Cal has agreed to extend coach Mark Madsen’s contract for two years through 2029-30 season, ESPN sources tell me and @jeffborzello. Madsen just completed his first year at Cal, which saw the Bears jump to 9-11 in PAC-12 play from 2-18 in 2022-23. pic.twitter.com/oYDMWFjgZi

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 12, 2024

Let's give him the support he needs: Calegends.com

Seems premature (again) , but given Knowlton extended Fox, Wilcox (three times?) and McKeever and he himself received an 8 year extension after a couple of horrible years, this is par for the course and definitely better than any of those. I assume Stanford reached out which was predictable when we hired him.

Hopefully we win the PAC-12 Tournament and then make a Tournament run making this look like a genius move. Otherwise, normally I'd much rather wait a year and see if Madsen can replicate this years' (net losing) results much less improve on them which is what would normally justify this. I'm not thrilled but I'm OK with it.

On the other side of the coin, I am glad that it affirms Madsen wants to be at Cal. Stanford will hire someone else. Plus it means Knowlton won't be hiring again before he is gone because odds are not good he would come up with anyone nearly as good. All in all, we are lucky to have Madsen.

bearsandgiants said:

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calumnus said:

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Seems premature (again) , but given Knowlton extended Fox, Wilcox (three times?) and McKeever and he himself received an 8 year extension after a couple of horrible years, this is par for the course and definitely better than any of those. I assume Stanford reached out which was predictable when we hired him.

Hopefully we win the PAC-12 Tournament and then make a Tournament run making this look like a genius move. Otherwise, normally I'd much rather wait a year and see if Madsen can replicate this years' (net losing) results much less improve on them which is what would normally justify this. I'm not thrilled but I'm OK with it.

On the other side of the coin, I am glad that it affirms Madsen wants to be at Cal. Stanford will hire someone else. Plus it means Knowlton won't be hiring again before he is gone because odds are not good he would come up with anyone nearly as good. All in all, we are lucky to have Madsen.

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My worry is furd hiring the wsu guy and running roughshod over us through 2030, but other than that, seems good. Oh, and the last three horrendous games that absolutely crushed momentum and faith in our abilities. But that can be remedied with at least two wins starting tomorrow.

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Smith would be good at Stanford (Nerdball meets Nerdball) and given the way he took Columbia from forever last in the the Ivy to 25-10 and CIT Champs and now 23-8 challenging Arizona for the PAC-12 Championship (beating them twice) I am sure they think he'd be a good fit. So will UW and many others, especially if he makes a deep run. If Madsen had gone to Stanford, we would have had a shot because I know he loved living in the East Bay but took the WSU before the Cal job opened up. Despite what some Knowlton/Fox defenders will tell you, it was never his dream to live in the Palouse.

any news of the terms of the extension? The key to these things is what the buyout is in both directions (firing, him leaving for another job). Otherwise extensions like these are just marketing.

Given Cal's recent history, it seems likely that we did something stupid here like guarantee a bunch more money for a guy who hasn't had the results to justify it. I think Madsen did a solid job this year considering the circumstances. That said, I don't like tying ourselves long term to a guy whose one season was below .500 in conference and horrendous out of conference (how do you lose to Pacific? They're 6-26 and KenPom has them as the 3rd worst team in the country just behind whatever Stonehill is). We've shown that we won't fire bad coaches due to contracts and/or looking the part.

For what it's worth, the improvement he showed is great but also not super meaningful. Historically if a coach came in and improved things it was either by showing he could coach up the same guys or by bringing in new guys who could grow with the program. With the new world of portal and NIL Madsen brought in a bunch of 1 and done vets who got us more wins but leave us without a base to grow from for next year.

boredom said:

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any news of the terms of the extension? The key to these things is what the buyout is in both directions (firing, him leaving for another job). Otherwise extensions like these are just marketing.

Given Cal's recent history, it seems likely that we did something stupid here like guarantee a bunch more money for a guy who hasn't had the results to justify it. I think Madsen did a solid job this year considering the circumstances. That said, I don't like tying ourselves long term to a guy whose one season was below .500 in conference and horrendous out of conference (how do you lose to Pacific? They're 6-26 and KenPom has them as the 3rd worst team in the country just behind whatever Stonehill is). We've shown that we won't fire bad coaches due to contracts and/or looking the part.

For what it's worth, the improvement he showed is great but also not super meaningful. Historically if a coach came in and improved things it was either by showing he could coach up the same guys or by bringing in new guys who could grow with the program. With the new world of portal and NIL Madsen brought in a bunch of 1 and done vets who got us more wins but leave us without a base to grow from for next year.

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I agree with this but he has a proven track record of success at lower levels, and he managed to improve things overnight. He managed to recruit some solid transfers to play at the worst basketball school in the country at the time. He has and continues to make great connections. It's a bit of a gamble for sure, but he seems to put more effort into this than anyone I could imagine and I don't want to disparage the team at all but I don't think our overall mediocrity is due to coaching.

philbert said:

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Cal has agreed to extend coach Mark Madsen’s contract for two years through 2029-30 season, ESPN sources tell me and @jeffborzello. Madsen just completed his first year at Cal, which saw the Bears jump to 9-11 in PAC-12 play from 2-18 in 2022-23. pic.twitter.com/oYDMWFjgZi

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 12, 2024

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This is yet another poor move by the AD. No one is going to hire Madsen away after this season - there is zero reason to do this.

HKBear97! said:

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philbert said:

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Cal has agreed to extend coach Mark Madsen’s contract for two years through 2029-30 season, ESPN sources tell me and @jeffborzello. Madsen just completed his first year at Cal, which saw the Bears jump to 9-11 in PAC-12 play from 2-18 in 2022-23. pic.twitter.com/oYDMWFjgZi

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 12, 2024

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This is yet another poor move by the AD. No one is going to hire Madsen away after this season - there is zero reason to do this.

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Yeah, Madsen was still in the first year of a 5 year contract. Knowlton definitely could have at least waited a few days to see if an extension was warranted. This reminds me of the most recent 5 year extension he gave to Wilcox after the horrible 2020 and 2021 seasons. He could have waited until after 2022 to see if an extension was warranted (it wasn't).

Knowlton is just a horrible, horrible AD. I am still hoping the new chancellor gets rid of him later this year.