Jeff82 said:
concordtom said:
southseasbear said:
stu said:
southseasbear said:
I remember how much we were thrilled with the Ben Braun hire and his early teams. By the end, we were happy to see him go.
The article makes me think he was a hero. Perhaps instead of firing him we should have promoted him to Associate Athletic Director.
FIFY
Yeah, I almost put that but then I realized that it was not likely that the AD who fired him (I no longer remember who that was) would fire himself and appoint Braun as successor. Still, the hiring of Montgomery was pure genius.
Q: How long did Montgomery last?
Genius????
A: Mike was born February 27, 1947.
Hired April 4, 2008.
He was 61.
He coached 6 seasons, resigning on March 31, 2014.
2008-09 California 22 - 11, 11 - 7, T3rd NCAA Division I first round
2009-10 California 24 - 11, 13 - 5, 1st NCAA Division I second round
2010-11 California 18 - 15, 10 - 8, T4th NIT second round
2011-12 California 24 - 10, 13 - 5, T2nd NCAA Division I first round
2012-13 California 21 - 12, 12 - 6, T2nd NCAA Division I third round
2013-14 California 21 - 14, 10 - 8, T3rd NIT quarterfinal
California: 130 - 73 (.640) 69 - 39 (.639)
Commentary: He produced lots of wins, got into post-season play every year, and outcoached other teams to victory on a regular basis. It was lots of fun to watch Cal be in the hunt and playing intelligently down the stretch! He also gave us our first conference title in 50 years. So, with that alone, he goes down in history!
But upon closer inspection, his recruiting was shaky, as was his sideline temper with players (well, at least one time - cheap shot?). He lasted only 6 years, and when he was gone, the program was left in shambles with no plan for the future. It was simply that he was gone. We've been in the wilderness ever since.
I respect MM as a coach very much. But I think GENIUS would be to hire someone who decided that Cal was a place where they wanted to be for a 10-30 year career, not just a stepping stone to the next job, and not just a place where they can collect that healthy $1.8M contract until they get fired.
Berkeley is a wonderful place to live and work. And one can enjoy a wonderful life for a fraction of the salary than we've been paying our failed hires.
Q: Do any candidates I dream of exist?
I imagine they do. Well connected, Bay Area based, basketball professionals who can both recruit and coach exist. Why can't we find them?
Check out some of the incentives these schools have written for coaches?
https://www.midmajormadness.com/2019/11/4/20946421/ncaa-basketball-head-coach-contract-salary-database-mid-major-2019-20
I have to slightly disagree with ConcordTom, only because I think one of the reasons Monty retired was that he was fairly certain he could turn the reins over to Travis. I think he was as surprised as everyone else when they instead went with Cuonzo Martin, a decision that, IMHO, sent the program on a tangent from which it has yet to recover. Unless he won the NCAA championship and was given a lifetime contract, Martin was never going to stay at Cal, and is a guy who parlayed a compelling personal story and a willingness to go into politically-marginal situations to make way more money as a coach than his results justify. Had we hired Travis, we would have had a young African-American coach to continue with a program that had generated six years of some success. Would Travis have been able to recruit Raab and Brown. Don't know. But in the end, having them hasn't really provided any lasting benefit to Cal basketball, because of what happened after they left.
In Monty we hired a Hall of Fame coach. As I posted on another thread, he was the best coach in our 114 year history other than Pete Newell (HOF) and Nibs Price (should be in the HOF). We expected him to stay longer, and I believe he did too considering he actually moved across the Bay to take the job. Unfortunately, (as Big C posted) he retired earlier than he and we anticipated due to his cancer, the Crabbe incident pushback, and (as you posted) the belief he was leaving the program in good hands with Travis. Still, in the modern world of coaching, 6 years is not a bad run (and it matches Newell who retired suddenly due to health reasons - to think what could have been had he stayed!). Montgomery was not perfect (who is?) but he brought the program back to respectability. For example, Cuonzo Martin would not have been interested in being coach of the pre-Monty team.
The Cuonzo Martin hire was also brilliant (though I would have preferred having Decuire). He elevated the program with possibility the best recruiting in our history. I regret that he left so quickly and abruptly (as someone else posted, it seemed his bags were packed and his getaway car idling as the team fell flat in losing to Bakersfield in an NIT first round game it should have won. Nevertheless, in the modern world of college sports, coaches follow the money. In football, we lost Snyder and Mariucci who accepted higher paying offers. (I know that's football, but
all of our coaches in the last 100 years (other than Price, Newell, Campanelli, Braun, Montgomery, and Martin) were mediocre at best, which makes the departures of Monty and Cuonzo so painful.)
My point is that both Monty and Cuonzo were brilliant hires. At this point I would be thrilled if we could hire someone of that quality even if they left after a few years.
Fire Knowlton!
Fire Fox!
Put Wilcox in a hot seat!
