Where do you all stand heading into the season? I became a Cal fan when I was a freshman in 1993-1994. Cal was great in football and basketball and they reeled me in and quickly made me realize what it meant to be a suffering Cal fan.

While I've maintained my passion in football, the
atrocity of the past 6 or so years of basketball has made me feel totally disconnected with the basketball program.

I would be pumped right now and anxious to watch every possession in the home opener but right now I just feel like I did the past few years ... not really caring. I hope we get back to winning and exciting play but where are you all at with your relationship with Cal bball? Still passionate? Simply Mad Dog curious? Or wake me when we make a tournament - nit or otherwise?

Casual fan, here. I go back to watching Russ Critchfield, Charles, Jackie, Chenier, etc. During my Cal student years, Carl Bird and a couple of others (the infamous Rock Lee). I used to go to a game a year (long drive from Roseville) but I think the last game I saw was against Klay Thompson's WSU team. The last few years under Wyking/Fox, I couldn't even stomach an entire game on TV.

Why don't I care more? Because it's silly to care more than the people who do the hiring/firing/budgeting. Let's hope Madsen adds some juice!

Econ141 said:

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Where do you all stand heading into the season? I became a Cal fan when I was a freshman in 1993-1994. Cal was great in football and basketball and they reeled me in and quickly made me realize what it meant to be a suffering Cal fan.

While I've maintained my passion in football, the
atrocity of the past 6 or so years of basketball has made me feel totally disconnected with the basketball program.

I would be pumped right now and anxious to watch every possession in the home opener but right now I just feel like I did the past few years ... not really caring. I hope we get back to winning and exciting play but where are you all at with your relationship with Cal bball? Still passionate? Simply Mad Dog curious? Or wake me when we make a tournament - nit or otherwise?

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I've been a serious fan of Cal hoops since the 70's, but I totally checked out the last two years. Gave up seats, didn't go to games, didn't even watch on tv. It wasn't just the losing, the team was boring and I hated Fox's demeanor and the way he coached.

Madsen has me back in the fold already. Last night was the first game I've watched since 2021. I'll be going to some games and watching the others and supporting the program again. I like the energy, the players he brought in, and the style of play he intends to coach.

I got hooked on Cal basketball about 14-15 years ago under Montgomery. Before that, I occasionally attended games, but wasn't that into it and was all in on football. As Cal football started sucking and basketball doing well, I started getting more and more into basketball.

My fandom peaked under Cuonzo, and I gradually stopped following under Wyking. And I think watched maybe 8 games total on TV and attended one game in person during the entire MFer abomination.

With football in the dumps and things looking bright in basketball again, I'm all in on Cal basketball now though.

The good thing about basketball is that I feel there's hope, that because it's played all over the world, there's still the opportunity to put a team together that can compete, as opposed to football where I think it's just going to be the rich getting richer.

The bad thing about basketball is that, even more than football, it's basically scheduled for television. After years of having season tickets, I gave them up because it was just too difficult to get to games during the week. Now my father has them, and I go to Saturday, Sunday and holiday games with him when I can.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Madsen does. If nothing else, it's somewhat a return to the Montgomery tree, which I now think we mistakenly got off of with the hiring of Cuonzo Martin, a hiring tangent that really did nothing to develop the program over the long term, to where we're now starting from a lower spot than when Monty took over from Braun.

PtownBear1 said:

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I got hooked on Cal basketball about 14-15 years ago under Montgomery. Before that, I occasionally attended games, but wasn't that into it and was all in on football. As Cal football started sucking and basketball doing well, I started getting more and more into basketball.

My fandom peaked under Cuonzo, and I gradually stopped following under Wyking. And I think watched maybe 8 games total on TV and attended one game in person during the entire MFer abomination.

With football in the dumps and things looking bright in basketball again, I'm all in on Cal basketball now though.

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All parts the same, except about football. And really, I probably won't be at a game any time soon for various non fan reasons.