Knowlton's Notes

22,905 Views | 161 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by calumnus
stu
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Another issue. Must have been a tough call whether or not to mention men's basketball.

"On the men's basketball front, we haven't met expectations so far this year and nobody is more frustrated than Coach Fox and I. Our student-athletes continue to battle and work hard every single day."
calumnus
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stu said:

Another issue. Must have been a tough call whether or not to mention men's basketball.

"On the men's basketball front, we haven't met expectations so far this year and nobody is more frustrated than Coach Fox and I. Our student-athletes continue to battle and work hard every single day."



Um yeah. Not to make too much of it but "Coach Fox and I" is probably a tell.

Frustrated: feeling or expressing distress and annoyance, especially because of inability to change or achieve something.

Again with the players "battling" and "working hard" as the solution.

My impression is Fox has Knowlton's ear and Knowlton still "feels comfortable" with him, in fact Knowlton probably considers Fox to be a friend at this point.

I would say we are unlikely to see a mid season firing unless things get really ugly, because they are already ugly and about to get worse.
stu
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From the latest, after addressing the McKeever situation:

Looking to the future, I acknowledge that there have been evolving standards in intercollegiate athletics when it comes to how we develop our student-athletes to be their best, on and off the fields of competition. While we have strong, existing policies that cover a wide range of unacceptable conduct, I believe areas remain where there is a lack of consensus and clarity, areas where practices acceptable in the past need to be updated. I will lead a collaborative effort across the Cal Athletics community to develop updated guidelines that will allow coaches to mentor and challenge student-athletes in an environment that enables our young women and men to thrive.

Seems to me that could apply to MBB.
Ursine
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stu said:

Another issue. Must have been a tough call whether or not to mention men's basketball.

"On the men's basketball front, we haven't met expectations so far this year and nobody is more frustrated than Coach Fox and I. Our student-athletes continue to battle and work hard every single day."
That's some nice pablum.
sandiegobears
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My favorite part is about Wilcox "continues to build the foundation." After 6 seasons, we are still working on the foundation? Great. So I guess that also means Fox is still clearing and grading the site, or he is just surveying the landscape?
calumnus
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sandiegobears said:

My favorite part is about Wilcox "continues to build the foundation." After 6 seasons, we are still working on the foundation? Great. So I guess that also means Fox is still clearing and grading the site, or he is just surveying the landscape?


Fox is digging a fox hole to defend his bank account and Knowlton is In it with him.
Econ141
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stu said:

From the latest, after addressing the McKeever situation:

Looking to the future, I acknowledge that there have been evolving standards in intercollegiate athletics when it comes to how we develop our student-athletes to be their best, on and off the fields of competition. While we have strong, existing policies that cover a wide range of unacceptable conduct, I believe areas remain where there is a lack of consensus and clarity, areas where practices acceptable in the past need to be updated. I will lead a collaborative effort across the Cal Athletics community to develop updated guidelines that will allow coaches to mentor and challenge student-athletes in an environment that enables our young women and men to thrive.

Seems to me that could apply to MBB.


Let me guess, this collaborative effort will take 6 months (i.e. 2+ years)?

There is nothing more that Knowlton could do for our student-athletes than stepping down as the AD.

If his goal is to run our revenue programs to the ground he is doing so brilliantly.
stu
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Headline:
UC Berkeley is taking additional steps beyond Teri McKeever firing
University is implementing steps 'outside of the scope of the investigation' of McKeever


Probably behind a paywall:
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/03/02/uc-berkeley-is-taking-additional-steps-beyond-teri-mckeever-firing/

The questions are what to do about Knowlton and Simon-O'Neall. No answers yet.
oskidunker
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stu said:

Headline:
UC Berkeley is taking additional steps beyond Teri McKeever firing
University is implementing steps 'outside of the scope of the investigation' of McKeever


Probably behind a paywall:
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/03/02/uc-berkeley-is-taking-additional-steps-beyond-teri-mckeever-firing/

The questions are what to do about Knowlton and Simon-O'Neall. No answers yet.
Uh-oh. The ultimate fucla is Knowlton is fired before he can fire Fox.
Go Bears!
heartofthebear
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Big C said:

fat_slice said:

Dgoldnbaer said:

That's why he was hired - to say what he does, behave as he does. Can't stand the idiot. Perhaps it's time we go after the person who hired him!!!


