Fire Fox

7,839 Views | 63 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by calumnus
Strykur
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Pardon the pun (or not), who are candidates worth exploring?
Ccajon2
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Mark Madsen. Played on Montys final 4 team. Something that Shaq said about him always stuck: he said " Maddog (Madsen) is one of the purest guys he ever met in the NBA. He never did the NBA/pro in LA Hollywood party scene.

As a coach at S. Utah Madsen only has a 30-40 record but went 9-4 in the WAC last year winning a co championship. He took over a moribund program too. Off of the Monty coaching tree. 1o years in NBA, should be able to relate to the 18 year olds out there, and maybe Cal can start getting some of those 24 year olds playing for them like at BYU. He'll come cheap too.
GoOskie
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The Cal athletics $h1tshow continues...
ducky23
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Sadly the best thing that can happen for cal bball is for them to lose every game this season to force the AD to fire fox, cause we know they are too spineless to fire him during the season.

Unfortunately, I think we have to stick with Wilcox cause I don't know who else is going to tolerate this current S show. Plus he is showing some progress with recruiting. So if you squint really really hard, maybe just maybe you can see Wilcox turning this thing around to respectability.

But there's absolutely no hope for that with bball. Fortunately, unlike football, a basketball program can be turned around much faster with 1 or 2 stellar recruiting classes. Yeah, that's not going to be easy, but quick turnarounds can happen.

Just please god no more middle aged white men. Please. I've said it a million times. The number one thing you should be looking for is someone who can recruit. Ideally someone black, with charisma and played in the league. But really anyone who can connect with the kids and rercruit like crazy will be fine.

We had a chance with kidd earlier. Don't know why we f'ed that up.
BigDaddy
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Coming up with candidates should be easy for a competent AD. A short list would include:

College Head Coaches

Brian Dutcher, San Diego State
Randy Bennett, St. Mary's
Joe Pasternack, UC Santa Barbara
Travis DeCuire, Montana
Shantay Legans, Portland
Dennis Gates, Cleveland State

College Assistants: :

Brian Michaelson, Gonzaga
Michael Lewis, UCLA
David Velasquez, San Diego State

That's 9 guys off the top of my head who would all be an upgrade over Mark Fox.
“My tastes are simple; I am easily satisfied with the best.” - Winston Churchill
HKBear97!
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ducky23 said:

Sadly the best thing that can happen for cal bball is for them to lose every game this season to force the AD to fire fox, cause we know they are too spineless to fire him during the season.

Unfortunately, I think we have to stick with Wilcox cause I don't know who else is going to tolerate this current S show. Plus he is showing some progress with recruiting. So if you squint really really hard, maybe just maybe you can see Wilcox turning this thing around to respectability.

But there's absolutely no hope for that with bball. Fortunately, unlike football, a basketball program can be turned around much faster with 1 or 2 stellar recruiting classes. Yeah, that's not going to be easy, but quick turnarounds can happen.

Just please god no more middle aged white men. Please. I've said it a million times. The number one thing you should be looking for is someone who can recruit. Ideally someone black, with charisma and played in the league. But really anyone who can connect with the kids and rercruit like crazy will be fine.

We had a chance with kidd earlier. Don't know why we f'ed that up.


The problem is this assumes Knowlton can actually hire someone good. Fox was his first head coach hire ever. The process was poor, rushed and resulted in a terrible decision. We have to pray Knowlton either has improved or he gets incredibly lucky.
oskidunker
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BigDaddy said:

Coming up with candidates should be easy for a competent AD. A short list would include:

College Head Coaches

Brian Dutcher, San Diego State
Randy Bennett, St. Mary's
Joe Pasternack, UC Santa Barbara
Travis DeCuire, Montana
Shantay Legans, Portland
Dennis Gates, Cleveland State

College Assistants: :

Brian Michaelson, Gonzaga
Michael Lewis, UCLA
David Velasquez, San Diego State

That's 9 guys off the top of my head who would all be an upgrade over Mark Fox.
Just stop it . It is not interesting.
Go Bears!
FloriDreaming
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As upset as I am with Wilcox, dumping Fox is a much more urgent priority.

Like, now. Firing Fox now would be good. Right now.
bearsandgiants
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We need a "you can't suck" clause in our coaching contracts. It may make it harder to hire, but at least we'll be able to stop eating multimillion dollar deals like they're hot dogs at a Nathan's contest.
KoreAmBear
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Just put Andrew Francis or Marty Wilson as the head coaches. Both have been.
calumnus
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BigDaddy said:

Coming up with candidates should be easy for a competent AD. A short list would include:

College Head Coaches

Brian Dutcher, San Diego State
Randy Bennett, St. Mary's
Joe Pasternack, UC Santa Barbara
Travis DeCuire, Montana
Shantay Legans, Portland
Dennis Gates, Cleveland State

College Assistants: :

Brian Michaelson, Gonzaga
Michael Lewis, UCLA
David Velasquez, San Diego State

That's 9 guys off the top of my head who would all be an upgrade over Mark Fox.


