HoopDreams said:
kinda cherry picking aren't we?
yeah, there are some posters who agree with each thing you listed
but how many and what proportion are we talking about?
i'm often in bewilderment when there are people who argue so hard against a very minority opinion
and I doubt there is even one or two posters who agree with everything you listedcalumnus said:Big C said:stu said:
Is(are) there some major donor(s) who have a strong affinity for Knowlton, Fox, and McKeever?
My sense is that, up until about a year and a half ago, the major donors were largely pleased with Knowlton. But at that point, football got worse instead of getting better. And basketball, we know... Then there was McKeeverGate. Then there is our conference situation. Then we started football last fall w/o yell leaders, etc. Hard to find many positives in the past 18 mos.
Yes, if you take this board as an indicator, a little over a year ago most were celebrating Knowlton extending Wilcox 5 years because he interviewed/possibly offered at Oregon. Those of us who said it was idiocy to extend Wilcox without seeing if he can turn it around in 2022 were a distinct minority. A year ago people were arguing Musgrave was good, but Garbers was bad and we would be finally great with Plummer.
Similarly, a year ago people here were still arguing thst Williams, Cuonzo and Jones were the cause of our current problems in men's basketball. Every single player that left the program since Fox was hired explained as leaving for some reason other than the head coach. Some people bought the COVID excuse for our record conference losses. The AD blamed the City of Berkeley and found a ready audience.
The "you can't win at Cal" trope was resurrected. People are stil talking about the need for a $130 million practice facility despite there being a lot of basketball courts on campus, our winning recently with the current facilities and our being well into the NIL era.
Insiders still claim Christ "is the best Chancellor for athletics in Cal history" despite her principle role in athletics being to hire a good AD and instead she hired the worst AD I have ever seen, gave him a ridiculous $1.3 million salary and then an 8 year contract extension.
So yeah, part of what makes the current era so dangerous is we have big donors buying what Christ and Knowlton are slinging when they are clearly clueless. That Knowlton is trying to solicit donations to fix the problem he created is not surprising. The latest news that a big donor is making his donation for the practice facility contingent on retaining Fox is stunning. Unless that is just more disinformation coming from the AD office….
I am not talking about the majority on this board.
My impression was the defense (lauding and excuse making for) of Christ, Knowlton, Wilcox and Fox over the last four years was skewed towards those who claim to be insiders and big donors. Some of them have gradually changed their position, some have made abrupt 180s and are now vocal Knowlton critics when they we singing his praises before.
Now we have a report that a big donor has conditioned his donotion on Fox being retained. How do we take that?
It may not be true, but it might be. My point in "cherry picking" views expressed on this board is that such views are possible and would be consistent with a donor who buys ALL the excuses and like Knowlton, identifies with Fox and sympathizes with him. Thinks he is a good coach who just got a raw deal at Cal and is willing to leverage his donation on his behalf. Or it could be disinformation from the AD.