I found myself really rooting for him and hoping he and his team would pull it off. They did not.

I want the people that have been and are part of this organization to find success, whatever that means for them. I'm rooting for the dominant team next year. Sold out Carver arena, a conference championship, tournament title and Sweet 16 run. I'm rooting for Brian Wardle to be put in a position to make a decision for the betterment of his family, and for him to accomplish his life goals - whatever they may be.

And if after 10 years and a revitalization of our program he were to decide to leave, he would have deserved it, and wouldn't owe anyone any type of explanation.

Geno didn't owe the explanation for his lack of success, Wardle wouldn't owe an explanation for leaving due to his success. I'd be thrilled to root for an organization that finally had another coach leave due to a promotion.

These guys are just people like you all and I who are chasing dreams and doing what they feel is best for them and their families.

I'd love for him to stay forever, but I'm just a witness and thrilled to be so fortunate as to be on this 25 year long ride so far. It's not about me. It's about the success of the program, and the people within it.

[Da Coach]

Great story, thanks. I got to know Geno a little, and he was indeed, a super nice, down to earth guy. Everyone loved him.
My main gripe with him was his laid-back personality, and what seemed to me to be a tendency to feel that he didn't need to succeed at his job because he was going to keep getting the big paycheck anyway, That all changed when he learned Joanne Glasser and Mike Cross would be sent packing, and he knew his days were numbered in the 2014-15 season. So he didn't bother trying to recruit anyone, thus, in effect, sabotaging the program.

[Da Coach]

Kentucky is closing in on hiring BYU's Mark Pope - https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...97376652935675

Kentucky fans are underwhelmed, to say the least.
Pope is a former Kentucky player (1994-96), and his record at BYU is 110-52 in 5 seasons - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...rk-pope-1.html

[egib52]

Kentucky is closing in on hiring BYU's Mark Pope - https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...97376652935675

Kentucky fans are underwhelmed, to say the least.
Pope is a former Kentucky player (1994-96), and his record at BYU is 110-52 in 5 seasons - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...rk-pope-1.html

Probably tough to swallow when you believe your program is at the top of the mountain. However, Hurley, Oats and Drew turned them down.

[Stryker]

Probably tough to swallow when you believe your program is at the top of the mountain. However, Hurley, Oats and Drew turned them down.

Frankly, the days of true blue bloods may be over in a certain sense. Now everyone can pay players, not just the blue bloods. And TV contracts have gotten so good a coach can get insane money at a run of the mill P6 team these days. So if you are making 4-5 million a year at a decent P6 program, why leave for 7 million a year with the expectations that are present at a blue blood?

Also, some of the blue bloods haven't always had the deepest pockets. Schools that aren't blue bloods may have a lot more resources, and with NIL, they may start out performing blue bloods in the future. Lots of questions to be faced.

[egib52]

For those dual Illini/Bradley fans out there, Chester Frazier is leaving Champaign to join Devries at WVU.