I read the "Fox worse than Wyking" thread and I got to thinking about it. This is not to deny the obvious in our current team and coach - the won-loss record, the scoring, the defense, the way the team looks when they play, the recruiting, the coaching. All of those things need humongous improvement.
Even this season, Fox and Cal have been stung by the injury bug. Two very key players, Celestine, a likely starter, and Clayton, likely to compete for a starting job, and also Hyder, have yet to play this season. But In his 3+ seasons, Fox has had an unprecedented amount of player injuries and illnesses which have caused them to miss perhaps an unprecedented number of games. I went back through the last several years to try and evaluate this.
Mark Fox's teams have had 22 players miss a total of 186 games due to illness or injury over 3+ seasons.
Wyking Jones teams: 9 players missed 50 games due to illness or injury over 2 seasons
To compare Fox with Wyking, in Fox's first 2 seasons, he had 13 players miss 93 games due to injury or illness, almost double the games missed due to injuries or illness that Wyking's teams had. Wyking's first season was his best, with only 3 players missing 18 games. I included Grant, but his missed games may have been due to his not yet being good enough to get playing time.
Cuonzo Martin's teams had 7 players who missed 81 games due to illness or injury over 3 seasons. Fox has had far more injuries to deal with than Cuonzo had a Cal.
Mike Montgomery's teams had 25 players who missed 271 games due to illness or injury over 6 seasons.
You have to look at 2013, Montgomery's 5th year, to match the number of injuries that Fox has had over just 3 seasons.
When I played in my little unremarkable basketball career from the 1950s to the 1960s, we had few injuries, which might affect our play. We might sprain a finger or an ankle, but we played through it. I did all that, including a concussion, but only missed 2 games in all those years, one for the flu, and one for spraining both knees on the same play. I watched Cal games from the Nibs Price years through the Pete Newell era, and I never saw a player injured, even though the games were very physical. I first began writing or saying that injuries were becoming a big problem in basketball back in the Ben Braun era, with players like Leon Powe and others suffering severe injuries which affected their careers. Montgomery's teams were plagued by injuries, like Alex Rossi, Emerson Murray, Christian Behrens, Ricky Kreklow. Most recently, Cal suffered their last good shot at an NCAA title in 2016, with the injuries to Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird. Even a Cal team with less talented players will feel a dropoff in play and results if players are missing from the lineup.
When I saw Tyrone Wallace recklessly take a ball to the rim, my first thought was that he is going to get injured. He trained himself to hit the floor by landing on his back, sliding on the floor toward the first row of seats, away from the players landing on the floor around him. He finally suffered a severe injury at practice near the end of his final season - tragic.
Getting back to Mark Fox, his best season at Cal as to injuries was his first, and even then, JHD missed 19 games and Jacobi Gordon missed 20 and two others missing 7 games. Gordon was a 4-star recruit, and never could live up to promise, due to injury. 2021 was worse, as Cal had the better players injured, Bradley, Grant, Celestine. Last season, Cal had 9 players out with injuries for 93 games, including Thorpe and Bowser missing the entire season, and Kelly missing 11 games, and Hyder 10. Thorpe has now taken a medical retirement.
Of course, there are reasons injuries happen, and perhaps Fox may be somewhat responsible for all these injuries. Does he make players compete overly hard in practice, with more collisions, overextending themselves, jumping too high, playing too fast, trying to dunk when it isn't safe? Does he teach them how to fall, how to protect themselves? How did Monty Bowser happen to land on his head? In any case, I think it is very possible that Fox has had more injuries to deal with than any coach in Cal history. I would guess it would be a real challenge to have 2-3 key rotation players missing from practice, and likely different ones from game to game. How can a coach prepare or strategize from game to game, in those conditions?
Even this season, Fox and Cal have been stung by the injury bug. Two very key players, Celestine, a likely starter, and Clayton, likely to compete for a starting job, and also Hyder, have yet to play this season. But In his 3+ seasons, Fox has had an unprecedented amount of player injuries and illnesses which have caused them to miss perhaps an unprecedented number of games. I went back through the last several years to try and evaluate this.
Mark Fox's teams have had 22 players miss a total of 186 games due to illness or injury over 3+ seasons.
Wyking Jones teams: 9 players missed 50 games due to illness or injury over 2 seasons
To compare Fox with Wyking, in Fox's first 2 seasons, he had 13 players miss 93 games due to injury or illness, almost double the games missed due to injuries or illness that Wyking's teams had. Wyking's first season was his best, with only 3 players missing 18 games. I included Grant, but his missed games may have been due to his not yet being good enough to get playing time.
Cuonzo Martin's teams had 7 players who missed 81 games due to illness or injury over 3 seasons. Fox has had far more injuries to deal with than Cuonzo had a Cal.
Mike Montgomery's teams had 25 players who missed 271 games due to illness or injury over 6 seasons.
You have to look at 2013, Montgomery's 5th year, to match the number of injuries that Fox has had over just 3 seasons.
When I played in my little unremarkable basketball career from the 1950s to the 1960s, we had few injuries, which might affect our play. We might sprain a finger or an ankle, but we played through it. I did all that, including a concussion, but only missed 2 games in all those years, one for the flu, and one for spraining both knees on the same play. I watched Cal games from the Nibs Price years through the Pete Newell era, and I never saw a player injured, even though the games were very physical. I first began writing or saying that injuries were becoming a big problem in basketball back in the Ben Braun era, with players like Leon Powe and others suffering severe injuries which affected their careers. Montgomery's teams were plagued by injuries, like Alex Rossi, Emerson Murray, Christian Behrens, Ricky Kreklow. Most recently, Cal suffered their last good shot at an NCAA title in 2016, with the injuries to Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird. Even a Cal team with less talented players will feel a dropoff in play and results if players are missing from the lineup.
When I saw Tyrone Wallace recklessly take a ball to the rim, my first thought was that he is going to get injured. He trained himself to hit the floor by landing on his back, sliding on the floor toward the first row of seats, away from the players landing on the floor around him. He finally suffered a severe injury at practice near the end of his final season - tragic.
Getting back to Mark Fox, his best season at Cal as to injuries was his first, and even then, JHD missed 19 games and Jacobi Gordon missed 20 and two others missing 7 games. Gordon was a 4-star recruit, and never could live up to promise, due to injury. 2021 was worse, as Cal had the better players injured, Bradley, Grant, Celestine. Last season, Cal had 9 players out with injuries for 93 games, including Thorpe and Bowser missing the entire season, and Kelly missing 11 games, and Hyder 10. Thorpe has now taken a medical retirement.
Of course, there are reasons injuries happen, and perhaps Fox may be somewhat responsible for all these injuries. Does he make players compete overly hard in practice, with more collisions, overextending themselves, jumping too high, playing too fast, trying to dunk when it isn't safe? Does he teach them how to fall, how to protect themselves? How did Monty Bowser happen to land on his head? In any case, I think it is very possible that Fox has had more injuries to deal with than any coach in Cal history. I would guess it would be a real challenge to have 2-3 key rotation players missing from practice, and likely different ones from game to game. How can a coach prepare or strategize from game to game, in those conditions?
SFCityBear