And you are not paid $750,000 a year plus considerable benefits with an 8 year guaranteed contract to produce that list. Amazing!
parentswerebears
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I agree 100% with the title. Insiders can sugarcoat it all they want- as long as Fox is coach, Cal will be #12 of 12.
oskidunker
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Fridayat 5 pm on Stadium app. Cal vs unlv. . On applevtv.
Go Bears!
calumnus
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parentswerebears said:

I agree 100% with the title. Insiders can sugarcoat it all they want- as long as Fox is coach, Cal will be #12 of 12.


And the distance between Cal and #11 is growing.

I was glad to see Jones gone, but the situation he left Fox was far better than the situation Fox will leave to the next guy.
oskidunker
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calumnus said:

parentswerebears said:

I agree 100% with the title. Insiders can sugarcoat it all they want- as long as Fox is coach, Cal will be #12 of 12.


And the distance between Cal and #11 is growing.

I was glad to see Jones gone, but the situation he left Fox was far better than the situation Fox will leave to the next guy.
This is what is puzzling. I guess the players or some of them likedJones. The question would be could he have continued to recruit given his horrible record
Go Bears!
socaltownie
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oskidunker said:

calumnus said:

parentswerebears said:

I agree 100% with the title. Insiders can sugarcoat it all they want- as long as Fox is coach, Cal will be #12 of 12.


And the distance between Cal and #11 is growing.

I was glad to see Jones gone, but the situation he left Fox was far better than the situation Fox will leave to the next guy.
This is what is puzzling. I guess the players or some of them likedJones. The question would be could he have continued to recruit given his horrible record
The problem is that Fox is a relic. I am SURE there is a big bunch of Bob Knight in him. I am SURE that is why he interviewed well with Knowlton and why the search firm promoted him.

And that might even work in a non P5 like Nevada. Get a bunch of kids that got passed over by P5 conference teams that have a chip on their shoulder who will respond and eat up the whole "practice your ass off and let me yell at you" routine.

But P5 recruits that are of the level that help you WIN have optioins. They have LOTS of options. They can go to SDSU and play in front of a crowd larger than Bradley EVER saw at Haas and win with lots of talent around him. They can transfer to Zaga....or another P5. And so Foxes routine sucks. He can't get fired soon enough.
parentswerebears
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Can't say that last sentence enough.
Oakbear
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parentswerebears said:

Can't say that last sentence enough.
He can't get fired soon enough.
He can't get fired soon enough.
He can't get fired soon enough.
He can't get fired soon enough.
He can't get fired soon enough. etc, etc

get him out, either use one of the assts as interim head coach or use them both as co coaches, it just can't get any worse
socaltownie
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parentswerebears said:

Can't say that last sentence enough.
And remember - I was on "team hope". But then last year we didn't see individual improvement and we REALLY didn't see it yesterday.

SUPPOSEDLY what makes up for his horrible recruiting and inability to hold onto his best players in a world of the portal is his skill in coaching/teaching. But we didn't see that. The lack of progress by Lars, Brown and KK suggests he isn't very good and helping them work on the key individual parts of their games at which they need to improve.
pierrezo
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Sorry if this has been discussed repeatedly, but what is Fox's buyout?
Strykur
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pierrezo said:

Sorry if this has been discussed repeatedly, but what is Fox's buyout?
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2019/7/23/20706539/california-golden-bears-basketball-mark-fox-pac-12
Quote:

Length

Fox's contract begins April 1st, 2019 and ends on March 31, 2024. April 1st marks the start of a new contract year from 2020 onward.
Quote:

Termination of Contract and Buy-Out

If Fox decides to leave for another job or quit, then he (or the next employer) is responsible to buy out his contract by paying Cal; this begins at $3 million after year 1, becomes $2 million after year 2, $1 million after year 3, and $500,000 after year 4. If he were to be fired without cause, he would receive 100% of his salary the contract year he was fired and the year after. If more than two years remain on the contract, the percentage shrinks to 75%, then 50%, and then 25% for each subsequent year.
In other words: peanuts.
polarbear
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This coaching carousel is like putting different color lipstick on the same pig. There needs to be fundamental improvements to the entire athletics department.
Polodad
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Shantay.
calumnus
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polarbear said:

This coaching carousel is like putting different color lipstick on the same pig. There needs to be fundamental improvements to the entire athletics department.


