Report on Coach Wardle

[patrick_o'brian]

Well, this is not how I wanted to start my day. Everyone go buy a Powerball ticket tonight so we can ensure Coach doesn’t leave.

Seriously, this would be catastrophic. Everything we just experienced and all the hope we have for next year would be in certain jeopardy. Hopefully, they are just flirting and if need be, we pony up. I know Coach just signed an extension last year, but we need to figure out how to retain him.

 

[Tommy]

Why should anyone believe “Bracketgurus”? This guy has 91 tweets, 65 followers and went 11 months without tweeting anything.

Way to keep it real, Mikovio. I did a cursory search and couldn't find one single link to substantiate this tweet, so you ask a valid question. Certainly if Wardle had met with Nebraska, someone would have spotted it and reported on it besides this guy.

 

[tornado]

but then why would the guy guy make up such a thing, as well - that doesn't make sense...
Maybe he heard something - maybe not -
But I think we all knew this could come some day if we got good - but hopefully Nebraska is just using this to get Hoiberg to sign

Fred Hoiberg was signed by the Bulls thru 2020 at $5 million per year - so unless he negotiated or negotiates a full buyout -
he might just not want to work at Nebraska for $2 million until 2020.

 

[elmerb]

What does Wardle Make Now?

 

[tornado]

somewhere in the $450K range according to published sources
Tim Miles was making $2.375 million and was set to make $2.5 million this year (plus likely other salary from additional sources)

 

[Mikovio]

People will make up fake news for any reason or no reason at all. Some men just want to see the world burn. I just don't see a reason to believe this random guy in NY has "sources in Peoria" that inform him about backroom meetings between our coach and AD. And if there were people in Peoria privy to this, why would they reach out to this Bracketguru guy? If this guy was so well connected, why does he only have 65 followers?

 

[elmerb]

somewhere in the $450K range according to published sources
Tim Miles was making $2.375 million and was set to make $2.5 million this year (plus likely other salary from additional sources)

Money can't buy you happiness but that's a lot on $, Nebraska is a football school and never was and never be known for basketball. The best they'll be is mid pack Big Ten team. Nebraska has the unfortunate distinction of being the ONLY major conference program to Never win a game in the NCAA tournament. I think Bradley is on the verge of becoming the next Mid Major powerhouse. Hope he stays, it be good for the school and for the community.

 

[Go_Braves]

Here's a somewhat recent article - and read candidate # 6 - provided below ... and second shown below a March 26 article - Wardle is not even mentioned for Nebraska.


Seven Candidates for the Nebraska basketball job

http://www.kmaland.com/sports/seven-...f71591dec.html

Candidate 6: The mid-major coach

I’m going to make this real short and sweet. It’s time for Nebraska to NOT hire a mid-major coach. They’ve tried it with Barry Collier and Doc Sadler and Tim Miles, and they need to move on from that.

AND HERE IS A MARCH 26 ARTICLE - Wardle is not even mentioned...

https://watchstadium.com/news/search...ch-03-26-2019/

 

[Chibearsfan10125]

This reminds me of something Wardle said at the post season voice of the Braves. He said that half the stories about recruits Bradley has offered are players that coaching staff has never even looked at. This seems like a similar story. There is one source reporting it, with no verification. If this was from Dave Reynolds or the Nebraska beat writer, I’d take it more seriously (despite all that happened with the PJ Star in the last month), but it’s a random post on Twitter from a source that is nowhere near Nebraska or Peoria.

And quite frankly, while I do think Wardle is a very good coach and we’ve got good things ahead, if I’m a Nebraska fan and I see we’re trying to lure a guy who has finished 9th, 7th, 5th and 5th in four years in the MVC and has had one NCAA bid in 8 years as a head coach overall, I wouldn’t be too excited. I think Wardle is a great coach, and unless we get lucky and he loves Peoria the same way Jacobson enjoys coaching at UNI and Marshall enjoyed coaching at Wichita, he’ll probably end up at Power conference team someday. I just don’t think he’s there yet and leaving for Nebraska just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at this time.

 

[BUSongwriter]

One other thing in the "let's keep it real" department. While Coach Wardle is building something great here, and I hope he stays for years to come, the fact is his team has not finished higher than fifth place in the MVC during his four years here. And this year's team, as good as it was at the end, lost to some pretty awful teams during the regular season, even at home. Coach does things the right way and it wouldn't surprise me if he's getting looked at by bigger budget programs, but his resume -- at this point, anyway -- would seem to me to be a hard sell to the fan bases of Big 10 schools.

 

[BUSongwriter]

Ha! Great minds thinking alike at the same time, Chibearsfan!

 

[Da Coach]

One other thing in the "let's keep it real" department. While Coach Wardle is building something great here, and I hope he stays for years to come, the fact is his team has not finished higher than fifth place in the MVC during his four years here....

Yes, I agree. And I do not think Wardle's overall coaching record is likely to draw offers from high-majors just yet. But note the real improvement we have seen each year at Bradley under Wardle. Compare with the 4-year tenure of the previous coach, which was celebrated by our local media. In his 4 seasons as head coach, Geno never finished higher than 7th place. He never came close to a .500 MVC record (Wardle has already had .500 MVC records the last 2 seasons). Geno never had a single season that he did not play on Thursday in St. Louis. Wardle has skipped Thursday the last 2 years, he has won at least 1 game in the tournament in 3 of his 4 seasons, and has a winning overall record in the MVC Tournament (5-3) in his 4 years including a championship. And in his 4th season, Geno was a distant 10th place (14 games behind the leader), while in Wardle's 4th year he is the MVC Champion. So considering where we were at the start of Wardle's tenure, and how he has accomplished all this with late recruiting cycle & leftover recruits in 2015, we need to keep things going and I expect to see further improvement.

