I criticized Cuonzo's coaching a lot during the time he was here. He had a great personal story. I thought he was a hustler, and probably a very aggressive recruiter. I think he was very aggressive himself as a player, and tried to instill that in his players at both offense and defense. I used to criticize his defense, mostly because I did not like the way it looked. I'm old school, and if you want to play aggressively on defense in the half court, you need to get down in a crouch and move with slide steps, to the sides, and front and back. Cuonzo's defense was help defense, as was much of Montgomery's defense before him. In help defense, most defenders are standing up, and with all the rule changes to give the offensive player the advantage over the defender, help is the best way to counter those advantages. The defender anticipating helping out stands tall to be ready at a second's notice to fly across the court and help guard the player with the ball. He couldn't do that fast enough, if he were in a crouch using slide steps to move. The result of all the changes is that teams today, even with all their tremendous athleticism, don't on average score more points than teams of the 1960s. Cuonzo was a good coach for help defense, and his defenses were effective.

On offense, Cuonzo didn't offer much. His "take it to the rim or shoot a three" did not make for good basketball. Take it to the rim is not a strategy. It is a skill. Shoot the three is not a strategy. It is a skill. Neither one requires a second teammate, but can be more effective if there is a second one involved. I remember when Tyrone Wallace was out with an injury for several games, and Cuonzo was asked if he missed Tyrone. "Of course. He is the only player in the conference who can score from any spot on the court." Cuonzo not only gave the green light to Tyrone to grab a rebound and drive the length of the court with the ball to try and score. That is the way basketball is played by the Epiphany Peanuts, or most elementary school first grade teams, not the way high school or college players should play basketball. It's too primitive.

I also feel Cuonzo did not utilize some of the talent he had, because those players either did not have skills who fit his style of aggressive "take it to the rim", for example, or they had skills he did not know how to utilize. Jabari Bird did not arrive at Cal with a good three point shot, nor did he like to bowl over defenders on his way to the basket. He had a really smooth mid-range game, and could also get to the rim very smoothly. He had an assortment of moves inside 15 feet. He reminded me of the great Freddie LaCour, 2-time Mr Basketball in California, in the 1950s. Cuonzo had Bird bulk up, get stronger and more aggressive, and had him develop a better three point shot. He was a player who got banged up often, under both Montgomery and Cuonzo. I think Cuonzo pushed him too hard, in trying to change his game, he tried to change his personality, make him more aggressive. All Cuonzo's guards and wings were given the green light when they got a loose ball in the backcourt to dribble that ball the length of the court and force their way to the rim. Wallace did it naturally, but no one else did. Brown and Singer were adequate doing that, but a catch and shoot player like Mathews was pathetic trying it. In fact, he was pathetic driving the length of the court or creating his own shot. He was a fine jump shooter, and Cuonzo should have had him shooting behind screens or breaking off them, all catch and shoot.

As to Cuonzo's last game, we really don't know what went on behind closed doors between Cuonzo and University officials. He probably felt mistreated, insulted somehow, and mailed it in. But it was not fair to his players. They had to play the game, and they wanted to win it, and if he would not help them by being a coach, then he could have cheered for them, at least. And Cuonzo was not fair to the fans who supported him for 3 years, not fair by not coaching and not giving the fans his best. It was not Cal, and he was not Cal in that moment. Cal is more than that. I wish him no ill, but I don't miss him at all.