We are at an inflection point in the history of college athletics and Cal sports in particular. There are opportunities and challenges ahead. The fact the Raiders and Warriors left Oakland and the Niners moved to the South Bay leaves a void for Cal to step into to attract East Bay sports fans. NIL, superconferences, TV contracts, streaming, the UA contract, COVID, and on and on, all need to be navigated. Cal alums are sitting on a huge pot of wealth with the run up in the stock market and California real estate, but there are other issues that need solving too. It really could go either way. Feast or famine.

Unfortunately we have Knowlton leading us for the next 8 years.
pierrezo
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Thanks.
pierrezo
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BTW, where is Theo Robertson?
Tweet from Big C Society in February of this year.
I read he left the Warriors in June.
71Bear
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calumnus said:

polarbear said:

This coaching carousel is like putting different color lipstick on the same pig. There needs to be fundamental improvements to the entire athletics department.


We are at an inflection point in the history of college athletics and Cal sports in particular. There are opportunities and challenges ahead. The fact the Raiders and Warriors left Oakland and the Niners moved to the South Bay leaves a void for Cal to step into to attract East Bay sports fans. NIL, superconferences, TV contracts, streaming, the UA contract, COVID, and on and on, all need to be navigated. Cal alums are sitting on a huge pot of wealth with the run up in the stock market and California real estate, but there are other issues that need solving too. It really could go either way. Feast or famine.

Unfortunately we have Knowlton leading us for the next 8 years.
Using the words "leading" and "Knowlton" in the same sentence is a rather brave undertaking given how poorly Knowlton has performed to date. His leadership skills are non-existent.
calumnus
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pierrezo said:

BTW, where is Theo Robertson?
Tweet from Big C Society in February of this year.
I read he left the Warriors in June.



Welcome back Theo!
calumnus
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Strykur said:

pierrezo said:

Sorry if this has been discussed repeatedly, but what is Fox's buyout?
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2019/7/23/20706539/california-golden-bears-basketball-mark-fox-pac-12
Quote:

Length

Fox's contract begins April 1st, 2019 and ends on March 31, 2024. April 1st marks the start of a new contract year from 2020 onward.
Quote:

Termination of Contract and Buy-Out

If Fox decides to leave for another job or quit, then he (or the next employer) is responsible to buy out his contract by paying Cal; this begins at $3 million after year 1, becomes $2 million after year 2, $1 million after year 3, and $500,000 after year 4. If he were to be fired without cause, he would receive 100% of his salary the contract year he was fired and the year after. If more than two years remain on the contract, the percentage shrinks to 75%, then 50%, and then 25% for each subsequent year.
In other words: peanuts.


It looks like he makes $1,650,000 this year, $1,725,000 next year and $1,800,000 the following year. If we fire him at the end of the season he gets all the money remaining , or $3,525,000. Fire him now and I'm guessing he gets about $4,000,000. Nice non-work if you can get it. Obviously getting extended is the object, but getting fired is good money too.

Appropriate that his contract renews on April Fools Day.
helltopay1
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Firing Fox is a distinction without a difference. You must fire the culture at Cal in order to be competitive. What are the odds?????
calumnus
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helltopay1 said:

Firing Fox is a distinction without a difference. You must fire the culture at Cal in order to be competitive. What are the odds?????


With the same "culture," just 5 years ago we went undefeated at home, were a 4 seed and finished in the Top 20. Saying it isn't possible, when it has been already done, is not a valid excuse to do nothing.
helltopay1
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The exception usually proves the rule...
stu
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I think this is the wrong time to fire a coach. IMHO we should never have hired Fox. However I was OK with his first season. We could have fired him after last season but with COVID-19 it would look like we didn't give him a chance. Firing him now in the middle of a season would be much worse, no sensible coach would want to come into a situation like that. So I'm not going to think about it much until this season is finished. I already have a pretty good idea of what to expect in recruiting and when the season is done I'll probably have a much firmer idea of his coaching.
Big C
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Yeah, not sure why we would fire a coach in mid-season, except in the case of a major transgression.
calumnus
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stu said:

I think this is the wrong time to fire a coach. IMHO we should never have hired Fox. However I was OK with his first season. We could have fired him after last season but with COVID-19 it would look like we didn't give him a chance. Firing him now in the middle of a season would be much worse, no sensible coach would want to come into a situation like that. So I'm not going to think about it much until this season is finished. I already have a pretty good idea of what to expect in recruiting and when the season is done I'll probably have a much firmer idea of his coaching.


Agreed. The two man recruiting class for 2022 is signed. There is no reason to fire midseason. Fox will play out the season.

I hope Knowlton has learned from his handling of Wyking Jones' last year and is better prepared to make a change this time.
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