 

[Dub]

One other thing in the "let's keep it real" department. While Coach Wardle is building something great here, and I hope he stays for years to come, the fact is his team has not finished higher than fifth place in the MVC during his four years here.

I get what you're saying, and I basically agree. I was speaking to a friend this weekend about what it would take to get him interested in Bradley again, and he said we need to win the regular season 2-3 seasons in a row before he looks at tickets again.

However, ask Drake and Loyola what finishing first in the regular season got them.

In our league right now, the #1 measurement of success prior to the true "post season" is winning the valley tourney, which he/we did. The rest of the regular season is positioning to support your conf tourney seed, and your potential seed in the NCAA.


What Bradley did this season is extremely difficult to do, and I don't want that to get lost.

 

[egib52]

b
Fred Hoiberg was signed by the Bulls thru 2020 at $5 million per year - so unless he negotiated or negotiates a full buyout -
he might just not want to work at Nebraska for $2 million until 2020.

Just to clarify as part of Hoiberg's buyout any money he makes just reduces the Bulls obligation by that much. So if he makes $2M the Bulls owe $3M.

 

[patrick_o'brian]

Purely speculation and trying to connect dots, but I just read an article from yesterday at 4pm in which BIll Moos, Nebraska AD stated that "he has a Top 3". He also stated that "all 3 have been contacted and there is no front runner". Does this Bracketgurus report mean that Coach Wardle is in the Top 3? Or is this source not credible? I'm hoping for the latter.

Oh well, we just need to hit this Powerball, donate, and keep Coach Wardle here. LOL!!!

 

[tornado]

well, I don't think you can believe anything you hear in these coaching hire situations...
I still laugh when I think about Mike Cross saying we were right where we wanted to be even after almost a DOZEN of the best candidates
came and/or interviewed and learned how it was gonna be and what would be expected of them and then they turned and left even tho
the salary offer here was TWO to THREE times what they were currently earning. Then later when Geno was hired, Cross made the comical statement that Geno was the ONLY candidate that was seriously considered and offered the job.

 

[Da Coach]

Purely speculation and trying to connect dots, but I just read an article from yesterday at 4pm in which BIll Moos, Nebraska AD stated that "he has a Top 3". He also stated that "all 3 have been contacted and there is no front runner". Does this Bracketgurus report mean that Coach Wardle is in the Top 3? Or is this source not credible? I'm hoping for the latter.

Even if the report is credible, the statement does not say that Wardle is among those "Top 3" candidates.
But I believe none of what is being said publicly by Nebraska and the media means much.
Here is what Fred Hoiberg himself said earlier today-
https://twitter.com/MHoiberg/status/1110886780910424065

MayorHoiberg‏ @MHoiberg

Mr. Moos and myself have had discussions and I am feeling very confident that I will soon be in the head coaching position at the #UniversityofNebraska and we will start our journey to give this great University and fans what they deserve, and this my friends are WINS! #GBR

7:50 AM - 27 Mar 2019


Other sources report that Nebraska and Fred Hoiberg already have an agreement in principle, but the official announcement may be delayed pending how far Michigan State goes in the NCAA Tournament. Hoiberg's son plays on the Michigan State team.
I think Bradley fans can rest easy.

 

[Chibearsfan10125]

Unless he just started it today, that doesn’t appear to be Fred’s official twitter. There is no blue check mark and that account only has 2 posts. Plus I can not imagine any coach saying anything about a coaching job until it is official.

 

[Da Coach]

Unless he just started it today, that doesn’t appear to be Fred’s official twitter. There is no blue check mark and that account only has 2 posts. Plus I can not imagine any coach saying anything about a coaching job until it is official.

You are correct. Thanks for noting that, and sorry I fell for it without a closer look. That is clearly not Hoiberg's own personal twitter, and appears to be a phony one just started in the last day or two.

Here is Hoiberg's real twitter, and he has not tweeted in several years-
https://twitter.com/ISUMayor32

 

[Go_Braves]

I get what you're saying, and I basically agree. I was speaking to a friend this weekend about what it would take to get him interested in Bradley again, and he said we need to win the regular season 2-3 seasons in a row before he looks at tickets again.

However, ask Drake and Loyola what finishing first in the regular season got them.

In our league right now, the #1 measurement of success prior to the true "post season" is winning the valley tourney, which he/we did. The rest of the regular season is positioning to support your conf tourney seed, and your potential seed in the NCAA.


What Bradley did this season is extremely difficult to do, and I don't want that to get lost.

I totally agree with you Dub.... That is exactly what Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson also knows and never really states. Ben is an incredible coach and at the beginning of the 2018-19 season had a relatively new rag-tag team - that Ben over the course of the season continued to tweak all the way up to the MVC tournament. Ben knew that the top 6 - 7 teams in the MVC were all capable of winning it all - that there was so much parity that your bracket in the MVC tournament didn't mean that much so long as you only play 3 games the tournament weekend. Winning the regular MVC season conference title is nice - Winning the MVC tournament is a lot nicer with the post game national media coverage, automatic NCAA bid - and all the school and fan excitement. There was never previously a MVC tournament 6th seed playing a 5th seed for the Valley tournament title. That says it all right there. Continue and improve throughout the regular season and "do not" finish in the bottom 4 of the regular season standings - then you have a chance.