pathological liar (the biggest whooper being his bald faced lie to carol christ that northwestern wuz gonna hire him as their athletic director) jim knowlton has been lying to everybody including mark madsen for years that shovels are gonna be in the ground soon for the critically needed basketball practice facility just north of haas pavilion
nothing has happened...NADA
meanwhile harvard prep (around the corner from shocky's beloved erewhon) is constructing a $200,000,000+ athletics facility in a timely manner just like my brah lou richie engineered the bishop o'dowd sparking new basketball facility just miles from the berkeley campus
california high schools are getting projects fundraised & constructed while the #1 ranked public university in the world got it's hoop dreamers sharing set practice times with intramural rec leagues because of the scarcity of available court time
can a cal's men's & women basketball general manager with separate financials from the athletic department be in the cards that can fundraise & build the critically needed basketball practice facility??
back in the day during the cal's monster class (https://bearinsider.com/forums/8/topics/11616/1) of 11,000 loud as **** crazy azz fans stormin' the floor after their mcdonalds all americans delivered epic victories the cost of a basketball ONLY practice facility on the north parking lot adjacent to haas pavillion wuz $21,500,000
shocky made the INNOVATIVE suggestion to those in power that we sell the courtside seats in perpetuity for $1,000,000 per pair with a goal of 25 FOUNDERS CLUB members or $25,000,000 to pay for the basketball only practice facility
and shocky offered to personally collect the $25,000,000 from his fellow courtside seat donors (along with own donation of $1,000,000) & keep in mind at that point we had a lead donation commitment of $10,000,000 from doug & lisa goldman (before knowlton alienated them & that pledge got pulled) to get us up to $35,000,000 for a tricked out facility...my personable/relentless fundraising skills & follow up are 2nd to none & this would've 100% been a done deal if shocky's infrastructure deal wuz approved
these days general james knowlton is still peddling his $140,000,000+ artist rendering of a 3 story con artist practice facility for multiple sports (that nobody cares about like quidditch) that will NEVER evah get built
yeah dumb azz usually make dumb decisions which results in a **** situation
the magic of cal basketball (involves stormin' the floor!!!)#
I was there, thanks to a ticket from Shocky1. I will remember that game forever.
bill, remember u too with ur vast knowledge of cal basketball sitting/conversing courtside but why didn't u join me in stormin the floor at t-wall's buzzer beater??
stormin' the floor at haas pavillion/the field at memorial stadium (or stanford stadium to be honest with u) imprints a love for the magic of cal athletics that can be sustained forevah
and that's why chancellor lyon's decision to not overrule his ****tard administration of general knowlton & markeisha everett decision to not offer FREE tixs to all students has contributed to this season's abysmal attendance & abject failure to grow the fanbase of future tixs buys/donors
the 3 critical steps to rebuilding a better cal men's basketball program are FREE tixs for all students, building a critically needed basketball practice facility so that bears with nba aspiration don't gotta share court time with rec players & madsen demanding that his guys play relentless physical **** you up DEFENSE
Overheard today: "Not outboarding a university Athletic Director who is a con artist and universally disliked while trying to fundraise during the Big Give is like training a rescue doggy dog to teach a deep breathing yoga/meditation class or something."
"Where's the ******* long promised basketball practice facility, Rich??"
don't be a dumb azz (in turbulent times with a financial tsunami heading towards berkeley)#
congratulations to markeisha everrett on leading the cal's men basketball team to a 17th outta 18th finish in the 2024/2025 acc attendance standings, her decision to again not offer FREE tickets to all students wuz genius in building the fanbase & a future pipeline to Builders of Berkeley...markeisha does this **** with NO EFFORT at my old palace haas pavilion https://theacc.com/stats.aspx?path=mbball&year=2024
and congrats to james arthur knowlton & jennifer simon-o'neil on yet another seasons in the sun without any mentions of the critically needed dedicated basketball practice facility...jimmy & jenny know that the hoopers can always go over to the outdoor courts at montera middle school if they wanna work on their games!!
