So impressive v the Zags. Best player on the court. Good job Fox.
eastcoastcal said:
Unforgivable that we whiffed on him. how can Fox's strategy for recruiting be to 'narrow' the field and focus on guys 'we can get', and then whiff on someone we could've gotten in our own backyard? pathetic and sad and what a failure on our part.
Civil Bear said:eastcoastcal said:
Unforgivable that we whiffed on him. how can Fox's strategy for recruiting be to 'narrow' the field and focus on guys 'we can get', and then whiff on someone we could've gotten in our own backyard? pathetic and sad and what a failure on our part.
Mahaney was actually in St. Mary's backyard...but yeah.
What's crazy is supposedly his mom wanted him to go to Cal. And according to the BI report if we'd made contact 6 months earlier, we'd have gotten him. It's even crazier that this happened with our recruiting strategy being to NOT relentlessly recruit and cast a wide net, but instead keep a narrow focus on kids we can get. So what the hell were our staff doing??calumnus said:Civil Bear said:eastcoastcal said:
Unforgivable that we whiffed on him. how can Fox's strategy for recruiting be to 'narrow' the field and focus on guys 'we can get', and then whiff on someone we could've gotten in our own backyard? pathetic and sad and what a failure on our part.
Mahaney was actually in St. Mary's backyard...but yeah.
Mahoney has had a long connection with Kyle Smith and considered WSU. If had hired Smith, or Golden or any of the other guys in Bennet's coaching tree (yeah, even Magpayo) we probably land him.
eastcoastcal said:What's crazy is supposedly his mom wanted him to go to Cal. And according to the BI report if we'd made contact 6 months earlier, we'd have gotten him. It's even crazier that this happened with our recruiting strategy being to NOT relentlessly recruit and cast a wide net, but instead keep a narrow focus on kids we can get. So what the hell were our staff doing??calumnus said:Civil Bear said:eastcoastcal said:
Unforgivable that we whiffed on him. how can Fox's strategy for recruiting be to 'narrow' the field and focus on guys 'we can get', and then whiff on someone we could've gotten in our own backyard? pathetic and sad and what a failure on our part.
Mahaney was actually in St. Mary's backyard...but yeah.
Mahoney has had a long connection with Kyle Smith and considered WSU. If had hired Smith, or Golden or any of the other guys in Bennet's coaching tree (yeah, even Magpayo) we probably land him.
It just makes me unbelievably mad because there is no good reason why our program can't be in Saint Mary's position- a top 25 team that can compete and win vs programs like Gonzaga while recruiting top 100 players and maintaining a great international pipeline. Unfortunately we're stuck with a head coach who's answer to everything is injuries and a staff who clearly can't identify, develop, or retain talent.
I'm counting the days til we fire everyone involved in this pathetic endeavor and clean house completely
Mark Few on #SMC’s Aidan Mahaney (16 pts. after half): “He hit some tough runners & we tried everybody on the roster on him & he hit them over our best defender, which is Anton. He hit three of them over him. Those are tough shots & he hit them, so he deserves a lot of credit.” pic.twitter.com/ZPJanuLkyp
— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson_SR) February 5, 2023
irvinebear said:
My nephew is on the team at St. Mary's. What a difference their program is compared to Cal's.
Aiden has ice in his veins. Who has that with Cal?
Cal BB is a laughing stock. The Bay is run by St. Mary's. They are too 10 in the country.
bearister said:irvinebear said:
My nephew is on the team at St. Mary's. What a difference their program is compared to Cal's.
Aiden has ice in his veins. Who has that with Cal?
Cal BB is a laughing stock. The Bay is run by St. Mary's. They are too 10 in the country.
Can you confirm this: a buddy of mine allegedly in the know told me Bennett had Mahaney locked up to be a Gael as far back as grammar school and Cal was never going to be in the equation.
