sluggo said:

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21 players on the roster. I believe only 15 can be active on game day (correct me if I am wrong). There will be a tough battle among the walkons to be active. Of course it is possible Larson will be the second string 5 if things do not go well, so he is unlikely to be part of the battle. He was better offensively than Curtis, while Curtis was better at defense, I think.

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The others sit right behind the team bench in sweats for home games, but don't travel.

Big C said:

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Rare to have a non-scholarship player of that caliber, especially a 6-10 guy. Good for us and good for Gus!

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I thought we used all the scholarships

Basketball Bear said:

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Big C said:

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GL was not on scholarship last season. When he went into the portal in April, I figured it was to test the waters to see if he could get at a schollie at a school he liked. He is returning to Cal in the same situation he was in last season. (Just occurred to me though, he may have gotten a NIL offer to partially mitigate that.)

Best 14th guy we've ever had!

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Don't forget Ryan Forehan-Kelly who was also PWO and earned a scholarship in his junior year. In that junior year he was named CAL's top defensive player. I also think he was one of CAL's top 3-point shooters and shot above 40% for his career.
His interview

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Conor Famulener and Robert Thurman as well.

Good points, guys, let me rephrase: Gus Larson is the best 14th guy we've had since those other guys!!

Gritty player, and I expect him to beat out all others (there's really only Dort) for primary backup center. I wanted to see him get a schollie this year, but maybe he'll prove himself (esp. need more offense out of him) and get awarded one next year.

I neglected to mention that also on the roster of the Cal 1958-59 teams was the #13 player, Stan Morrison, a 6-7 center from Bellflower in LA. Two years later, Stan became the starting center on the Cal 1960-61 team. He averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds. He would go on to play a year for Real Madrid in Spain. He then returned to join the Cal coaching staff. He got his Masters degree from Sac State. The title of his thesis was "The Advantages and Disadvantages of Raising the Basket from Ten Feet to Twelve Feet" An idea that Pete Newell often had lobbied for.

Morrison was named as head coach at Pacific, where he coached for 7 seasons, winning the conference championship in 1979, and taking the team to the NCAA. He was named conference coach of the year.

He then became the head coach at USC, where he coached the team to two NCAA tournaments in 7 years, won the PAC10 in 1985. and was named PAC10 coach of the year in 1985.

He was named head coach at San Jose State, where he coached for 8 seasons, and retired from coaching.

He also served as Athletic Director for UC Santa Barbara, and later as Athletic Director for UC Riverside.

He has also been inducted into the Cal Sports Hall of Fame.

I always kind of wondered why we hired Dick Kuchen instead of Stan Morrison in 1978. The best I can figure was that Kuchen's Cal predecessor, Dick Edwards, was also HC at UOP... and Maggard figured he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

But it seemed like a natural move for us, so I'm also wondering if maybe Morrison had done something previously to rub Maggard (or other Cal people) the wrong way. Does anybody remember if he was a finalist for the position, or even under consideration?

I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

Anyone know if curtis has bulked up and developed more of an offense

Oakbear said:

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Anyone know if curtis has bulked up and developed more of an offense

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Yes they call him baby Ivan Rabb now

Big C said:

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I always kind of wondered why we hired Dick Kuchen instead of Stan Morrison in 1978. The best I can figure was that Kuchen's Cal predecessor, Dick Edwards, was also HC at UOP... and Maggard figured he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

But it seemed like a natural move for us, so I'm also wondering if maybe Morrison had done something previously to rub Maggard (or other Cal people) the wrong way. Does anybody remember if he was a finalist for the position, or even under consideration?

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Kuchen was Digger Phelps' top assistant at Notre Dame when ND had just ended UCLA's win streak and sent guys like John Shumate to the NBA, so I think he (Kuchen) was pretty hot property. I like your speculation about the UOP connection, but I also wonder if Morrison's Cal alumni status worked against him. I'm not sure of the exact timing, but I recall that Maggard caught a lot of flak from Cal alumni for firing another Cal alum, Mike White, around then and maybe he wanted to avoid the potential of a similar situation had he hired Morrison. It's a topic for another thread, but I wonder where Maggard ranks among Cal ADs?

What I recall about Dick Edwards was that he switched offensive schemes in the middle of the 74-75 season to a five-out that emphasized one-on-one play - probably because he didn't have anybody who would distribute. It actually worked pretty well for that year. And he played a defense that had John Terry, not a great player, but a great athlete (with a great 'fro) as a real disruptor in the middle.

To digress for a moment, it's impossible for me to be objective about Mike White. I was at Cal during his tenure and having endured as a kid the years of grinding mediocrity under Ray Willsey, White was a HUGE breath of fresh air. Yup, White violated NCAA rules, a practice which he followed at U of Illinois, but it sure made for some fun Saturdays.