this is why chancellor lyons needs to also hire a basketball general manager for both teams that operates & fundraises separately from the failed/bankrupt cal athletic department
the future of cal women's basketball necessitates the hiring of the 1st men's & women's basketball general manager that can function autonomously from the worthless cal athletic department bureaucrats that can fundraise nil dollars & construction dollars for the critically needed dedicated basketball practice facility
and yeah this program is not gonna even be a .500 team until there is total team buy in to play DEFENSE, there is more D played by the hoopers at montera middle school
the future of cal women's basketball necessitates the hiring of the 1st men's & women's basketball general manager that can function autonomously from the worthless cal athletic department bureaucrats that can fundraise nil dollars & construction dollars for the critically needed dedicated basketball practice facility
and yeah this program is not gonna even be a .500 team until there is total team buy in to play DEFENSE, there is more D played by the hoopers at montera middle school
Yeah, whatever happened to tough man-to-man defense? Always staying between your man and the basket? Getting into a crouch with your butt down low, and moving side-to-side with slide steps? All I see now is help defense, with all defenders standing up straight, ready to run too late to help a teammate who has lost his man by playing him straight up. Do we have to go back to Jorge Gutierrez or even better, to Jason Kidd to see this? Up in your face defense. Back when it was more important for a player to brag after a game that he had held his high-scoring opponent 6 points below his average, than it was to tell the world he himself scored 25.
SFCB, Shocky. I agree with everything you guys are saying. But on top of that, so often this year when Jovan is in the game we are at a complete disadvantage against the other team's point guard regardless of what we try on defense. I love his effort, but at his size he's simply not equipped to fight over ball screens and over and over our bigs give a half hearted effort to step out enough on the ball handler/shooter. I will always remember this season as the year our Cal Bears led the nation in made 15 foot jump shots allowed.
this **** didn't go well, only $2,178,600 wuz pledged of which a significant portion of this non binding pledge dollars will NEVER be actually collected, yeah cal athletic department fundraisers make up/exaggerate numbers to justify their bureaucratic existence (unlike shocky who collects 100% of all rescue doggy dog facilities bequests here in maricopa county within 48 hours of a pledge to him, not giving the monster a personal check made out directly to the beneficiary of ur choice is NOT an option)
chancellor lyons, you were hoping that "game on" that berkeley grads wuz gonna go all in to endow the olympics sports & now u got real time feedback that there is almost ZERO support for that initiative...it's clear that NOW is the time to rightsize the athletic department by:
1) terminating knowlton, jenny & markeisha 2) promoting andrew mcgraw to athletic director, FREE tixs for all berkeley students to football & basketball games!! 3) rightsizing the athletic department to 15 sport teams that compete for championships 4) hire a men's & women's basketball general manager that will fundraise nil & a dedicated basketball practice facility dollars with jaylen brown as the face of cal basketball 5) "sell" evans diamond & edwards field to the central campus for the greater good of the university in exchange for the elimination of the hundreds of millions of dollars of recent athletic department debt that will never have the future revenue streams for repayment
rich, we're waiting on you to do the right thing, there's a financial tsunami heading towards berkeley & ur savvy leadership is critical and huge props to you for the uc board of regents football general manager approval agenda item next week at 2:00 pm on march 19th re: ron rivera https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar25/govx.pdf
https://instagr.am/p/DHSBvEqti9v this is the only basketball team (other than the montera middle school coed all star team) in berkeley that plays DEFENSE!!
ncca tournament home game in los angeles for kayla & michelle (with puff in the 1st row behind the bears bench) in an epic celebration for lulu's PONYTAIL!!...yeah this **** is getting live
https://instagr.am/p/DG3voU6SJHv the university of california, berkeley=#1 ranked public university in the world (critically needs a men's & women's basketball general manager that can fundraise for nil & a dedicated practice facility 100% divested from an inept athletic department with jaylen brown as the face of cal basketball)
I absolutely want to echo Shockey's "right size" message. Across all of higher ed There are going to be a LOT of formelly scholarship sports that are morphed into "club sports". This is simply the economics facing ALL of D1 universities and even more so in the current environment. A team might actually have secured the endowment but may not have anyone to play against as a D1 sport.
Spot on - Cal get hammered by opposing coaches over recruiting by stating that Cal is one of just 5 D1 universities that don't have a dedicated practice facility. To think it's a "red herring"/minimal importance to players on the team/those considering Cal hoops, is simply naive and not aware of this key disadvantage. Our two key players have been kicked off Gold's gym multiple times this past season when they were wanting to get extra hoop time/shooting practice in. The lack of a dedicated basketball gym on campus is a huge negative to recruiting the top players. NIL first in importance, but, development, competing/post season team, housing and ability to practice at any time day or night is extremely important.