Perhaps Associate HC, UCSB grad, and Bay Area native Justin Joyner is one to keep an eye on.calumnus said:Civil Bear said:eastcoastcal said:
Unforgivable that we whiffed on him. how can Fox's strategy for recruiting be to 'narrow' the field and focus on guys 'we can get', and then whiff on someone we could've gotten in our own backyard? pathetic and sad and what a failure on our part.
Mahaney was actually in St. Mary's backyard...but yeah.
Mahoney has had a long connection with Kyle Smith and considered WSU. If had hired Smith, or Golden or any of the other guys in Bennet's coaching tree (yeah, even Magpayo) we probably land him.
It could be worse:graguna said:
Lets see:
St Marys - your best friend's dad is the coach, you can walk home in 5 minutes and do your laundry, they have a good team
CAL - team sucks, coach is about to be fired
choices, choices
irvinebear said:
My understanding is that Cal was in the mix. But lots of significant connections to SMC for a long time, as you mention.
SMC's program just does so many things right. At present moment, there just really isn't a comparison to be drawn to Cal and it's a shame.
At least 3 of Cal's FB players (Anderson, Ott and Hunter) were all at the SMC game last night. How disappointing they can't see a game of that caliber at Haas.
40 year decision though.graguna said:
Lets see:
St Marys - your best friend's dad is the coach, you can walk home in 5 minutes and do your laundry, they have a good team
CAL - team sucks, coach is about to be fired
choices, choices
Gael donor base is hoops focused. Cal donors are primarily interested in football and then spread around. So in comparison perhaps out of touch basketball-wise. To overcome this, leadership has to come from the AD, an ex hockey player military engineer from Massachusetts.irvinebear said:
SMC's program just does so many things right. At present moment, there just really isn't a comparison to be drawn to Cal and it's a shame.
Yeah, and during that time I remember seeing Tedford and Dykes occasionally attending a Cal basketball game in Haas. In fact, a couple of times Dykes was attending with his entire family. I have never seen Wilcox at a Cal basketball game.Econ141 said:
Now that is truly sad. I remember in the Montgomery years there was a game against UCLA where the entire football team was right behind one of the baskets....and we won that game.
bearister said:irvinebear said:
My nephew is on the team at St. Mary's. What a difference their program is compared to Cal's.
Aiden has ice in his veins. Who has that with Cal?
Cal BB is a laughing stock. The Bay is run by St. Mary's. They are too 10 in the country.
Can you confirm this: a buddy of mine allegedly in the know told me Bennett had Mahaney locked up to be a Gael as far back as grammar school and Cal was never going to be in the equation.
Golden One said:Yeah, and during that time I remember seeing Tedford and Dykes occasionally attending a Cal basketball game in Haas. In fact, a couple of times Dykes was attending with his entire family. I have never seen Wilcox at a Cal basketball game.Econ141 said:
Now that is truly sad. I remember in the Montgomery years there was a game against UCLA where the entire football team was right behind one of the baskets....and we won that game.
Econ141 said:Golden One said:Yeah, and during that time I remember seeing Tedford and Dykes occasionally attending a Cal basketball game in Haas. In fact, a couple of times Dykes was attending with his entire family. I have never seen Wilcox at a Cal basketball game.Econ141 said:
Now that is truly sad. I remember in the Montgomery years there was a game against UCLA where the entire football team was right behind one of the baskets....and we won that game.
Well to be fair to Wilcox, the basketball offense is harder to watch than his.
MoragaBear said:
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:
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.calumnus said:MoragaBear said:
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:
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.
Thanks for posting the video MB! Is this non-access policy the norm for college basketball and/or past Cal HCs? Or is this a Fox policyMoragaBear said: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.calumnus said:MoragaBear said:
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:
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.
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.
eastcoastcal said: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 policyMoragaBear said: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.calumnus said:MoragaBear said:
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:
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.
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.
MoragaBear said:
Note that I said that I have no contacts at all on staff regarding recruiting so there was no way of knowing how much of a priority he was during the recruiting process or if he was being slow played. My post was mainly to counter the idea that he wasn't recruited at all that some seem to be expressing and obviously from the interview that wasn't the case.