HearstMining said:

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Big C said:

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I always kind of wondered why we hired Dick Kuchen instead of Stan Morrison in 1978. The best I can figure was that Kuchen's Cal predecessor, Dick Edwards, was also HC at UOP... and Maggard figured he didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

But it seemed like a natural move for us, so I'm also wondering if maybe Morrison had done something previously to rub Maggard (or other Cal people) the wrong way. Does anybody remember if he was a finalist for the position, or even under consideration?

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Kuchen was Digger Phelps' top assistant at Notre Dame when ND had just ended UCLA's win streak and sent guys like John Shumate to the NBA, so I think he (Kuchen) was pretty hot property. I like your speculation about the UOP connection, but I also wonder if Morrison's Cal alumni status worked against him. I'm not sure of the exact timing, but I recall that Maggard caught a lot of flak from Cal alumni for firing another Cal alum, Mike White, around then and maybe he wanted to avoid the potential of a similar situation had he hired Morrison. It's a topic for another thread, but I wonder where Maggard ranks among Cal ADs?

What I recall about Dick Edwards was that he switched offensive schemes in the middle of the 74-75 season to a five-out that emphasized one-on-one play - probably because he didn't have anybody who would distribute. It actually worked pretty well for that year. And he played a defense that had John Terry, not a great player, but a great athlete (with a great 'fro) as a real disruptor in the middle.

To digress for a moment, it's impossible for me to be objective about Mike White. I was at Cal during his tenure and having endured as a kid the years of grinding mediocrity under Ray Willsey, White was a HUGE breath of fresh air. Yup, White violated NCAA rules, a practice which he followed at U of Illinois, but it sure made for some fun Saturdays.

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Pretty spot on about Kuchen. Notre Dame was a top 10(if not higher) program at the time, so Cal was getting an assistant from a elite staff. Kuchen had recruited California for the Irish, he had the leads. His recruiting talents paid instant dividends....
No comment on the X and O side of things...when Cal was playing badly, we would yell "Come on Digger!" at him from the stands....

SFCityBear said:

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Big C said:

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GL was not on scholarship last season. When he went into the portal in April, I figured it was to test the waters to see if he could get at a schollie at a school he liked. He is returning to Cal in the same situation he was in last season. (Just occurred to me though, he may have gotten a NIL offer to partially mitigate that.)

Best 14th guy we've ever had!

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I liked Larson as well. He has some real potential for sure.

Here are some other players from the past who were #14 or thereabouts on the
roster who went on to have outstanding Cal careers. They are all from the Pete Newell era, when rosters were larger than today, and freshmen were not permitted to play until they became sophomores:

1. On Newell's first Cal team, 1954-55, the 14th man was soph Duane Asplund, an undersized 6-7 center from the Central Valley. In the following year, 1956, he became Cal's starting center, and in his senior year he led the Cal team to the PCC title and the 1957 NCAA Elite 8. He averaged 11 points and 8 rebounds for his Cal career.

2. In 1956-57, the 13th man was Bernie Simpson, one of the best defenders ever to play at Cal. In 1959, as 7th man in the rotation, Bernie went on to help the Bears to their first NCAA Championship.

3. Also in 1956-57, the 15th man was Bob Dalton, who split time playing on the Junior Varsity and the Varsity. Dalton went on to be a starter on Cal's 1959 NCAA Championship team, and had the distinction of guarding Oscar Robertson in the NCAA Semi-Final game, and the following night guarding Jerry West in the NCAA Final, holding both of them below their averages, and helping Cal to the National Championship.

4. In 1958-59, the 14th man was Jerry Mann from Washington High of San Francisco. Jerry would go on to become the starting point guard at the opening of the 1959-60 season. Cal would would win the first 8 games of the season, but then lost a game to USC. In the next game, Newell replaced Mann in the starting lineup with the #19 man on the roster, Bobby Wendell, who remained as the starter for the rest of the season, and the Bears went undefeated until the NCAA Championship game.

If Gus Larson becomes even half as good as any of these great Cal players, I'd be be really pleased. He has a great opportunity here at Cal to reach his full potential. Maybe he can be better than all of them.

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I just found some additional information on Duane Asplund, Cal's starting center in 1956-57. He did help take the Cal team into the NCAA tournament, but did not play in the Elite 8 or Regional Final Round. He was ruled ineligible for that round, because due to an earlier injury and a ruling, he had been given an extra year of eligibility. By the time the NCAA Regional was played, he had already played 4 years of college ball, so he was ruled ineligible for Cal's last two games in the NCAA tournament.

