Article "What Makes Justice Sueing Ohio State's Best Player?"

2,233 Views | 20 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by 4thGenCal
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2022/11/01/what-makes-justice-sueing-ohio-state-basketball-best-player/69605967007/
MoragaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Staff
calumnus said:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2022/11/01/what-makes-justice-sueing-ohio-state-basketball-best-player/69605967007/
The answer isn't based on anything he's done at OSU, where he's been injured a lot of the time and scoring and rebounding less there when he's played than he did at Cal.
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
MoragaBear said:

calumnus said:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2022/11/01/what-makes-justice-sueing-ohio-state-basketball-best-player/69605967007/
The answer isn't based on anything he's done at OSU, where he's been injured a lot of the time and scoring and rebounding less there when he's played than he did at Cal.


Yeah, he was our best player as a sophomore leading the team in scoring and rebounding.

He was out last year with injury.

20-21 he was the glue guy and team (and school) leader, an elite defender, started every game and played 4 different positions as needed as they lost players to injury. Shot .361 from 3. Scored when they needed scoring.

He is healthy and widely acknowledged as their best player.

Great young man, All-Academic every year, the ideal Cal student athlete. Wish he was still here but wish him the best, especially a healthy season.

MoragaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Staff
Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
CalLifer
How long do you want to ignore this user?
MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.
HearstMining
How long do you want to ignore this user?
MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Agreed, but he'd sure as heck be Cal's best player this season.
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.


It is what the Ohio and B1G press is saying.
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
CalLifer
How long do you want to ignore this user?
calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He just did not like Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Geez, I didn't know all of that about Sueing. It just makes the decision to go with Fox that much worse. I don't know why I keep coming back here to learn more about all of the repercussions of the bad decisions Knowlton has made, but I do, and it seems like every day I learn something that makes it worse.
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
CalLifer said:

calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He just did not like Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Geez, I didn't know all of that about Sueing. It just makes the decision to go with Fox that much worse. I don't know why I keep coming back here to learn more about all of the repercussions of the bad decisions Knowlton has made, but I do, and it seems like every day I learn something that makes it worse.


Screamers, authoritarian disciplinarians are a bad fit for the West Coast (or someone from Hawaii) and today's generation, but especially for Berkeley and smart Cal students. It just goes against our comparative advantages ability to get great players from the Bay Area and LA plus guys like Jaylen and Shareef out of Atlanta.

Fox has no doubt found and recruited players, mostly from outside of the country, with relatively less basketball background, who never would have played at this level, who will accept it, even gladly, in return for a great education and a chance to play in the PAC-12. However, it will leave Cal FAR below our potential, losing ALOT of games.
MoragaBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Staff
calumnus said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.


It is what the Ohio and B1G press is saying.
Yeah, I got that. Just a bit surprised.

Regardless, wish he was here.
uplandbear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
As someone who knows Justice personally and who worked for the team during this time period , you could not be more off here when it comes to why Justice left. You clearly are just guessing or not getting your info from a quality source. Justice had his locker cleared before Fox was even hired. Him and Fox had one meeting, one. He was gone no matter what. Ohio State, Arkansas, and Florida all reached out the moment Wyking was fired.

If you hate Fox I get it, but to completely make something up to support your disdain for him is ridiculous. Fox wanted Sueing on his team, BADLY.
uplandbear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Big C
How long do you want to ignore this user?
uplandbear said:

This is not what happened with Justice Sueing. I'm disappointed with how much misinformation there is on the basketball boards here.

Please continue to counter any misinformation with what you believe to be more accurate.
CalLifer
How long do you want to ignore this user?
uplandbear said:

This is not what happened with Justice Sueing. I'm disappointed with how much misinformation there is on the basketball boards here.
I'll defer to your inside knowledge. That being said, if we assume that Justice might have stayed on if, say, Coach K were the new coach, I think one point that I might make is that a much better hire might have done a much better job of convincing (or at least making a case) for why Justice should stay.

Maybe even coach K or Jay Wright or any hall of fame coach wouldn't have been enough to get him to stay. You would certainly know better than I. But a better coach might have had some shot at making a case about the future of Cal basketball. Fox certainly had no shot at all.
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
uplandbear said:

As someone who knows Justice personally and who worked for the team during this time period , you could not be more off here when it comes to why Justice left. You clearly are just guessing or not getting your info from a quality source. Justice had his locker cleared before Fox was even hired. Him and Fox had one meeting, one. He was gone no matter what. Ohio State, Arkansas, and Florida all reached out the moment Wyking was fired.

If you hate Fox I get it, but to completely make something up to support your disdain for him is ridiculous. Fox wanted Sueing on his team, BADLY.


