https://calbears.com/news/2021/2/19/mens-basketball-cal-great-ansley-truitt-passes-away.aspx

Perhaps Cal's greatest center. He could do it all, and do it all well, averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds. A product of Woodrow Wilson HS in San Francisco. He would likely have gotten more individual honors if his Cal teams had been more successful.

SFCityBear said:

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https://calbears.com/news/2021/2/19/mens-basketball-cal-great-ansley-truitt-passes-away.aspx

Perhaps Cal's greatest center. He could do it all, and do it all well, averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds. A product of Woodrow Wilson HS in San Francisco. He would likely have gotten more individual honors if his Cal teams had been more successful.

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Seems like a fascinating, well rounded guy. Too bad he didn't get more press. Shame seeing C-19 take another.

SFCityBear said:

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Lhttps://calbears.com/news/2021/2/19/mens-basketball-cal-great-ansley-truitt-passes-away.aspx

Perhaps Cal's greatest center. He could do it all, and do it all well, averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds. A product of Woodrow Wilson HS in San Francisco. He would likely have gotten more individual honors if his Cal teams had been more successful.

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His Cal teams would have been great with better coaching. Those teams were very talented.
Btw - I thought he came from Redwood HS.

joe amos yaks said:

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SFCityBear said:

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Lhttps://calbears.com/news/2021/2/19/mens-basketball-cal-great-ansley-truitt-passes-away.aspx

Perhaps Cal's greatest center. He could do it all, and do it all well, averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds. A product of Woodrow Wilson HS in San Francisco. He would likely have gotten more individual honors if his Cal teams had been more successful.

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His Cal teams would have been great with better coaching. Those teams were very talented.
Btw - I thought he came from Redwood HS.

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CJ went to Sequoia HS.

That was one crackerjack of a roster he was on in 1970-1971:

1970-71 California Golden Bears Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com


https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/california/1971.html

dbush518 said:

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Ansley was from Wilson in the City. That team played Chenier's Berkeley HS in the final of the Tournament of Champions in 1968. I can't remember who won.
CJ went to Sequoia HS and Ridgle was from Altheimer., Arkansas.

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Championship
Wilson became the first San Francisco team to win the TOC since 1957, beating Berkeley, 68-62, on the strength of 23 points from Haren and 22 points with 19 rebounds from Truitt. Chenier had 24 for the Yellowjackets and set TOC
three-game records for points (82) and field goals (35). His career total of 164 points also was a tournament standard.

He was the first big man I saw step out and hit what today would be a 3. Clearly ahead of his time.

Was the 1970-71 team the best ever Cal bb team in terms of talent.

Each starter played in the pros. Several at a high level including Chenier and Johnson.

Only an 8-6 conference record. But UCLA and USC were loaded. UCLA started 88 game win streak that year.

dbush518 said:

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Ansley was from Wilson in the City. That team played Chenier's Berkeley HS in the final of the Tournament of Champions in 1968. I can't remember who won.
CJ went to Sequoia HS and Ridgle was from Altheimer., Arkansas.

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John Coughran was the 5th starter, and played his high school ball at Piedmont Hills High School of San Jose, CA. After Cal, he played a year with the Warriors in the NBA, and went on to have fine pro career playing in Spain and Italy.

I should have posted the link to my quote on the 1968 TOC championship. It is a great historical resource on all of the TOCs. https://www.bayareasportsstars.com/Counties/TOCHistory.pdf

Doug Harris' documentary is also very good.

Calbach said:

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Was the 1970-71 team the best ever Cal bb team in terms of talent.

Each starter played in the pros. Several at a high level including Chenier and Johnson.

Only an 8-6 conference record. But UCLA and USC were loaded. UCLA started 88 game win streak that year.

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I believe the 1971-1972 UCLA team holds an NCAA Div. 1 record for 20 consecutive wins by a double digit margin.

Gonzaga should break it. The Zags have 18 consecutive double digit wins after beating the Gaels the other night. Their last 3 games are SD, Santa Clara and LMU. The smart money says they run the table for 21 consecutive double digit victories and break a 49 year old record.*

*BTW, I f'ing hate Gonzaga. My family has big Santa Clara and St. Mary's ties so I love those two schools.

Calbach said:

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Was the 1970-71 team the best ever Cal bb team in terms of talent.

Each starter played in the pros. Several at a high level including Chenier and Johnson.

Only an 8-6 conference record. But UCLA and USC were loaded. UCLA started 88 game win streak that year.

