MoragaBear said:

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eastcoastcal said:

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MoragaBear said:

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calumnus said:

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MoragaBear said:

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Not here to defend Fox as a coach or recruiter in the slightest but they recruited Mahaney hard from the earliest they were able to do so according to NCAA rules. As some have alluded to, he grew up playing hoops with Bennett's sons and spent a lot of time at the Bennett house over the years.

Maheney's mom went to Stanford so I doubt she was hoping he'd go to Cal.

A friend and I talked to Bennett for around a half hour a few months ago when we ran into him in Moraga and the way he talked, he would have been very surprised if they didn't get him.

Here's a video interview I did with Mahaney in 2020:

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It is just such a "what if" situation. We will never know how attractive a different coach, maybe even one who has also known Mahaney for years when he was an assistant at St. Mary's, and a winning, exciting Cal program would be to him. As it stands, it was no contest.

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The fact that Cal plays in the Pac-12 and had his teammate and friend Roberson committed helped but not as much as a winning program and good coach would've helped.

I'll also add that I would know a lot more about Cal hoops recruiting but I've never been allowed to talk to a single assistant even once in Fox's whole tenure at Cal and as far as I know, that's the case with all media.

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Thanks for posting the video MB! Is this non-acess policy the norm for college basketball and/or past Cal HCs? Or is this a Fox policy

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It's pretty unusual. I doubt there are any other HCs or at best more than a handful of HCs in the country that handle the media this way. I've been doing this 20 years and have had far more access to any other staff than this one. When he took over at Cal, I talked to the editor of the Georgia site in our network who was actually a former player who was tied in with lots of other former players and he completely shut them out, too.

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Insecure control freak. Just not a great guy to work for or play for, I'd say more, but I don't want to provoke anyone and be again accused of "character assassination."

MoragaBear said:

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Note that I said that I have no contacts at all on staff regarding recruiting ....

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Wow.
How much does that guy make?
How much do these people get paid, collectively?

Not being able to interface with perhaps THE premier Cal Sports focused media site is a complete failure!
This is a tool that could be used for benefit, not something to be feared.

Skillset requirements...

You, sideline game manager and recruiting closer. Face of program.
Hire an offensive coach. (maybe you)
Hire a defensive coach. (maybe you)
Hire recruiters. Young guys who travel and smooze, like Kerry Keating was the UCLA's Howland.
Hire a media manager.
Hire a health/diet/fitness guy.
Hire a education/social/campus guy.

That should be the team. No?


Much respect, MB.

Had to see what I was missing.





Seems like an absolute no brainer that he'd choose to go to Bennett at St. Mary's. He grew up with Bennett coaching him, and with Bennett's son in the same grade at Campo... Now Cade Bennett is on the SMC team with him. Such stability and trust in the relationship, easy call.

I think people suggesting he should have automatically gone to Cal because it's on the other side of the hill, wow... don't know the story at all, as I didn't.

Here's the SMC-Gonzaga game, by the way.



Interesting to see that SMC also has Augustas Marciulionis, son of NBA Hall of Famer and former Golden State Warrior Sarunas Marciulionis.
Maybe Bennett is also recruits Sacramento Jesuit's Andrej Stojakovi, recently chosen for the McD game, and son of NBA's Peja.
Ooops. Nope. He committed to Stanford after having a final four which included UCLA, Texas and Oregon. No Cal there, either.

By the way, for those who didn't know, Aidan Mahaney is 6'3", true freshman, and leading the Gaels in scoring at 15 per with 41.6% on 3's with 57 made. Wow.
https://smcgaels.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2022-23
Looks like Bennett Jr is redshirting.
The Gaels are 10-0 in conference and ranked #15. But the Zags have the more impressive schedule and have lost some close ones, ranked #16.

Thanks for starting this thread. I learned a few things.

After going 6-3 without Mahaney in the starting line-up, the Gaels have gone 15-1 with him as a starter....Hell of a freshman leader...

Interesting quotes in here for those who think it was a Cal miss.

https://247sports.com/Article/Aidan-Mahaney-Under-Armour-Saint-Marys-California-Washington-State-Stanford-Basketball-Recruiting-168137270/

"For me, the biggest thing is my trust in the coaching staff," says Mahaney. "I do not want to go in a situation where it is not made for me. I also want the chance to come in and play right away."

This publication ranked him 91st best.

concordtom said:

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Interesting quotes in here for those who think it was a Cal miss.

https://247sports.com/Article/Aidan-Mahaney-Under-Armour-Saint-Marys-California-Washington-State-Stanford-Basketball-Recruiting-168137270/

"For me, the biggest thing is my trust in the coaching staff," says Mahaney. "I do not want to go in a situation where it is not made for me. I also want the chance to come in and play right away."

This publication ranked him 91st best.

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Interesting quote from him about our program:

Quote:

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I did not know as much about the program as I thought I would when I went on my visit so I am looking forward to getting to know the program better.

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It's clear that the non-existent PR and several years of bad losing has made us pretty invisible. Imagine that, a program so close to a kid...

I'm sure you remember the talk about Cal potentially stealing Bennett from Moraga - but we instead got Montgomery.

Not sure Bennett was going to leave anyways, but there was talk, certainly on these boards.

I think Randy has done himself a great service - quality of life.
He gets to just do his job and doesn't have to move about the country responding to media all the time.

That said, I just looked at this spreadsheet of D1 coaching salaries. My God, this is shocking. Look at Dennis Gates: $2.6M

I imagine Bennett sees that, remembers when he was a student at Cal and is questioning the intelligence in my comment about Quality of Life. It'll take Randy 3+ years to make what that kid is earning.