^ the above post is by 4th gen bear on the basketball board, randy is the most wired in cal basketball fan
if u think that pathological liar ****tard knowlton is just ruining the cal football program, think again
rich, if u think the status quo is gonna work, ur misreading the room at the current #1 ranked public university in the world
^ tay just tole me that she's holding her dad's wrist in the above foto (which wuz on the front page of the espn digital news) to prevent him from being a dumb azz & stormin' the field too early (and getting a technical foul or something) as our bears defeated the then #1 ranked wildcats coached by the donut boy of arizona at an ELECTRIC sold out haas pavillion
arizona's largest whale donor arte moreno (owns the california angels major league baseball franchise) once tole me while playing golf together that the cal's monster class relentless posting of unflattering fotos of sean miller caused him to finally take his health seriously & trim down
yeah shocky is a regular ******* public service for our competitors
love u sweetie!! (taylor NOT the donut boy of tuscon)
while lyons sleeps on pride rock the cal men's basketball program roster is literally disassembling again in real time
NOTHING is gonna change with respects to cal basketball until rich fires the ******** con artist & hires a men's & women's basketball general manager autonomous of the inept athletic department that can relentlessly fundraise nil dollars & funding for a dedicated basketball practice facility
there's gonna be 1,000+ fans at bears games next season if rich decides doing NOTHING is the right move
honestly the chancellor including the unlikeable athletic director in the rivera zoom call wuz arguably the most awkward & bizarro press conference in the history of berkeley
chancellor lyons, we're at the final battlefield, FIRE the worthless ****tards jimmy, jenny & markeisha and enpower/promote SMART & STRONG berkeley grads ron rivera, andrew mcgraw & valerie grimaldo (and continue to develop someday future head coach in waiting mike saffell) to lead our california golden bears into 2025 acc battles further afar on the east coast!!
let's ******* go (make the right choice unlike marius, eponine is a SMOKESHOW, wut a dumb azz)!!#
kevin kennedy update re: the need for cal men's & women's basketball's 1st general manager
As you say, yours is a difficult question. I'm having to balance a lot of factors.. Suffice it to say that my belief (and it is just a belief at this point, albeit a strong one) is not just based on how ludicrous this situation is. I fully appreciate that ludicrous is basically our middle name. But having swum in the bowels of the Cal Athletics' bureaucracy on a full-time basis for the past three years, I have some sense of how things work and why and when. For a number of reasons, I think we are going to get this done.
On MBB, yes that is also a problem but we need to start somewhere and football is the right place to start for the obvious reasons. I have significant confidence in Coach Madsen. I think he could be one of the all-time greats. He just needs our support. But football first.
real talk: renewing ur basketball season tix(s) is basically sending a message to the worthless bureaucrats that ur willing to drive thru traffic to haas pavillion on rainy bay area thursday nites to watch ur bears try to unsuccessfully compete without adequate nil funding & a long promised but never delivered dedicated practice facility
thx to jimmy & markeisha's dumb az **** decision to AGAIN not offer FREE tixs to all berkeley students cal's men basketball finished 17th out of 18 teams in acc attendance last season & the roster is being decimated in real time because there's nowhere to develop/practice (unless ur dad is a former nba star & ur mansion in carmichael gotta tricked out private basketball court)
nothing is gonna CHANGE until a men's & women's basketball gm is hired 100% autonomous from the athletic department
call ur sales rep today & let them know you will not be renewing ur tixs until a gm is hired
send the message NOW: tell rich lyons, jim knowlton, jennifer simon-o'neil & markeisha everett to **** off
headline: uc san diego has built a basketball practice facility ($35,000,000+) before uc berkeley
yeah rich lyons is a do nothing chancellor who is ok with general knowlton lying to everybody (including the head basketball coach) about shovels in the ground in berkeley when in reality not even the 1st dollar has been collected...in an accountable organization the con artist would already be FIRED, even bishop o'dowd has been able to fundraise & build a beautiful basketball practice facilitiy
lyons is gonna be the chancellor that financially sinks berkeley via the current financial tsunami that is rolling thru campus:
1) the state of california defunding the uc & state systems because of budget constraints 2) the federal government targeting berkeley federal grants because of its international relationships with china 3) an aging & increasingly less interested (tix sales are an indicative metric) alumni donor base that is not being replaced by younger alums, offering FREE tixs to all students to encourage school spirit/emotional engagement is an obvious 1st step but will never happen with markeisha sitting on her azz
cal's monster class EXCLUSIVE: meet the worthless bureaucratic ****tards
listening to these 2 unlikeable anti football/basketball agenda dumb azzs with degrees from mediocre skools talk about espn gameday being a highlight of their careers is just straight up lying & tryna rebrand themselves as advocates for football now that the con artist isn't there to protect them anymore
jay larson