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Says something about coaching. I saw a lot of those games and even at 21 I thought they looked disorganized.

It's odd that some sites list Coughran as playing at Piedmont High, while others list him as playing at Piedmont Hills High (in San Jose). He played at Piedmont Hills High. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/coughjo01/gamelog/1980/

Post deleted

taxbear said:

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It's odd that some sites list Coughran as playing at Piedmont High, while others list him as playing at Piedmont Hills High (in San Jose). He played at Piedmont Hills High. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/coughjo01/gamelog/1980/

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Then someone needs to correct John's wiki page Piedmont (Piedmont,California)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coughran

stu said:

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Calbach said:

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Was the 1970-71 team the best ever Cal bb team in terms of talent.

Each starter played in the pros. Several at a high level including Chenier and Johnson.

Only an 8-6 conference record. But UCLA and USC were loaded. UCLA started 88 game win streak that year.

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Says something about coaching. I saw a lot of those games and even at 21 I thought they looked disorganized.

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I remember going to Harmon to watch one of Padgett's practices. They were relaxed, hang loose, and also looked disorganized. That team was living proof that you don't just need talent to be very successful. You also need coaching and direction.

taxbear said:

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It's odd that some sites list Coughran as playing at Piedmont High, while others list him as playing at Piedmont Hills High (in San Jose). He played at Piedmont Hills High. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/coughjo01/gamelog/1980/

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I looked at the link you provided, and couldn't find the reference to Piedmont Hills High. Did I miss it, or do you have another reference that would show where he played in high school? I used Wikipedia as my source, and I have tried searching the web, but all I could confirm was that he was born in Pittsburgh, CA and after basketball, he worked as a teacher for many years at Valley Christian High School in San Jose. Wikipedia is often wrong, and sports-reference.com is sometimes wrong as well. Do you have another reference you can point us to, which shows us what high school he attended, or did you see him play in high school yourself? If I was wrong, I'd like to know so I can correct my statement. Thanks.

I think Cal greats Vern Corbin and Bob McKeen went to Piedmont High.

SFCityBear said:

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taxbear said:

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It's odd that some sites list Coughran as playing at Piedmont High, while others list him as playing at Piedmont Hills High (in San Jose). He played at Piedmont Hills High. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/coughjo01/gamelog/1980/

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I looked at the link you provided, and couldn't find the reference to Piedmont Hills High. Did I miss it, or do you have another reference that would show where he played in high school? I used Wikipedia as my source, and I have tried searching the web, but all I could confirm was that he was born in Pittsburgh, CA and after basketball, he worked as a teacher for many years at Valley Christian High School in San Jose. Wikipedia is often wrong, and sports-reference.com is sometimes wrong as well. Do you have another reference you can point us to, which shows us what high school he attended, or did you see him play in high school yourself? If I was wrong, I'd like to know so I can correct my statement. Thanks.

I think Cal greats Vern Corbin and Bob McKeen went to Piedmont High.

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And Tom Henderson

Alkiadt said:

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SFCityBear said:

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taxbear said:

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It's odd that some sites list Coughran as playing at Piedmont High, while others list him as playing at Piedmont Hills High (in San Jose). He played at Piedmont Hills High. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/coughjo01/gamelog/1980/

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I looked at the link you provided, and couldn't find the reference to Piedmont Hills High. Did I miss it, or do you have another reference that would show where he played in high school? I used Wikipedia as my source, and I have tried searching the web, but all I could confirm was that he was born in Pittsburgh, CA and after basketball, he worked as a teacher for many years at Valley Christian High School in San Jose. Wikipedia is often wrong, and sports-reference.com is sometimes wrong as well. Do you have another reference you can point us to, which shows us what high school he attended, or did you see him play in high school yourself? If I was wrong, I'd like to know so I can correct my statement. Thanks.

I think Cal greats Vern Corbin and Bob McKeen went to Piedmont High.

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And Tom Henderson

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Good memory.

In the link, the high school listing follows the college listing.

There's also this item. https://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2009/04/02/all-mercury-news-basketball-teams-dating-back-to-1960/

P.s. I also saw him play in high school.

Yep. I saw a Wikipedia entry in Spanish, which got it right.

taxbear said:

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In the link, the high school listing follows the college listing.

There's also this item. https://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2009/04/02/all-mercury-news-basketball-teams-dating-back-to-1960/

P.s. I also saw him play in high school.

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I must have looked at the college website, https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/john-coughran-1.html
instead of the link you gave me. On that webpage, his high school was not listed.

