by MoValley John » March 9th, 2011, 1:56 am
You are absolutely correct. That said, it's not that simple. While memories of national sports are short, fans of individual teams have very long memories. Creighton fans remember Red McManus, Tom Apke and Tony Barone. While it's been more than 20 years since Barone was their coach, this is one of their standard bearers. This is Creighton's standard. Wichita State fans remember Ralph Miller, Gary Thompson and Gene Smithson. This is the Wichita State standard. Less than this will not do for fans of either school.
I bet you remember Charlie Spoonhour's success at Missouir State. You remember Steve Alford, it is your standard. It is fair. Bradley fans have their standard and that includes two final fours a Sweet 16, four NIT championships, 21 NBA players and the list goes on. They are also closer to the Chicago recruiting and media hotbed than Springfield is to KC. This is their standard, it is also fair.
On another note and a big piece of being successful is what has the university done to foster success. The challenge for the university is to allot enough resources for a coach to be successful. That would include money for recruiting, equipment and quality assistants. Far too often, midmajor schools fail in this responsibility. Bradley has not. They have great everything and a huge budget. Nothing within the Bradley basketball program is second rate. They have many big dollar donors and they have high expectations. With that, they paid Jim Les a lot of money and gave him plenty of time to build a program. With the exception of 2006, when Bradley went on a late season run, Jim Les failed to make the MVC finals and 2006 included, he never finished above 4th place. All the while, he was paid a salary higher than all but three other schools. For the donors and the fans, this was too little bang for the buck.
I am really not an advocate of the escallating salaries in college sports, but the current economic situation is a fact. In a midmajor conference, we can pretend that salaries don't dictate expectations, but they do. If you choose to pay a coach too little, as soon as they have success, they bolt. Schools like Bradley pay more. They demand good coaches and pay enough that the coach doesnrt leave at the first offer out of town. The high salaries have to be paid by somebody and that somebody is the big donors. The big donors have the ear and full attention of the administration and the big donors at Bradley were fed up with fourth place. They became unglued with 10th place.
At a half a million a year, plus a buyout expected of over $600,000, Jim Les isn't hurting. As I have said, Jim Les is a good guy, I liked him, but he didn't meet the expectations of a half a million dollar salary. I also agree with AceDad, the firing of Jim Les could start a coaching carousel, but that is the risk that the boosters at Bradley are willing to take. They will hire and fire until they get their guy. Fair or unfair, ugly or not, this is the way life works in D-1 athletics; it works that way even outside of basketball.
