eastcoastcal said:
On a few other threads, there have been a few names that have consistently popped up- Gates, Golden being the most common. I am a freshman at Cal and thus do not know a ton about what has given us past success and what exactly the formula for success is at Cal, however I was wondering if any of the wiser people on the forum could clue me in: How imperative is it that our next coach has a connection to Cal? I understand it is always nice to have a coach who understands the 'ins and outs' of the university, but would an assistant at one of the more powerful basketball programs across the nation not like a chance to be the head coach for a P6 team? This is not necessarily a slight towards the aforementioned candidates, but rather was just wondering how essential it is to people on this forum that our next coach be someone with ties to Cal (of course, if the reason is that we don't believe we could pull a top assistant despite offering a promotion to a HC job in the Pac-12, then that perhaps reveals just how dire the situation is). Would appreciate some perspective! Thanks!
It's great to have current students posting here!
Age-old question about the value of hiring a coach who went to Cal (or at least worked here, like Wilcox). Hiring a Cal guy for football or basketball might help in a few ways:
+ Maybe the Cal guy takes the job as sort of a labor of love, where somebody else might not even want it.
+ The guy knows Cal and obviously has some fondness for it and so maybe that authentic love of Cal comes across to recruits.
+ The guy understands (at least sort of) how things like Cal admissions, the Cal administration and the City of Berkeley impact his program and so, at a minimum, there aren't any surprises. At a maximum, he navigates better.
+ If successful, maybe the Cal guy is less likely to go elsewhere for a "better" offer.
But one possible huge drawback:
- Maybe the above factors are valued too highly, over more important attributes such as, can the guy actually coach.
In both football and basketball, we tend to put Cal guys on our list that wouldn't even get a sniff otherwise. Examples: Troy Taylor in football. Gates before he ever became a HC in basketball. Bottom line, who the hell knows, but we tend to "feel better" if it's a Cal guy.