Thanks for all the information and the links. I'm glad you posted them. There were lots of good players in the Mercury News article. I'll correct my post.

SFCB

You're welcome, SFCB. That list from the Mercury News was fun to see!

That prescription sounds like Monty, but he wouldn't "court" AAU phenoms. His coaching acumen, and the "fit" players he did land, resulted in a conference championship. Monty's were the best "teams" since Newell's. Miss him.

Am I crazy, or does the original photo look photoshopped?

Chapman_is_Gone said:

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Am I crazy, or does the original photo look photoshopped?

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Quite possibly. You can see light, such as coming from a spotlight, shining on Ansley, but the same light does not appear to shine on the background stands or on the floor. But that is Ansley, and that is Harmon Gym. That much is accurate, I believe.

Padgett was a direct response to Rene Herrerias, who he replaced. Herrerias was a great assistant to Newell, and a good high school coach at SI, but my sense is he was woefully unprepared to deal with athletes, particularly African-American athletes, in the late 60s. Others here have said that basically Padgett was hired because he supposedly could relate better to the players of that era.

Basically, we went from the Newell approach (winning without spending a lot of recruiting effort) to the other extreme, of coaches who could recruit, but couldn't coach up the players once they were here. That was the MO of Padgett, Dick Edwards and Dick Kuchen. We essentially went back in the other direction with Campanelli. We still haven't had a coach, IMHO, who could both recruit well and use the players he recruited effectively.

Quote:

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Basically, we went from the Newell approach (winning without spending a lot of recruiting effort) to the other extreme, of coaches who could recruit, but couldn't coach up the players once they were here. That was the MO of Padgett, Dick Edwards and Dick Kuchen.

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I remember Edwards coaching OK at UOP. At Cal he didn't recruit too well at first but then got JC transfers John Terry one year and Connie White, Jay Young, and Carl Bird (Jabari's dad) the next. Those four plus Rickie Hawthorne (the one good freshie Edwards recruited) had tons of talent but didn't play much defense. Halfway through the season Edwards switched to a 3-2 zone which was vastly more effective and we won most of our remaining games. IMHO the key was Terry in the middle, he was so quick it was virtually a 3-3 zone. The next year Terry was gone and we weren't too good.

I remember stories about the black and white players on those teams not getting long well. One possible consequence was Rock Lee, a seemingly talented 6-10 forward, never reached his potential. Too bad we didn't have Bear Insider then, I never got any inside info. I think Edwards was not able to settle those issues and was happy to go back to coaching at a smaller school.

I don't remember Kuchen either recruiting or coaching very well, though he did get transfer Mark McNamara. The games were sparsely attended and it didn't look like anyone, especially any of the players, was having a good time.

stu said:

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Quote:

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Basically, we went from the Newell approach (winning without spending a lot of recruiting effort) to the other extreme, of coaches who could recruit, but couldn't coach up the players once they were here. That was the MO of Padgett, Dick Edwards and Dick Kuchen.

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I remember Edwards coaching OK at UOP. At Cal he didn't recruit too well at first but then got JC transfers John Terry one year and Connie White, Jay Young, and Carl Bird (Jabari's dad) the next. Those four plus Rickie Hawthorne (the one good freshie Edwards recruited) had tons of talent but didn't play much defense. Halfway through the season Edwards switched to a 3-2 zone which was vastly more effective and we won most of our remaining games. IMHO the key was Terry in the middle, he was so quick it was virtually a 3-3 zone. The next year Terry was gone and we weren't too good.

I remember stories about the black and white players on those teams not getting long well. One possible consequence was Rock Lee, a seemingly talented 6-10 forward, never reached his potential. Too bad we didn't have Bear Insider then, I never got any inside info. I think Edwards was not able to settle those issues and was happy to go back to coaching at a smaller school.

I don't remember Kuchen either recruiting or coaching very well, though he did get transfer Mark McNamara. The games were sparsely attended and it didn't look like anyone, especially any of the players, was having a good time.

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I was at Cal then and remember reading an article, probably a Daily Cal preseason piece, where they asked various basketball players what they had done during the summer and Rock Lee said something about surfing every day and not touching a basketball and I thought, "Crap, he's not going to be much help" and he wasn't. I do recall that when John Terry was out, Rock would play the same position in the zone defense and while certainly not as quick, his reach caused almost as many problems for the opposing team. Terry and Connie White both had serious hops, but not a great shooting touch.