Maybe Randy will try to cash in big time at the end, once his son graduates. Collect a few years at the $3M per range, just for retirement and passing it down to said kids.
Jeez. These #'s are off the rook ridiculous.

https://theresourcenexus.com/coaches-salary/

bluesaxe said:

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Big C said:

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Honestly, I am so sick of piss ant St. Mary's and their doofus coach (who is actually a good coach and a perfect fit for where he's at, but still... ). Okay, this is jealousy on my part and I'm not proud of it, but I don't care, I can't stand them... and what the hell is a "Gael"? (rhetorical question... do not answer)

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They aren't the pissants in basketball. We are.

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I know. I admit, I am lashing out due to jealousy. Still, eff St. Mary's, because they are a little twerpy school with a little twerpy coach... and they are much better than we are... in basketball. I bet we could beat 'em in football!

bluesaxe said:

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Big C said:

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bluesaxe said:

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Big C said:

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Honestly, I am so sick of piss ant St. Mary's and their doofus coach (who is actually a good coach and a perfect fit for where he's at, but still... ). Okay, this is jealousy on my part and I'm not proud of it, but I don't care, I can't stand them... and what the hell is a "Gael"? (rhetorical question... do not answer)

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They aren't the pissants in basketball. We are.

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I know. I admit, I am lashing out due to jealousy. Still, eff St. Mary's, because they are a little twerpy school with a little twerpy coach... and they are much better than we are... in basketball. I bet we could beat 'em in football!

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I think you and I could beat them in football.

I have no problem with St. Mary's, little twerpy school that it is. Bennett has done a great job there, but I think he's a guy who's in the right niche and probably not a guy to go after.

What I do have a problem with is Cal having a moribund hoops program because of a coach who does nothing well and gets extended for it. Raises my blood pressure just to think about it.

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And Fox gets multiples of Bennet's salary to do it.

calumnus said:

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And Fox gets multiples of Bennet's salary to not do it.

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FIFY

Big C said:

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bluesaxe said:

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Big C said:

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Honestly, I am so sick of piss ant St. Mary's and their doofus coach (who is actually a good coach and a perfect fit for where he's at, but still... ). Okay, this is jealousy on my part and I'm not proud of it, but I don't care, I can't stand them... and what the hell is a "Gael"? (rhetorical question... do not answer)

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They aren't the pissants in basketball. We are.

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I know. I admit, I am lashing out due to jealousy. Still, eff St. Mary's, because they are a little twerpy school with a little twerpy coach... and they are much better than we are... in basketball. I bet we could beat 'em in football!

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The closest St. Mary's come to having a football team is rugby, and given how good the Bears are at rugby, you'd think we'd kick their butts, but they also have a great program. Recently, they have been pretty closely matched.

In a regular season match last year in March at Witter, Cal came in ranked #1 and St. Mary's #2. Cal won a close match 31-24. In the semi-finals of the national championship held at Witter a month later, St. Mary's returned the favor, got off to a 28-0 lead and held off the Bears 35-26. I.e., St. Mary's won when it counted. Maybe THAT'S a good reason to lash out at St. Mary's.

I'd stop being jealous of St. Mary's basketball, because then we may as well be jealous of a lot of teams in the country, and instead think of them as a rival in rugby. The regular season match this year will be at St. Mary's, Saturday March 25 at 1 p.m. If you are feeling bitter towards St. Mary's, head out to Moraga that day and cheer your head off for the Bears. I don't guarantee a Cal victory, but if you show up, at least you'll have done your part.

Can we just get some donors to pony up and buy St. Mary's College? We can build some more dorms.

Cal8285 said:

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Big C said:

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bluesaxe said:

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Big C said:

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Honestly, I am so sick of piss ant St. Mary's and their doofus coach (who is actually a good coach and a perfect fit for where he's at, but still... ). Okay, this is jealousy on my part and I'm not proud of it, but I don't care, I can't stand them... and what the hell is a "Gael"? (rhetorical question... do not answer)

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They aren't the pissants in basketball. We are.

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I know. I admit, I am lashing out due to jealousy. Still, eff St. Mary's, because they are a little twerpy school with a little twerpy coach... and they are much better than we are... in basketball. I bet we could beat 'em in football!

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The closest St. Mary's come to having a football team is rugby, and given how good the Bears are at rugby, you'd think we'd kick their butts, but they also have a great program. Recently, they have been pretty closely matched.

In a regular season match last year in March at Witter, Cal came in ranked #1 and St. Mary's #2. Cal won a close match 31-24. In the semi-finals of the national championship held at Witter a month later, St. Mary's returned the favor, got off to a 28-0 lead and held off the Bears 35-26. I.e., St. Mary's won when it counted. Maybe THAT'S a good reason to lash out at St. Mary's.

I'd stop being jealous of St. Mary's basketball, because then we may as well be jealous of a lot of teams in the country, and instead think of them as a rival in rugby. The regular season match this year will be at St. Mary's, Saturday March 25 at 1 p.m. If you are feeling bitter towards St. Mary's, head out to Moraga that day and cheer your head off for the Bears. I don't guarantee a Cal victory, but if you show up, at least you'll have done your part.

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Pretty sure St. Mary's used to play football, before our time.

With respect to those folks who are into rugby, I am not, so pass.

Jealousy is not rational, nor is it something to be proud of. Eff St. Mary's. I am a flawed individual.

Big C said:

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Pretty sure St. Mary's used to play football, before our time.

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Date football programs terminated:

St. Mary's: 2004

University of San Francisco: 1982

Santa Clara University: 1992

bluehenbear said:

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Can we just get some donors to pony up and buy St. Mary's College? We can build some more dorms.

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We could use the entire campus for living, dining, and practice facilities. Pretty much how it's used now.