I only knew Justice when he was a kid going to UH football games with his dad and other African American UH football and basketball alums in the June Jones days. Heard what I wrote (that he didn't like Fox) indirectly from a relative whose best friend is part of that group. It was confirmed by Sueing's April 5 Tweet that he was leaving Cal "after discussions with his family (dad)."

https://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/boys-basketball/hawaii-grown-ex-maryknoll-basketball-star-justice-sueing-jr-transfers-from-cal-to-ohio-state/

Mark Fox was hiring was announced March 28, so Justice's tweet that he was leaving was 8 days after Fox was announced and well after Fox's meeting with the team that was videoed where you could plainly see Justice was visibly rolling his eyes during Fox's speech.

But if you say it is untrue I will delete it,
SFCityBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He was just completely turned off by Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Can you prove anything you are now saying about Mark Fox? Where is your evidence he is "authoritarian"? I think you confuse being authoritarian with love. A coach's deep affection for his players, wanting sincerely to teach them to be the best they can be, to teach them to bond and be successful together as a team. Where is your evidence that he is egocentric? He seems shy to a fault, to me. And finally, where is your evidence that Sueing transferred because Fox was "authoritarian, egocentric" and ever said "I am going to make you work harder than..." or has such an approach?

And by the way, how to you know that Mark Fox has not bought into "social justice", "progressivism", and "activism"? In this day and age, do you think that UC Berkeley would hire a coach for their sports who was not aware, tolerant, and even in favor of these ideas?
SFCityBear
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
SFCityBear said:

calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He was just completely turned off by Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Can you prove anything you are now saying about Mark Fox? Where is your evidence he is "authoritarian"? I think you confuse being authoritarian with love. A coach's deep affection for his players, wanting sincerely to teach them to be the best they can be, to teach them to bond and be successful together as a team. Where is your evidence that he is egocentric? He seems shy to a fault, to me. And finally, where is your evidence that Sueing transferred because Fox was "authoritarian, egocentric" and ever said "I am going to make you work harder than..." or has such an approach?

And by the way, how to you know that Mark Fox has not bought into "social justice", "progressivism", and "activism"? In this day and age, do you think that UC Berkeley would hire a coach for their sports who was not aware, tolerant, and even in favor of these ideas?


I cannot prove anything, the evidence was from what I know about Justice and his dad, the video, Justice's tweet about leaving Cal 8 days after Fox was announced, and what I heard from someone in Hawaii who knows his father. A poster said he was with Justice at the time and Justice told him otherwise, so I deleted it, since my evidence was second hand from his dad, not Justice.

"I will make you work hard…" is the attitude in a nut shell. "I pushed them to the point they were uncomfortable." "I" is the ego. It is the coach as the taskmaster. It is what he talks about constantly.

Cal under Knowlton extended with a huge raise Teri McKeever despite multiple reports from swimmers of her using racial epithets and targeting girls for bullying based on race. So that is the opposite of progressive.

Knowlton dismissed the abuse allegations from swimmers and their parents as McKeever just being "a tough coach" and tgst one day they will appreciate her. So it is not difficult to see thst Knowlton embraces an "old school" coaching model much like the Army where he spent most of his life. It is the opposite of the model promoted by the Positive Coaching Alliance. Attending school at Cal is generally the opposite of joining the Army. Smart kids that are attracted to Cal as a school and place do not want to be told what to do, they don't want to be yelled at. They want to understand and learn and to be able to speak their mind, challenge assumptions, give their input. Players want to win, they want to improve, they need a coach that can show them how, sees their potential and can inspire them yo achieve it.

Knowlton himself said he picked Fox over DeCuire because he "felt more comfortable" with him. Given the context that sounds like a classic "affinity hire" and Knowlton is so unaware of it that he told it to a reporter. Thus I have ZERO reason to believe willingness to "promote Cal's longstanding commitment to social activism" was a factor Knowlton sought in hiring Fox.

However, Martin picked up on it and talked about it in the press and it was one of the things that drew Jaylen Brown to Cal. It is one of the advantages Cal actually has as long as you see it as an advantage and can promote it.
SFCityBear
How long do you want to ignore this user?
calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He just did not like Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Geez, I didn't know all of that about Sueing. It just makes the decision to go with Fox that much worse. I don't know why I keep coming back here to learn more about all of the repercussions of the bad decisions Knowlton has made, but I do, and it seems like every day I learn something that makes it worse.


Screamers, authoritarian disciplinarians are a bad fit for the West Coast (or someone from Hawaii) and today's generation, but especially for Berkeley and smart Cal students. It just goes against our comparative advantages ability to get great players from the Bay Area and LA plus guys like Jaylen and Shareef out of Atlanta.