Been saying that for a while. We need the anti-Christ. Our swimming program has always been great - he gets no credit for that. He's tanking our revenue programs so our swimming program will drown along with them in due time...Christ being supportive of football is the biggest scam in Cal athletics history ..bigger than Bozeman's bucks!

If you compare Chancellor Christ with her predecessors going back 50 years or so, she is probably the most athletics-friendly, athletics-advocating Chancellor we have had... and I doubt it's close. Granted, she needs some help hiring ADs (forget if she hired the previous guy). Not to say she is great, but look at the other guys, who bordered on downright hostile to football and basketball (although Albert Bowker did attend most every home basketball game).
Would any of those other chancellors have given Knowlton a major contract extension like Christ did? There are ostriches that have clearer vision than she does. I'm skeptical of your claims, but, if you are right, folks need to entirely abandon supporting the revenue sports until there are changes at the top. It's the nuclear option, preserved as a last resort, when change won't occur any other way. If there is widespread apothy and boycotting of these programs it might actually shake some things up, especially if it is done with purpose and is newsworthy. If even that doesn't work then we are already done for.
annarborbear
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Jim: " I am making progress in killing off our revenue-making sports, but it will take a while longer."

Carol; "Nice work, Jim. How much longer?"

Jim: "Probably about nine years."

Carol: " Contract extension granted."


calumnus
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heartofthebear said:

Big C said:

fat_slice said:

Dgoldnbaer said:

That's why he was hired - to say what he does, behave as he does. Can't stand the idiot. Perhaps it's time we go after the person who hired him!!!


Been saying that for a while. We need the anti-Christ. Our swimming program has always been great - he gets no credit for that. He's tanking our revenue programs so our swimming program will drown along with them in due time...Christ being supportive of football is the biggest scam in Cal athletics history ..bigger than Bozeman's bucks!

If you compare Chancellor Christ with her predecessors going back 50 years or so, she is probably the most athletics-friendly, athletics-advocating Chancellor we have had... and I doubt it's close. Granted, she needs some help hiring ADs (forget if she hired the previous guy). Not to say she is great, but look at the other guys, who bordered on downright hostile to football and basketball (although Albert Bowker did attend most every home basketball game).
Would any of those other chancellors have given Knowlton a major contract extension like Christ did? There are ostriches that have clearer vision than she does. I'm skeptical of your claims, but, if you are right, folks need to entirely abandon supporting the revenue sports until there are changes at the top. It's the nuclear option, preserved as a last resort, when change won't occur any other way. If there is widespread apothy and boycotting of these programs it might actually shake some things up, especially if it is done with purpose and is newsworthy. If even that doesn't work then we are already done for.


Yeah, so she really wants to support athletics, but is just grossly incompetent and actually though Knowlton was qualified, would fit Berkely and would do a good job, then thought he was doing a good job, believed Northwestern would hire him and he couldn't be replaced do Dave him an 8 year extension?
BeachedBear
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Seems like Christ's words are sports positive (except when she says winning isn't important), but in a political manner. Her actions however seem to be otherwise. Some claim that her actions of shifting stadium debt were pro football. However, methinks that was done primarily to silence the supporters who were using the argument that we HAVE to have a revenue generating football team to pay the debt. That argument is not as relevant anymore.
heartofthebear
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BeachedBear said:

Seems like Christ's words are sports positive (except when she says winning isn't important), but in a political manner. Her actions however seem to be otherwise. Some claim that her actions of shifting stadium debt were pro football. However, methinks that was done primarily to silence the supporters who were using the argument that we HAVE to have a revenue generating football team to pay the debt. That argument is not as relevant anymore.
Don't we still NEED the revenue sports to...well...generate revenue? And doesn't it behoove her to maximize that? And isn't it common knowledge, even amongst the village idiots, that winning is directly related to revenue?
I mean, I can't believe we are having this discussion in 2023 with the chancellor of a division 1 university?