In the Regional Final round, Asplund was replaced in Cal's starting lineup by Joe Hagler, and went on to lose the Regional Final to USF, 50-46. Hagler was a decent player, but not near as good as Asplund. I think that with Asplund, Cal would have easily defeated that USF team, and moved on to the Final Four. That is probably as far as Cal would have gone, because their opponent in the Semifinal Game would have been Kansas with Wilt Chamberlain or North Carolina, which was the eventual 3OT winner (with Lennie Rosenbluth) over Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain.



I sure wish everyone could have been there and seen those Bears.

Oakbear said:

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I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

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You are a lucky man, to have seen that game. Tickets were really hard to get. I begged my dad to take me to the game (we would go to a lot of games that season), but he had to work, and we couldn't go.

I remember that Chamberlain was averaging 39 points a game, and hearing that Asplund had held Wilt to 23. When he was interviewed about that, Asplund said, "Well, I had a lot of help." Other players said that Cal tried to double-team Wilt all game long. Newell said that we tried to keep him from getting the high pass. Here is the game article with a photo of one play. The Cal player closest to Wilt was either 6-7 Asplund or 6-6 Don McIntosh.

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Kansas-hasn-t-visited-Cal-since-Chamberlain-1956-2520249.php

SFCityBear said:

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Oakbear said:

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I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

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You are a lucky man, to have seen that game. Tickets were really hard to get. I begged my dad to take me to the game (we would go to a lot of games that season), but he had to work, and we couldn't go.

I remember that Chamberlain was averaging 39 points a game, and hearing that Asplund had held Wilt to 23. When he was interviewed about that, Asplund said, "Well, I had a lot of help." Other players said that Cal tried to double-team Wilt all game long. Newell said that we tried to keep him from getting the high pass. Here is the game article with a photo of one play. The Cal player closest to Wilt was either 6-7 Asplund or 6-6 Don McIntosh.

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Kansas-hasn-t-visited-Cal-since-Chamberlain-1956-2520249.php

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I was always a huge Wilt fan. Got to see him at the Coliseum when the Lakers came up to play the Warriors. We went down by the court during pre-game warmups, just to see him up close. Security let us hang out there for about two minutes.

My boss (this was back in the mid-'80s) had a story he liked to tell: He and two buddies encountered Wilt in a hotel bar/lounge, so they go up to where he was sitting to say hi. One of 'em. I guess trying to be funny, said something not real nice about Wilt's height... just kind of blurted it out. Wilt looked at them, stone-faced, and for a moment they saw their lives flash before their eyes. Then Wilt laughed and told them to go back to their table because the next round was on him.

My hs bb coach scored the tickets

SFCityBear said:

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Oakbear said:

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I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

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You are a lucky man, to have seen that game. Tickets were really hard to get. I begged my dad to take me to the game (we would go to a lot of games that season), but he had to work, and we couldn't go.

I remember that Chamberlain was averaging 39 points a game, and hearing that Asplund had held Wilt to 23. When he was interviewed about that, Asplund said, "Well, I had a lot of help." Other players said that Cal tried to double-team Wilt all game long. Newell said that we tried to keep him from getting the high pass. Here is the game article with a photo of one play. The Cal player closest to Wilt was either 6-7 Asplund or 6-6 Don McIntosh.

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Kansas-hasn-t-visited-Cal-since-Chamberlain-1956-2520249.php

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Looks like a pretty clear offensive foul. Defender is straight up with hands down and Wilt is about to land on him. Being big shouldn't allow you to get away with fouling everybody. I like officials who make those calls. Most don't. They're in awe of the size. Shaq was a terrible basketball player.

bearsandgiants said:

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SFCityBear said:

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Oakbear said:

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I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

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You are a lucky man, to have seen that game. Tickets were really hard to get. I begged my dad to take me to the game (we would go to a lot of games that season), but he had to work, and we couldn't go.

I remember that Chamberlain was averaging 39 points a game, and hearing that Asplund had held Wilt to 23. When he was interviewed about that, Asplund said, "Well, I had a lot of help." Other players said that Cal tried to double-team Wilt all game long. Newell said that we tried to keep him from getting the high pass. Here is the game article with a photo of one play. The Cal player closest to Wilt was either 6-7 Asplund or 6-6 Don McIntosh.

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Kansas-hasn-t-visited-Cal-since-Chamberlain-1956-2520249.php

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Looks like a pretty clear offensive foul. Defender is straight up with hands down and Wilt is about to land on him. Being big shouldn't allow you to get away with fouling everybody. I like officials who make those calls. Most don't. They're in awe of the size. Shaq was a terrible basketball player.

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We can't learn too much from a one dimensional photo. It may look to you like Wilt was coming straight down on the Cal defender, which is understandable. I doubt that he was, because Wilt often drove across the lane from right or left, and as he got near the basket he rose up to take a floating shot as he went by, sort of out of the photo towards you, as well as coming down as you said, and in that way he had been jumping away from the defender as well as jumping up above him at the same time.

