# Rob Jeter to Bradley



## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

Heard a rumor that the UWM Coach might be heading to Bradley. Maybe it's nothing, but it would definitely be a step up for the former Bo Ryan assistant and point guard.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

It took him forever to turn UWM into a winner after Pearl left him a tournament team. I don't like this hire one bit for my alma mater. They can do better than Rob Jeter. The school is private, has big time donors, a new practice facility and arena. They could easily be the class of the Valley. If this is true this is a bad move. 

Jeter's no better than Jim Les is. I would prefer to get someone off Thad Matta's staff or Billy Donovan's.


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## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

Pearl's team made the tournament the year before, but Jeter was left with NOTHING when Bruce Pearl left. The team lost all 5 starters (Joah Tucker, Boo Davis, Adrian Tigert, Chris Hill, and Jason McCoy... not to mention Ed McCants from the 2005 team) and it was a hell of a job for Jeter to even get enough players to field a team in 2007. Just look at some of the names on those teams from 2007 to 2009 and it's not exactly a murderers row, even for the Horizon League, but he's improved his team every year like clockwork. I will say that recruiting does not appear to be his forte, but the dude can coach. I'd also expect him to keep contacts in the Milwaukee area, which has always had solid mid-major talent.

EDIT: All that being said, if Bradley is looking for short term success and elite program building success, I'm not sure Jeter's the guy to get it done. He's more of a Larranaga or Bob McKillop... he might have 1 or 2 elite teams in 30 years of coaching, but he won't be more than a solid coach who graduates kids. I'd love to see him stay at Milwaukee, but I have a feeling UWM fans want someone more exciting like Pearl.

EDIT2: Jeter was actually their coach in the 05/06 season when they made the tournament and beat Oklahoma in the first round, eventually falling to National Champion Florida in the Second. And they played at a pace relatively equivalent to what Duke and Kansas run this year. It's not like he's failed the one year he had pretty good talent, it's just that Pearl really did hurt that program on his way out.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Pearl left him an NCAA tournament team. The fact is Jeter can't recruit. It took him five years afterwards just to contend in the Horizon. I don't want someone like that at Bradley. He seems like a nice man, but next year Wichita State, Creighton and Indiana State all have teams capable of winning a round in the tournament. Bradley needs someone who can recruit period. I'd take Bruce Pearl at Bradley in a millisecond.


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## zagsfan20 (Dec 24, 2004)

HKF said:


> Pearl left him an NCAA tournament team. The fact is Jeter can't recruit. It took him five years afterwards just to contend in the Horizon. I don't want someone like that at Bradley. He seems like a nice man, but next year Wichita State, Creighton and Indiana State all have teams capable of winning a round in the tournament. Bradley needs someone who can recruit period. I'd take Bruce Pearl at Bradley in a millisecond.


I'm sure a top assistant of Matta, or Donovan is holding out for a slightly better job than the Bradley job. The way the coaching carousel goes these days a top assistant can get a job at a non-basketball power school in a good league, instead of starting at a mid-major. 10 years ago, it was probably the opposite.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

The thing is, Bradley has the money to pay BCS style. I mean we have billionaires that love Bradley Basketball. Ralph Lawler, Charley Steiner and Chick Hearn went to Bradley. As did Jerry Krause. We could conceivably pay a coach 2 million per year (not saying I would want that). Just saying that Bradley is not an ordinary mid-major. It definitely has the potential to do what Butler, Gonzaga and other schools have done because it's a private institution with big money donors.

It just needs a great coach. Our school president (who I know personally, she comes out to Hollywood annually) is a brilliant woman who just knows how to sell the university. I honestly don't know how she does it, but she does. I just hope we get someone good. I also would not be down on Keno Davis. He can recruit as well, but he was out of his element at Providence.

Honestly, I love college basketball so I don't even care if Bradley isn't a mid-major power. I'd just like to go to the tournament and watch them play more than once every 10 years, that's all. 2006, was five years ago. And before that was 1996. That's an eternity. Gonzaga has gone to 13 straight tournaments. I'd take five in 13 years, you know?


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## zagsfan20 (Dec 24, 2004)

Whats held them back from throwing big money at coaches in the past?


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## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

HKF said:


> The thing is, Bradley has the money to pay BCS style. I mean we have billionaires that love Bradley Basketball. Ralph Lawler, Charley Steiner and Chick Hearn went to Bradley. As did Jerry Krause. We could conceivably pay a coach 2 million per year (not saying I would want that). Just saying that Bradley is not an ordinary mid-major. It definitely has the potential to do what Butler, Gonzaga and other schools have done because it's a private institution with big money donors.
> 
> It just needs a great coach. Our school president (who I know personally, she comes out to Hollywood annually) is a brilliant woman who just knows how to sell the university. I honestly don't know how she does it, but she does. I just hope we get someone good. I also would not be down on Keno Davis. He can recruit as well, but he was out of his element at Providence.
> 
> Honestly, I love college basketball so I don't even care if Bradley isn't a mid-major power. I'd just like to go to the tournament and watch them play more than once every 10 years, that's all. 2006, was five years ago. And before that was 1996. That's an eternity. Gonzaga has gone to 13 straight tournaments. I'd take five in 13 years, you know?