Fox has no doubt found and recruited players, mostly from outside of the country, with relatively less basketball background, who never would have played at this level, who will accept it, even gladly, in return for a great education and a chance to play in the PAC-12. However, it will leave Cal FAR below our potential, losing ALOT of games.
It is becoming clear that you may have started this thread with a post praising Justice Sueing, but then you turned the thread into trying to spread your increasing dislike of Mark Fox, the person. This has become a character assassination, and I sincerely plead with you to cease and desist from these attacks. The facts are these: Mark Fox has had a poor and losing record at Cal. He has not recruited highly talented players. If it were not for two years government lockdowns, and a roster with the above average number of injured players, many schools, and maybe Cal, would have fired him for failing to produce, unless his buyout would cost too much. I beg you to stick to the facts. Judge him as a coach, on his record not his personality, and please don't fabricate facts or present hearsay, first or 2nd hand.

We all saw Fox scream at a ref, after opposing coach Bobby Hurley had gone on a tirade that seemed like it would never end. Maybe Fox felt he should get equal time, I don't know. I saw Fox yell at Jalen Celestine to get his attention on two occasions as I remember, but that was during a game in Haas, where it is noisy to begin with. Sometimes a coach has to raise his voice. That doesn't make him a "screaming authoritarian disciplinarian". Have you ever seen him at practice? That is the best place to judge whether he is what you say he is. If a coach has crossed the line between coach showing passion and interest in his players and their success, into "authoritarian disciplinarian", you will see it at practice. My feeling is you won't, because players would not show as much joy as they are showing now for this coach.

As for today's generation, it is a generation more spoiled, coddled, and less respectful of coaches, teachers, parents and most adults than any in my lifetime. Their parents begin at the earliest, bringing them to school, picking them up after school, and bringing them to after school activities, and back home again. With cell phones, they are in constant contact with their children. They never let them out on the streets. The streets, the outside world, is where situations and problems arise, and these kids need to get out there and learn how to handle bad stuff that sometimes happens away from home and school. They never get to learn how to be self-reliant until later in life, which may be too late.

As for recruiting these great players to Cal, how long were Jaylen and Shareef at Cal? One year each. A cup of coffee, and they flew the coop. Neither one was part of a team that won anything. Both were on teams with a load of what would be Top 100 players. Jalen's team with Rabb, Bird, Wallace, Mathews, and Domingo finished 3rd in the PAC12, and lost to Hawaii in the 1st round of the NCAA mostly due to injuries. Shareef's team with Ed Gray, Tremaine Fowlkes, tony Gonzales, Yogi Stewart, Al Grigsby, Sean Marks, Randy Duck, Jelani Gardner, Prentice McGruder finished in 5th Place in the PAC10. They lost to Iowa State in the 1st Round of the NCAA, with Shareef held to 7 points and no starter scored in double figures. There is no guarantee whatever that the highest ranked recruits can bring much success to Cal or any other team. You need a lot of players and a good coach, in most years.
SFCityBear
calumnus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
SFCityBear said:

calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

calumnus said:

CalLifer said:

MoragaBear said:

Hi numbers went down from 13.8 pts and 5.4 reb and 14.3 pts and 6.0 reb his first two years here to 10.7 pts and 5.5 reb his jr year at OSU playing a full season. Cal would certainly be a better team with him still here but I doubt he's their best player this season. Maybe if he's back at full health and it gives his game a good boost

Just saying calling him their best or most important players seems to be a bit of projection.
Clearly, going from a bad Cal team where he might have been their best offensive player to a stacked team that earned a 2-seed in the tournament would mean that his raw numbers would suffer without really detracting from his ability. But as calumnus said, a key glue guy who has shown more offense in his previous situation at Cal could easily be the best player on a very good team based on his experience and his ability to do so much on the court.

And the local newspaper's ranking may be a bit of a projection, based on experience and his shown ability to be a jack-of-all-trades on the court. At the same time, this was a key player that Fox failed to re-recruit back to the team, and a tremendous loss to the team and the program.


Exactly. Matt Bradley's numbers went down his first year at San Diego State. Andre Kelly's numbers will likely go down at UCSB.

Justice Sueing LOVED Cal, being from Hawaii, a great student, committed to social Justice (as his father named and taught him) he loved the university, the location. the student body and our history of activism. That is why he and Jaylen Brown bonded. He, like Jaylen, is the ideal Cal student athlete attracted to our university, location and progressive reputation and he was already enrolled, Pac-12 all academic, already our best player. He just did not like Mark Fox and his authoritarian, egocentric, taskmaster (I am going to make you work harder than…) approach. That is why he transferred.
Geez, I didn't know all of that about Sueing. It just makes the decision to go with Fox that much worse. I don't know why I keep coming back here to learn more about all of the repercussions of the bad decisions Knowlton has made, but I do, and it seems like every day I learn something that makes it worse.


Screamers, authoritarian disciplinarians are a bad fit for the West Coast (or someone from Hawaii) and today's generation, but especially for Berkeley and smart Cal students. It just goes against our comparative advantages ability to get great players from the Bay Area and LA plus guys like Jaylen and Shareef out of Atlanta.

