Interesting article about Jim Les

[electricmayhem]

Some interesting thoughts on the state of the Bradley program...

http://www.examiner.com/x-7020-Bradley-Braves-Examiner~y2009m4d20-Has-Les-really-been-more

[wsushox1]

The whole league, including Bradley, is on an upswing. So I think Bradley will be fine next year. I would love to see Bradley and Wichita State see good post-season success again.

[calfan]

The problem for every team next year is a numbers game and an obvious one. Even if every team is on an up tick, every game has a winner and a loser.

Northern Iowa returns 5 starters and Creighton has never finished lower than second place in the last ten years. SIU and Wichita State are also both on the way up.

It doesn't leave a lot of room for Bradley to finish one or two in the conference next year. Even being in the top five might be tough.

[electricmayhem]

Creighton has taken a hit recently, but I agree that they'll at least be in the top-4.

If BU, WSU and SIU do their parts, the league could be very strong next year.

The point of the article asks the question, "How do we turn Bradley into a situation like Creighton?" When Altman came to CU in 94-95, he took a few years to clean up from Tony Barone and Rick Johnson. Since then, he's been in the postseason (NIT or NCAA) 11 straight years. That's what every mid-major program shoots for.

I'm looking forward to the WSU-BU matchups. You have always been some of the classiest fans in the league.

[Snapshot9]

Someone always says the league is in an upswing, probably because of players maturing in their play, but I think the league pretty much stays the same from year to year. Every year, each team has players that rise to star status, and then you have the teams that grasp team ball, and excel for the season like Drake did.

Perhaps we are recruiting better than in the recent past, but are we finishing any better as a team at the end of the season? If we are still battling for 5th place at the end of a season, then I don't think we have made that much progress.

Until we have the team that can beat Creighton and SIU on a regular basis, we are always going to be struggling.

[ShockTalk]

The goal for the Valley is not to be a "one trick pony" like C-USA. The MVC did it for a couple of years recently, but needs to be consistent. That will be hard given that success usually breeds losing quality coaches to the Bigs. They must prove themselves in the non-con and not have dips in recruiting. If the Valley can do that, it will have 2-3 in the NCAA and 2-3 in the NIT every year (and might be in a stronger position to hold on to quailty coaches).

Personally, I think the MVC has to many weak sisters that cannot afford what it will take to be that consistent. Success breeds success, unless you can't afford to hold on to that success.

:wsu_posters:

[wsu789]

I guess from the perspective of internal battles, the league stays the same, but it seems difficult to me to argue that the league was equal in 08-09 to what it had in 05-06 (two teams in the Sweet 16, I believe.) There was no prayer of that this year.

[wsu789]

I remember Bob Lutz writing a similar article comparing Smithson at the end of three years to Scott Thompson. Of course, both Les and Molinari had better records than Scott and Randy.