Lickliter? Flopped at Iowa, but sure got that Butler program off the ground.

And the difference between Gonzaga and Bradley is that there just aren't that many D1 schools on the west coast. There are TONS near Peoria, but the populations are similar, so it's more about being a great coach than being a great recruiter... unless you're going to recruit nationally, but that's a real stretch.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Nimreitz said:


> Lickliter? Flopped at Iowa, but sure got that Butler program off the ground.
> 
> And the difference between Gonzaga and Bradley is that there just aren't that many D1 schools on the west coast. There are TONS near Peoria, but the populations are similar, so it's more about being a great coach than being a great recruiter... unless you're going to recruit nationally, but that's a real stretch.


Lickliter probably would not work as people believe he just won't work hard enough to sell the program (that was the problem at Iowa). He also plays an ugly brand of basketball. I'd love to take a look at Dane Fife (who has been coaching at IPFW), that program was in shambles before he took over. He has contacts in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. 

Zags, I have no idea why Bradley hasn't done this before, but I believe that it has to do with the fact that Les was a former NBA player and an alum during the Hersey Hawkins era. People don't realize this, but Bradley has had some real good recruits in the last 15 years. Anthony Parker, Danny Granger, Joah Tucker, Patrick O'Bryant. I mean three of those guys played NBA ball. 

President Broski was too complacent, but President Glasser doesn't give a damn, she wants a winner. Our University has received about half a billion dollars in donor money to improve the school. Our enrollment when I was in school was 5,000 undergrads and now their goal is to get to 10,000. They are making a major financial commitment across academics and athletics. 

The biggest thing is the school is going to put the money up and the one thing I never understood was that Peorians truly love Bradley Basketball. Like I love Big East basketball, these people love Bradley Basketball. It's amazing. We don't have to be Gonzaga, just be better. Nim's point about all the schools in the area including the Horizon, MAC, OVC, definitely make it difficult, but I could careless if Drake and Evansville suck, I didn't graduate from either of those schools.

The other thing is Bradley has a pipeline to the West Coast as we play USC and Pepperdine regularly and we regularly recruits students from the West Coast.


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## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

I really don't see how Fife is any better than Jeter, but whatever. Jeter's gone to the NCAA Second Round and has now rebuilt a team after losing all 5 starters and not having many meaningful backups after that year. I'm skeptical that Fife can recruit either, he's definitely not what I'd call a proven recruiter.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

He went to the Second Round with Pearl's players (who had been to the Sweet Sixteen the year before). Remember in '03, Pearl's team would have made the Second Round if Dylan Page didn't miss a last second layup against Notre Dame. This year was the closest Jeter has sniffed the NCAA tournament and with a bid on the line at home, they got smoked by Butler.


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## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

HKF said:


> He went to the Second Round with Pearl's players (who had been to the Sweet Sixteen the year before). Remember in '03, Pearl's team would have made the Second Round if Dylan Page didn't miss a last second layup against Notre Dame. This year was the closest Jeter has sniffed the NCAA tournament and with a bid on the line at home, they got smoked by Butler.


Yeah, but Butler's a lot better. And they DID win the Horizon League.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

Nimreitz said:


> Yeah, but Butler's a lot better. And they DID win the Horizon League.


Three way tie for the Horizon with Cleveland State, Butler and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Valpo was a game back. I watch Horizon League basketball as well, but I'm just saying other than Jeter's first year with Pearl's players, this is the first year he's done something. It took him 5 years after making the tournament to become a conference contender. This is not the kind of guy I want, because Jim Les has made a Sweet Sixteen once, we'd have no reason to get rid of him if he got a guy like Jeter. I want a program builder and a recruiter.


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## Nimreitz (May 13, 2003)

UWM won 20 games last year and lost the Horizon Final at Butler by 9, which isn't too bad. Jeter is very Bo Ryan esque (which makes sense because he was a point guard for Bo at Platteville and a long time assistant); he lost his entire team after 2006, but he didn't go out and try to do any shortcuts in recruiting. He went out to build a program.

But I agree, I don't think Jeter is the right fit at Bradley. I really don't know where he would be a fit to be honest, but I like having him at the local public school doing a good job until that right opportunity opens up. Like I said I think he's more of a Bob McKillop or Jim Larranaga type. He'll have a loooooong career, but if you measure him by Tournament Success he might really only have 1 or 2 great years.

EDIT: And before anyone says Bo had immediate success at Wisconsin, that's true, but he wasn't setting the world on fire in his 2 years at UWM.

EDIT2: I saw this rumor on a Wisconsin message board and have seen nothing at all to legitimize it. I kind of just wanted to see your response HKF because I knew you were an alum.


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