And, if she thought that she could not replace Knowlton, she might be right because she doesn't seem capable of much in the area of athletics. I will be cracking a bottle of champaign when she is gone and I don't drink. But I'm also not holding my breath.

For these very reasons, I'm sure everyone involved in hiring and/or retaining Christ just loves her. What a sh*tstorm Cal is right now.
Econ141
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heartofthebear said:

BeachedBear said:

Seems like Christ's words are sports positive (except when she says winning isn't important), but in a political manner. Her actions however seem to be otherwise. Some claim that her actions of shifting stadium debt were pro football. However, methinks that was done primarily to silence the supporters who were using the argument that we HAVE to have a revenue generating football team to pay the debt. That argument is not as relevant anymore.
Don't we still NEED the revenue sports to...well...generate revenue? And doesn't it behoove her to maximize that? And isn't it common knowledge, even amongst the village idiots, that winning is directly related to revenue?
I mean, I can't believe we are having this discussion in 2023 with the chancellor of a division 1 university?

And, if she thought that she could not replace Knowlton, she might be right because she doesn't seem capable of much in the area of athletics. I will be cracking a bottle of champaign when she is gone and I don't drink. But I'm also not holding my breath.

For these very reasons, I'm sure everyone involved in hiring and/or retaining Christ just loves her. What a sh*tstorm Cal is right now.


Exactly right. She is not getting enough heat and blame. We should be destroyiing UCLA in the academic rankings and at least be competitive in athletics. She is losing on both fronts.
Golden One
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Econ141 said:

heartofthebear said:

BeachedBear said:

Seems like Christ's words are sports positive (except when she says winning isn't important), but in a political manner. Her actions however seem to be otherwise. Some claim that her actions of shifting stadium debt were pro football. However, methinks that was done primarily to silence the supporters who were using the argument that we HAVE to have a revenue generating football team to pay the debt. That argument is not as relevant anymore.
Don't we still NEED the revenue sports to...well...generate revenue? And doesn't it behoove her to maximize that? And isn't it common knowledge, even amongst the village idiots, that winning is directly related to revenue?
I mean, I can't believe we are having this discussion in 2023 with the chancellor of a division 1 university?

And, if she thought that she could not replace Knowlton, she might be right because she doesn't seem capable of much in the area of athletics. I will be cracking a bottle of champaign when she is gone and I don't drink. But I'm also not holding my breath.

For these very reasons, I'm sure everyone involved in hiring and/or retaining Christ just loves her. What a sh*tstorm Cal is right now.


Exactly right. She is not getting enough heat and blame. We should be destroyiing UCLA in the academic rankings and at least be competitive in athletics. She is losing on both fronts.


Christ has been a disaster as Chancellor. We haven't had a good Chancellor in over 60 years. We need someone who is a real leader. These pure academics just haven't displayed any leadership qualities.
calumnus
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heartofthebear said:

BeachedBear said:

Seems like Christ's words are sports positive (except when she says winning isn't important), but in a political manner. Her actions however seem to be otherwise. Some claim that her actions of shifting stadium debt were pro football. However, methinks that was done primarily to silence the supporters who were using the argument that we HAVE to have a revenue generating football team to pay the debt. That argument is not as relevant anymore.
Don't we still NEED the revenue sports to...well...generate revenue? And doesn't it behoove her to maximize that? And isn't it common knowledge, even amongst the village idiots, that winning is directly related to revenue?
I mean, I can't believe we are having this discussion in 2023 with the chancellor of a division 1 university?

And, if she thought that she could not replace Knowlton, she might be right because she doesn't seem capable of much in the area of athletics. I will be cracking a bottle of champaign when she is gone and I don't drink. But I'm also not holding my breath.

