calumnus said:
KoreAmBear said:
calumnus said:
KoreAmBear said:
HoopDreams said:
4thGenCal said:
parentswerebears said:
We've had some good walk-ons, but isn't it a bit desperate that we hope that they'll contribute? If we had a mid level program, there's really no reason to discuss walk-ons because they are used as cannon fodder for the scholarship players during practice. It's a sad state of affairs here.
PWO's rarely play impact minutes, they help out with having bodies to scrimmage against, game prep for etc but those players main impact is toward team GPA/graduation #'s. However it is worth pointing out that Jack M is respected by the scholarship guys, as a guy who can "hoop some". But its at least a 2 year process to compete for a back up role.
agree. I would be shocked to see either freshmen walk-on play in anything but at end of game blow outs, and even then only a minute or two
but hopefully one can have a role by their junior or senior year. We've had several walkons that have had more than a practice player role (some of them listed about, but there were others too)
When was the last walkon that played a lot? I think we have to go back to Braun right?
Nick Hamilton, CIF Southern Section POY, Cal walk-on with a Gates Millinium Scholarship , started 7 games as a senior under Jones.
Currently on staff at USC helping them with recruiting as their Director of Scouting:
https://usctrojans.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/nick-hamilton/3885
Ah I didn't realize he started 7 games. The thing about Braun's walkon program was that they turned out to be serviceable P12 players with RFK being more than serviceable as a legit starting 2 guard.
I liked him, I am a big advocate for our walk-on program, but Hamilton should not have started. It was one of the ways Jones underperformed given the talent (obvious starting five Paris, Bradley, Sueing, Kelly, Vanover). Similarly, Braun should not have started Famuler.
And I tend to be a .........?
Hamilton was a good defensive player. LA DPOY, I believe. And he started sometimes because Wyking had announced before the season that he was going to run a "40 minutes of hell" like Arkansas, a full court press that would feature a lot of steals in the backcourt to generate instant offense and high scoring games. In order to do this, Wyking often started three guards, and Hamilton got some starts, usually alongside Coleman and McNeil, because Harris-Dyson was sometimes ill or injured, and the other guard on the roster, Deschon Winston couldn't handle the ball against D1 defenders. So the mistake was not starting Hamilton, but rather the entire strategy calling for 3 guards was the wrong idea for that roster. We just did not have the personnel who could succeed at it.
As to Wyking's second year, what seems an obvious starting lineup in hindsight was not so apparent at the outset of the season. Vanover was interesting but soon suffered an injury and defenses were more ready for him. Both were freshmen, and both had a lot to learn about playing in D1. Starting Kelly and Vanover together moves McNeil to the bench, and he was one of Cal's few scorers. Kelly had almost no offense at the beginning of his career, and both were liabilities to some extent on defense. Neither had the ability or stamina as freshmen to go deep into game, and the only real substitute was Anticevich, who was young and undeveloped as well. But Kelly did start 18 games and Vanover 15 games, so they both got plenty of starts for freshmen. They did start 3 games together, San Diego State, Cal Poly, and ASU. In order to do that, Wyking had Bradley come off the bench for the first 2 of those games, and Austin missed the ASU game, due to illness or injury. Cal's only successful run of the season came in the last few games with Vanover starting and Kelly coming off the bench. Kelly's improvement came much more under Fox than under Wyking.
I remember Famulener as a tough fundamentally sound player, with not much offensive skill. I don't remember him starting much and sports-reference.com says he only started 2 games in a 4 year career. Maybe they are wrong on that.
SFCityBear
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