HoopDreams said:
I rarely comment about a current coach, as regardless of what I think of them, I want the team to succeed and I don't think it's helpful to put an opinion up on a public board where players, recruits, families and others read
But WYking is no longer the coach
I felt WK was like an AAU coach… sell a run and gun, 40 minutes of hell style to recruits
And then try to implement it despite having the wrong players, and little depth. He even put the ball in Coleman's hands as his go to player
(I actually thought Coleman was entertaining as he never saw a shot he didn't like and would attack the basket like few I've seen. There were a few baskets that just left me in awe, but he wasn't the player to put as the focus of your offense)
He also had a senior Lee but could not coach him and wasted his talent. Better coach have played him and King as shot blockers and extended their perimeter defense instead of trying to constantly trap (unsuccessfully)
Those strategies might work in AAU 15 but not against D1 coached teams
The result was embarrassing blow outs to poor mid-major teams
Yes, WJ and SD both pushed tempo their first year despite major deficiencies and that only worsened our chances increasing losses and margins of loss. WJ being from Pepperdine tried force our square pegs into that round hole. Maybe, like Dykes, as part of a longer term strategy to play that way.
Despite scaring off most of what talent we had Fox made a marginal improvement by slowing the game down to a crawl and getting the ball into our best player's hands at the end of nearly every possession.
I believe the ability to adjust strategy and tactics to fit your roster is a key quality in a coach in the college game where your roster is constantly changing and you do not have full control of who ends up accepting your scholarship offers.
The problem with Fox's strategy was not that it was triage, the problem is that is his preferred style over the last 11 years.
I wanted DeCuire instead of Jones, but I thought Wyking Jones could end up being good as the HC with good assistants. Basketball is not football. It is not so far to move down the bench to become HC. He is from LA and has appeared in multiple movies. I thought he would at least recruit well and be a good motivator. I liked the old LMU teams. It could have made Cal basketball fun. His first year was a disaster as discussed. However, where he lost me was all the player defections, throwing the team under the bus "lack of effort" (Fox does this too) and then, worst of all, pushing players Winston and McCullough off the team for simply not being very good and you want to offer their scholarship to someone else. That is unforgivable in my book. They are already Cal students, making friends, getting started on their degree. They can join the ranks of the many 4 year scholarship benchwarmers, or THEY can choose to transfer if they want, but once a player becomes a Bear, THEY are the ones I root for. Not the coach.
I wanted Jones gone and at least some of the players did too. Good riddance. I didn't "hate" him, far from it. But I did view his getting fired as karma. However, note that Knowlton was set to keep him if it were not for the outcry when that was announced. That is why our displeasure as fans needs to be known. Without it, Knowlton thinks everything is fine. He sat through similar seasons with Air Force basketball and never made a change.
Fox was just one of those coaches that you watch over the years and think "I am glad that guy is not our coach" and "I guess they let you get away with that in the SEC." just disagreeable in interviews. When Georgia finally fired him, you wonder "Why did that take so long?" "How do these guys stay employed making $millions when there are high school coaches that are better basketball minds, teachers and leaders?" Then we hired him and gave him an $8 million contract, despite his reputation as a poor recruiter in Georgia and never having recruited a player from California, and more.
However I don't hate Fox, though it is true I don't like him. I just don't think he is the right coach, he is running the program into the ground and every year we keep him will take 3 to recover from..
I blame Knowlton, but he is just another guy who has a contract from Cal for $millions, was not qualified, was/is a horrible fit and is driving my beloved Cal athletics programs into the ground through incompetence.