For these very reasons, I'm sure everyone involved in hiring and/or retaining Christ just loves her. What a sh*tstorm Cal is right now.


As I have been saying for years, we will be lucky to have an athletics department when Christ and Knowlton move on. They came at the worst possible time for Cal in the history of college athletics.
sonofabear51
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ucLA hired Cronin on April 9, 2019. Cal hired Fox on March 29, 2019. That's one hell of a search firm result!
Start Slowly and taper off
Alkiadt
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sonofabear51 said:

ucLA hired Cronin on April 9, 2019. Cal hired Fox on March 29, 2019. That's one hell of a search firm result!


Cronin would have NEVER taken the Cal job.
It's a dead end job. Cal's administration doesn't support the basketball program compared to other P5 schools, and coaches know that. A retread like Fox was more than willing to suffer through 4 miserable years to pad his retirement at $1.9M/year. That's how bad things are.
sluggo
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Alkiadt said:

sonofabear51 said:

ucLA hired Cronin on April 9, 2019. Cal hired Fox on March 29, 2019. That's one hell of a search firm result!


Cronin would have NEVER taken the Cal job.
It's a dead end job. Cal's administration doesn't support the basketball program compared to other P5 schools, and coaches know that. A retread like Fox was more than willing to suffer through 4 miserable years to pad his retirement at $1.9M/year. That's how bad things are.
I don't understand what you are saying. Cronin would never take the Cal job because he was hot enough to take the UCLA job, which is a much better job. Fox would happily take the Cal job because he was not hot enough to get anything better. In fact I doubt if he could have gotten anything close to being comparable. The Cal job is a great job for someone without better options, which is most coaches at the college level or below. There were many alternatives to Fox, but Cal athletics is run by people who are so stupid that the conspiracy theory circulates that Cal is not trying to win.
Strykur
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sluggo said:

Alkiadt said:

sonofabear51 said:

ucLA hired Cronin on April 9, 2019. Cal hired Fox on March 29, 2019. That's one hell of a search firm result!


Cronin would have NEVER taken the Cal job.
It's a dead end job. Cal's administration doesn't support the basketball program compared to other P5 schools, and coaches know that. A retread like Fox was more than willing to suffer through 4 miserable years to pad his retirement at $1.9M/year. That's how bad things are.
I don't understand what you are saying. Cronin would never take the Cal job because he was hot enough to take the UCLA job, which is a much better job. Fox would happily take the Cal job because he was not hot enough to get anything better. In fact I doubt if he could have gotten anything close to being comparable. The Cal job is a great job for someone without better options, which is most coaches at the college level or below. There were many alternatives to Fox, but Cal athletics is run by people who are so stupid that the conspiracy theory circulates that Cal is not trying to win.
Cronin left his alma mater (and a pretty good program), he was only ever going to leave if it meant a destination job.
calumnus
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Strykur said:

sluggo said:

Alkiadt said:

sonofabear51 said:

ucLA hired Cronin on April 9, 2019. Cal hired Fox on March 29, 2019. That's one hell of a search firm result!


Cronin would have NEVER taken the Cal job.
It's a dead end job. Cal's administration doesn't support the basketball program compared to other P5 schools, and coaches know that. A retread like Fox was more than willing to suffer through 4 miserable years to pad his retirement at $1.9M/year. That's how bad things are.
I don't understand what you are saying. Cronin would never take the Cal job because he was hot enough to take the UCLA job, which is a much better job. Fox would happily take the Cal job because he was not hot enough to get anything better. In fact I doubt if he could have gotten anything close to being comparable. The Cal job is a great job for someone without better options, which is most coaches at the college level or below. There were many alternatives to Fox, but Cal athletics is run by people who are so stupid that the conspiracy theory circulates that Cal is not trying to win.
Cronin left his alma mater (and a pretty good program), he was only ever going to leave if it meant a destination job.


Agreed, more reasonable "should haves" are Kyle Smith, DeCuire, Pasternak but especially, unforgivably, Dennis Gates.
 
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