*****the architect behind misappropriating money from football & men's excellence in basketball donations to other agendas without notifying donors
*****the catalyst for the zoom call self reporting violation which resulted in multiple football staffers being suspended
*****recently tried to significantly reduce the daily food stipends for football players which would have basically wiped out the nutrition program & effectively terminated the football program...larsons wuz overriden by lyons & rivera and this wuz the final straw that resulted in the chancellor fully turning the keys over to the fb gm
*****like knowlton has shown no interesting in building/fundraising the critically needed men's & women's basketball practice facility, cal basketball are gonna continue to be underachieving programs with poor attendance until there's a legit plan for shovels in the ground that can be shared with cal's monster class level recruits/prospects with nba/wnba ambitions
*****the co lobbyist for nil dollars to be split 50/50 between men's & women's sports in order to be in "compliance" with title ix despite the fact that there is no other collegiate institution that shares that interpretation
*****abysmal leadership of FAILING men's athletic programs including basketball, baseball, soccer & cross country/track & field
jennifer simon o'neil
*****enabled for years teri mckeever to engage is racist & abusive behavior that resulted in multiple women's swimmers having suicidal iterations...let's be very clear about this, jennifer simon-o'neil is evil as **** and the unfunded student athlete lawsuits has the potential to be a financial tsunami
*****the co lobbyist for nil dollars to be split 50/50 between men's & women's sports in order to be in "compliance" with title ix despite the fact that there is no other collegiate institution that shares that interpretation
*****demanded that the women's basketball budget be the same as the men's basketball program, again a practice not replicated anywhere else on planet earth
*****abysmal leadership of women's athletic programs:
women's basketball: failed to measurably increase attendance despite this past season's generational squad, facilitated the hiring of a head coach who is an introvert that cannot raise nil funds & the hiring of an unqualified marketing director in markeisha everrett
women's softball: hired a mentally unstable head coach, last year's entire starting line up including the pitching staff is now out of eligibility or in the transfer portal as a result of the the crazy town bus crashing in strawberry canyon
women's gymnastics: head coaches left to clemson & roster retention under attack, program in upheaval
women's volleyball: 15-17 record last season & 7-13 in acc play
women's field hockey: 7-10 record last season & 1-6 in acc play
women's lacrosse: 6-10 record last season & 0-9 in acc play
women's track & field: tied for 12th place in the acc indoor championship last season
women's cross country: 15th place in the acc tournament last season
women's sand volleyball: there's no critically needed dedicated basketball practice facility in berkeley but o'neil is spearheading a new sand volleyball facility built for the maybe 100+ fans
in a performance based organization that held its highest ranking employees accountable with specific metrics both larson & simon-o'neil would already be fired for absolute FAILING PERFORMANCES
the good news is that both will be redundantly unnecessary in 12 months from now if a basketball general manager is hired along the same lines of responsibility as ron rivera for football
getting rid of jim knowlton (which involved a negotiated "retirement" severance that involved attorneys on both sides) & cfo tom lowry (who once tole me on a zoom call that he wuz tired of the football program's financial "demands," his replacement is the very capable berkeley grad sierra achin-cryns) is clearing a path to terminate both jay & jenny
unlike the worthless bureaucratic ****tards duo of jay larson & jennifer simon-o'neil who despite both collecting paychecks from the cal athletic department for a decade plus got no specifics on anything (other than that they are looking forward to working with ron rivera when the reality is that everybody associated with the cal football is fully aware of them working against the program & holds them in contempt)
on the other hand washington athletic director pat chun got a financial plan of action that he clearly articulates that centers around football & basketball:
nugget:we've been very focused on all of our revenues streams...that's why the mmr (learfield) deal was so important...that's why ticket sales are so important
nugget: (on why non revenue sports won't be participating in revenue sharing): i look at it from a different lens,...it's no secret we need to be competitive in football...we've had to resize NOTE: washington runs 22 sports programs vs the 30 programs run by cal
nugget: (on the $60,000,000 basketball practice facility renovations): basketball should open sometime this fall, it's definitely on schedule, $60 mill project...the sports world has changed, the types of players that we have now on both the men's and women's teams, they are gym rats...i can walk in here on monday morning at 7:30 am men's and women's shooting on their own just to get shots up NOTE: this would be impossible in berkeley with the unavailability of the rsf gold gym due to overscheduling...the work that it takes to get to the highest levels, we've recruited young men and women that have embraced that, so that facility is more important than it's ever been
nugget: i believe over 95% of our revenues are from the football contract and football ticket sales...i think there's a lot of implications on how these dollars are spent but we understand it
nugget: women's basketball is a huge opportunity for ticket sales...we just have to be conscientious of finding new dollars for us NOTE: this is never gonna happen with the unqualified & lazy azz markeisha everrett in charge of branding/marketing/ticket sales of any sport in berkeley
