RU Head Coach Ron Bradley

In eight seasons as RU's head coach, Ron Bradley has posted eight winning seasons, four 20-win campaigns, and has graduated each of the 26 players who have completed their eligibility at RU during his tenure. His goal for 1999-2000 is to take his team back to the NCAA Tournament stage it enjoyed in 1998. Bradley's ability to improvise in the most difficult of circumstances was evident in 1998-99. The Highlanders, forced to play without leading scorer Ryan Charles and starting point guard Rian Everett for a major portion of the season, still mustered a Division I school record 13-game winning streak and a 20-8 overall mark. Left with a relatively inexpereinced team for most of the conference season, Bradley returned to his trademark style of full-court tenacious defense and exciting offense, a style which proved to be too much for opponents to handle but enjoyable for Highlander fans to watch. The 1998-99 season was a successful encore to RU's magical 1997-98 campaign. Bradley guided the 1997-98 Highlander team to the school's first Big South Championship and NCAA tournament bid as RU tallied a 20-10 record. RU capped off its conference championship run in grand fashion, as Kevin Robinson's 12-foot jump hook at the buzzer gave the Highlanders a come-from-behind 63-61 win against UNCA in a Big South Conference title game. But for Bradley, coaching has always been about more than wins and losses. In addition to guiding RU to 20-win seasons in each of the past two years, all 26 players who have completed their eligibility during his tenure have received their degrees. Six of the 25 players who have graduated under Bradley's watch have received contracts to play professional basketball. Bradley came to Radford in 1990-91 as an assistant coach and was named head coach the following year. He proceeded to lead an under-sized, defensive-oriented squad to a 20-9 record and the Highlanders' first regular season Big South Conference title, winning coach of the year honors for himself. He squeezed the maximum out of that hard-working bunch, which came to be known as the "Never-Say-Die-Landers" for their late-game, comeback heroics. With the heart of that defensive unit lost to graduation, Bradley turned the next year to a more offensive-oriented scheme and created a scoring machine built around perimeter firepower which set numerous Highlander offensive records. While there was little joy on the coaching staff over the season-ending 16-15 record, there was little doubt that Bradley had again done a masterful job despite having to compete against one of the toughest schedules in RU history. In 1993-94, Bradley got back to the basics of defense again and the results were a 20-8 record for a team that used its record-setting, smothering defense to fuel an offense that tied for fourth in the nation in team field goal percentage. Mixing four freshmen into the lineup, RU was 16-12 in 1994-95, and then 14-13 in 1995-96, as the rebuilding process continued. Before coming to RU, Bradley, 46, was an assistant at Maryland, joining the staff first as a volunteer under Lefty Driesell in 1981 and then being promoted to a full-time position in 1983. He remained as the top assistant after Bob Wade was hired and then worked as an assistant to the athletic director in 1989-90. Bradley played for his father, Carroll, at Eastern Nazarene in his hometown of Quincy, Mass. He scored 2,649 points and averaged 24.8 points per game over his four-year career. He was sixth in the nation in scoring in the NAIA as a sophomore and 15th as a junior. He was All-New England and honorable mention NAIA All-American for three straight years, and was drafted by the New York Nets. After three years of semi-professional basketball, Bradley returned to Eastern Nazarene as head coach. In his five years there, from 1976-81, the Crusaders compiled a record of 96-51, won three conference championships, four district titles and one regional crown. He twice exceeded 20 wins in a season and twice was named Naismith Conference Coach of the Year. Bradley received his bachelor's degree in psychology and history from ENC in 1974, earned a master's in physical education from Bridgewater State in Bridgewater, Mass., and earned his doctorate in sport psychology at the University of Maryland in 1993. He is married to the former Denise Smith. Bradley and his wife have two children, Brad, 20, and Katlin, 15. His assistant coaching staff at Radford is Bill Lilly, Stephen Barber and Chris Hawkins. The Book on Bradley  Year  School  Record  Pct.  1976-77  Eastern Nazarene 20-6   .653 1977-78 ENC 17-10   .629 1978-79  ENC  22-10  .687 1979-80 ENC 19-8  .704 1980-81   ENC  18-17   .514 1991-92 Radford  20-9   .690 1992-93 RU 16-15  .516 1993-94 RU  20-8   .714 1994-95 RU  16-12 .571  1995-96 RU 14-13 .518  1996-97 RU 15-13  .535 1997-98  RU 20-10   .667 1998-99 RU 20-8 .714 Totals        5 years @ ENC  96-51   .653 8 years @ RU 141-88  .616 13 years  Overall  237-139  .630

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