Fox has no doubt found and recruited players, mostly from outside of the country, with relatively less basketball background, who never would have played at this level, who will accept it, even gladly, in return for a great education and a chance to play in the PAC-12. However, it will leave Cal FAR below our potential, losing ALOT of games.
It is becoming clear that you may have started this thread with a post praising Justice Sueing, but then you turned the thread into trying to spread your increasing dislike of Mark Fox, the person. This has become a character assassination, and I sincerely plead with you to cease and desist from these attacks. The facts are these: Mark Fox has had a poor and losing record at Cal. He has not recruited highly talented players. If it were not for two years government lockdowns, and a roster with the above average number of injured players, many schools, and maybe Cal, would have fired him for failing to produce, unless his buyout would cost too much. I beg you to stick to the facts. Judge him as a coach, on his record not his personality, and please don't fabricate facts or present hearsay, first or 2nd hand.

We all saw Fox scream at a ref, after opposing coach Bobby Hurley had gone on a tirade that seemed like it would never end. Maybe Fox felt he should get equal time, I don't know. I saw Fox yell at Jalen Celestine to get his attention on two occasions as I remember, but that was during a game in Haas, where it is noisy to begin with. Sometimes a coach has to raise his voice. That doesn't make him a "screaming authoritarian disciplinarian". Have you ever seen him at practice? That is the best place to judge whether he is what you say he is. If a coach has crossed the line between coach showing passion and interest in his players and their success, into "authoritarian disciplinarian", you will see it at practice. My feeling is you won't, because players would not show as much joy as they are showing now for this coach.

As for today's generation, it is a generation more spoiled, coddled, and less respectful of coaches, teachers, parents and most adults than any in my lifetime. Their parents begin at the earliest, bringing them to school, picking them up after school, and bringing them to after school activities, and back home again. Will cell phones, they are in constant contact with their children. They never let them out on the streets. The streets, the outside world, is where situations and problems arise, and these kids need to get out there and learn how to handle bad stuff that sometimes happens away from home and school. They never get to learn how to be self-reliant until later in life, which may be too late.

As for recruiting these great players to Cal, how long were Jaylen and Shareef at Cal? One year each. A cup of coffee, and they flew the coop. Neither one was part of a team that won anything. Both were on teams with a load of what would be Top 100 players. Jalen's team with Rabb, Bird, Wallace, Mathews, and Domingo finished 3rd in the PAC12, and lost to Hawaii in the 1st round of the NCAA mostly due to injuries. Shareef's team with Ed Gray, Tremaine Fowlkes, Yogi Stewart, Al Grigsby, Sean Marks, Randy Duck, Jelani Gardner, Prentice McGruder finished in 5th Place in the PAC10. They lost to Iowa State in the 1st Round of the NCAA, with Shareef held to 7 points and no starter scored in double figures. There is no guarantee whatever that the highest ranked recruits can bring much success to Cal or any other team. You need a lot of players and a good coach, in most years.



He brags that he "pushes them to the point they are uncomfortable" someone related to me he was bragging to donors that he had the players "heading to the waste bins" (to vomit) during practices. This at the school were Ted Agu died on such a practice not long ago.

Your attitude about "this generation" would make you horrible at recruiting and coaching players from this generation. They don't have to come and they don't have to stay. It is not like it was "in the good old days."

You complain about a year we had a 4 seed and were undefeated at Haas while defending a coach who won 5 conference games last year and 3 the year before?

Bringing in Jaylen helped bring in Rabb and helped bring in Sueing. I am proud Jaylen Brown is a Cal alum. Maybe root for the players instead of the coaches we pay $millions to coach?

I posted about Sueing, Bradley and Kelly, three of my favorite Bears, in response to an article "Will Cal ever be good in basketball again" where it is again asserted that "Cal" cannot attract good players. That Fox needs a practice facility that might be completed in 2025 or 2026 to recruit and win. Yet we had very good players in the past and had good players that could be still here. "Cal" can and has attracted good players.

The question for you then to answer is, "if Fox is a great coach and a great guy, why can't Fox attract top ranked players to Cal or retain the ones he has?"


4thGenCal
How long do you want to ignore this user?
uplandbear said:

As someone who knows Justice personally and who worked for the team during this time period , you could not be more off here when it comes to why Justice left. You clearly are just guessing or not getting your info from a quality source. Justice had his locker cleared before Fox was even hired. Him and Fox had one meeting, one. He was gone no matter what. Ohio State, Arkansas, and Florida all reached out the moment Wyking was fired.

If you hate Fox I get it, but to completely make something up to support your disdain for him is ridiculous. Fox wanted Sueing on his team, BADLY.
Your information is what I heard as well from multiple sources - including Wyking.
Refresh
Page 1 of 1
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.