Bradley’s Former President & Scheduling

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Not familiar enough to know but did Bradley have a President who went nuclear across D1 or something where schools refuse to speak to them? Google didn’t turn up anything.

From BradleyFans:

in short -- two words - Joanne Glasser
those other programs did not spend 6-7 years destroying every favorable relationship & contact with every other program & AD in DI. People just don't know how badly JG & Cross destroyed a once- prominent & respected Department of Athletics at Bradley and turned us into a laughingstock....or even worse, turning it into a pariah that other programs didn't even want to play.
Remember - Joanne & Mike's idea of running a DI program involved moving our premier sport to the women's gym, scheduling Eureka College, Mississippi Valley State and all the other 350 RPI gems, and telling the fanbase how stupid and impatient we all were for actually coming to games and expecting decent play and maybe a win now & then...

People seem to forget that Ken Kavanagh & Jim Les used to regularly get Butler, VCU, Illinois, Michigan State & Tom Izzo, and numerous other Big East, Big Ten & Big 12 teams to come in here... Plus the likes of DUKE, Florida, Iowa, Butler, and multiple other TOP schools away from home..

Chris Reynolds & Brian Wardle are fast restoring the prestige and dignity in our programs but bridges & relationships have been badly & irreparably burned...

[TheAsianSensation]

FYI, that's not the Bradley message board.

This is:
http://www.pjstarforums.com/viewforum.php?f=63

The owners of that site had some issues with Glasser. That post is just the latest in a long line of complaints lodged against her. I don't think there's anything behind it, and I suspect most (all) Bradley fans agree.

[tribecalledquest]

Not familiar enough to know but did Bradley have a President who went nuclear across D1 or something where schools refuse to speak to them? Google didn’t turn up anything.

From BradleyFans:

in short -- two words - Joanne Glasser
those other programs did not spend 6-7 years destroying every favorable relationship & contact with every other program & AD in DI. People just don't know how badly JG & Cross destroyed a once- prominent & respected Department of Athletics at Bradley and turned us into a laughingstock....or even worse, turning it into a pariah that other programs didn't even want to play.
Remember - Joanne & Mike's idea of running a DI program involved moving our premier sport to the women's gym, scheduling Eureka College, Mississippi Valley State and all the other 350 RPI gems, and telling the fanbase how stupid and impatient we all were for actually coming to games and expecting decent play and maybe a win now & then...

People seem to forget that Ken Kavanagh & Jim Les used to regularly get Butler, VCU, Illinois, Michigan State & Tom Izzo, and numerous other Big East, Big Ten & Big 12 teams to come in here... Plus the likes of DUKE, Florida, Iowa, Butler, and multiple other TOP schools away from home..

Chris Reynolds & Brian Wardle are fast restoring the prestige and dignity in our programs but bridges & relationships have been badly & irreparably burned...

That post on the Bradleyfans board was probably the stupidest in the history of that message board...and that's saying something.

Of all the dumb things, University President's play ZERO role in scheduling for MBB. ZERO.

[Mikovio]

Joanne Glasser was a highly polarizing president from 2008-2014. For better or worse she aspired to be the face of the university and install her own people. She immediately ran off athletic director Ken Kavanaugh, who was head of the I-AAA athletic directors association (in fact, founded a I-AAA association for non-football schools), and Dewey Kalmer, who had been baseball coach for decades. Kavanaugh left for Florida Gulf Coast, where his basketball and baseball hires made national waves, but he would come back to Peoria and campaign against Glasser. She replaced Kalmer with a personal friend from Eastern Kentucky (where she was hired from), Elvis Dominguez, who had a losing record at EKU and turned in nothing but losing seasons until she stepped down and he made the NCAAs in 2015. Glasser alienated donors who wrote Bradley out of their wills such as longtime Peoria Mayor Jim Maloof, costing the school millions. Oh and she also collected one of the highest salaries in the nation for herself.

As you can imagine, her ego clashed with Jim Les', but she couldn't get rid of him as long as the team was winning. A 15 and 9 win season in '10 and '11 did the trick though. I do think the firing of Les and the hiring of Geno were justified. But she meddled in Geno's program for the worse, making him keep players on scholarship for 4 years like Stefan Zecevic, who couldn't play a lick of basketball but stayed on because they were friends with her.

This is not to say she didn't do some good things. She made herself accessible to the student body like no previous president and pushed through some good construction projects.

That said, yeah, you can't blame her for scheduling difficulties 4 years after she left.

[bcg]

In just about every thread on Bradleyfans, by the 7th post, the name of Jim Les or Joanne Glasser comes up. Dr. Glasser came through and cleaned house at Bradley because it needed it. Of course, this ruffled some feathers with the older crowd since they had gotten to know the coaches over their long and unproductive coaching careers.

Bradleyfans.com doesn't have the inside information that it used to have. The only thing that has really happen for BU basketball this summer was Bile leaving the team abruptly and they had nothing of substance on it.

[Majik45]

Most current Bradley fans only go to that board for the comedy. I have gone there once or twice in the last 2 years. Most of the hardcore Bradley fans are on the local newspaper message board that is linked above.

[BuBrave2006]

But she meddled in Geno's program for the worse, making him keep players on scholarship for 4 years like Stefan Zecevic, who couldn't play a lick of basketball but stayed on because they were friends with her.

Not to say I'm defending anyone or taking sides here, I'm just going to point out that Zecevic was not at Bradley for four years. He was only there one year. It's possible you are confusing him with Milos Knezevic?

[Mikovio]

You're right, I mixed up my Slavic Braves. Apologies to Stefan.

[Bradleyfan1]

Personally I prefer Bradleyfans.com.

The Ford , Cross, Glasser thing has been beat. That horse is dead.

We should be focused on #Themovement. Our time is now. We deserve this. The Giant that is BU has risen and we are ready to take back what is rightfully ours.

[VUGrad1314]

I just don't see Bradley finishing any higher than 2nd and that's if literally everything breaks right for them. They'll be a solid team and they'll turn in a fine season, I just don't see them as being on the same level as Loyola ISUr and SIU assuming all those teams are healthy. Next year they should really challenge for the crown but they'll encounter a great deal of resistance then, too from a host of teams in this deep conference.