Did you ever see Wilt play? I saw many of his games in San Francisco, at the Civic center and the Cow Palace, and I've seen him many times take shots like what I described.

Another reason for me to doubt that Wilt was about to commit a foul in the photo, is the fact that Wilt very rarely committed a foul, offensively or otherwise. The Cal game was in 1956, and that season Wilt committed 2.3 fouls per game. He averaged 46 minutes per game in the NBA over 14 seasons, but averaged only 2.0 fouls per game over those 14 seasons. He was the most graceful big man I ever saw, especially when he was young, in college and early pro years. He just did not run into or over people, or fall on them. Later as he got much bigger and much stronger, maybe you could make a case. At the time of the Cal game Wilt was a skinny kid of 18 or 19 who could run like the wind.

I didn't like Shaq's play either. He knocked everyone down on his way to the basket. He probably should have fouled out of every game he played. I don't like the comparison of Shaq to Wilt. About the only thing they were alike in, was the inability to make a free throw. With Wilt it was mental. Wilt was two different players. the NBA rookie who weighed maybe 220, and the older Wilt at the end, who was 320 and was satisfied with rebounding, passing, and playing D.

I don't think refs are so much awed by height, or intimidated by size. Rather I think the big stars, especially in the NBA, expect some respect from the officials. Wilt, Shaq, Kareem, were seldom called for fouls or traveling. Magic used to palm the ball, but it was never called, even though it was still a rule back when he played. It's a game, and they need to sell tickets.

SFCityBear said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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SFCityBear said:

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Oakbear said:

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I was at the game where asplund went up against wilt, he lookedlike a midget (ok to say in the day)

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You are a lucky man, to have seen that game. Tickets were really hard to get. I begged my dad to take me to the game (we would go to a lot of games that season), but he had to work, and we couldn't go.

I remember that Chamberlain was averaging 39 points a game, and hearing that Asplund had held Wilt to 23. When he was interviewed about that, Asplund said, "Well, I had a lot of help." Other players said that Cal tried to double-team Wilt all game long. Newell said that we tried to keep him from getting the high pass. Here is the game article with a photo of one play. The Cal player closest to Wilt was either 6-7 Asplund or 6-6 Don McIntosh.

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Kansas-hasn-t-visited-Cal-since-Chamberlain-1956-2520249.php

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Looks like a pretty clear offensive foul. Defender is straight up with hands down and Wilt is about to land on him. Being big shouldn't allow you to get away with fouling everybody. I like officials who make those calls. Most don't. They're in awe of the size. Shaq was a terrible basketball player.

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We can't learn too much from a one dimensional photo. It may look to you like Wilt was coming straight down on the Cal defender, which is understandable. I doubt that he was, because Wilt often drove across the lane from right or left, and as he got near the basket he rose up to take a floating shot as he went by, sort of out of the photo towards you, as well as coming down as you said, and in that way he had been jumping away from the defender as well as jumping up above him at the same time.

Did you ever see Wilt play? I saw many of his games in San Francisco, at the Civic center and the Cow Palace, and I've seen him many times take shots like what I described.

Another reason for me to doubt that Wilt was about to commit a foul in the photo, is the fact that Wilt very rarely committed a foul, offensively or otherwise. The Cal game was in 1956, and that season Wilt committed 2.3 fouls per game. He averaged 46 minutes per game in the NBA over 14 seasons, but averaged only 2.0 fouls per game over those 14 seasons. He was the most graceful big man I ever saw, especially when he was young, in college and early pro years. He just did not run into or over people, or fall on them. Later as he got much bigger and much stronger, maybe you could make a case. At the time of the Cal game Wilt was a skinny kid of 18 or 19 who could run like the wind.

I didn't like Shaq's play either. He knocked everyone down on his way to the basket. He probably should have fouled out of every game he played. I don't like the comparison of Shaq to Wilt. About the only thing they were alike in, was the inability to make a free throw. With Wilt it was mental. Wilt was two different players. the NBA rookie who weighed maybe 220, and the older Wilt at the end, who was 320 and was satisfied with rebounding, passing, and playing D.

I don't think refs are so much awed by height, or intimidated by size. Rather I think the big stars, especially in the NBA, expect some respect from the officials. Wilt, Shaq, Kareem, were seldom called for fouls or traveling. Magic used to palm the ball, but it was never called, even though it was still a rule back when he played. It's a game, and they need to sell tickets.

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I believe Wilt never fouled out of a game....I sure wish I was as bad at basketball as Shaq, I sure wouldnt be as impoverish as I am....(not looking for food stamps)
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