2027 preseason basketball mega-thread: Inaugural season in the Mountain West Thank you. Everyone also talks about how hes "super consistent"... but super consistent at never doing anything other than almost winning our conference championship doesn't mean our transition to the MW is going to end up similarly results or improvement wise. Its going to be a transition with some down years adjusting to the MW im sure, but idk why we would keep a coach who has lead us to basically .500 in his time at Davis and expect that to rial up fans when we join the MW. Having a few bad years is probably gonna happen no matter what, but in what world does keeping a .500 coach in the Big West give us any excitement for the future in the MW?
Losing a good amount of players in the portal is going to happen in the modern d1 landscape, I get it, but everyone on this sub is always talking about his talent acquisition... who he then leads to a .500 season or almost winning the conference... yells at all the players and makes a buffoon out of himself on the court.... and then now they all transfer out? Every person I know in Davis (students or recent grads) has felt this team is not exciting, thinks Les has WAY to big of an attitude for his record (yelling and screaming and acting all tough while getting mediocre results). Its a small sample size but I don't know a single person who is excited about aggie basketball right now on campus, which is something we NEED as we move to the MW.
Stagnant attendance, stagnant results and keeping a coach because he "is loyal to the program" seems like a recipe for mediocrity long term.
People are gonna respond to this post and argue "what is our better option?!?!", "do you just expect us to fire les and win", "hes a great recruiter", all of these things hold some truth, but the central problem in my opinion is that expecting mediocre season over mediocre season is a hell of a lot less exciting than getting fresh blood in the building and having hope for the future in the new conference. In what world is going with the playbook where we enter the MW and just have Les lead us to a ton of .500 or below .500 seasons against better competition worth it? He's getting paid a ton of money, has gotten to keep his same damn coaching staff forever, and has kept the same attitude for years. I think hes probably a nice dude, I like how he interacts with the band and fans at games, but thats not the reason you keep a coach forever.