RedlessWardrobe said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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This is going to be really tough for us because I don't see big donors wanting to plunk down on any of our top players with the exception of Wilkinson. Why do we suck so bad at recruiting and coaching? So many other small teams are kicking our ass, from coast to coast. It's frankly embarrassing.

We should be a ranked team nearly every year. We're paying for that in Madsen. We're funding it with NIL. We're getting absolutely terrible results. The casual layman could tell Rytis was a gamer who would make major contributions from day 1, but it took forever for him to get into the starting lineup. Blacksher continues to eat up massive minutes in what can generously be described as a head-scratcher. Andrej was mediocre at Furd but paid big to come be our savior for some reason (just because he had 5 stars in high school playing against weak Sacramento valley competition?). He plays hard but takes way too many shots and isn't facilitating team success. There's almost no game plan from day to day. We continue to make dumb mistakes and commit lazy turnovers. We lead the conference in offensive rebounding because we miss everything in sight.

I think we need to clean house next season if Madsen and his clueless assistants don't find a way to a winning conference record and at LEAST an NIT bid next spring.

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I understand your passion and concern but already coming to conclusions about next year might be a bit premature. I want Cal to be relevant in basketball as well, but the sh*t situation that Madsen inherited is about as bad as you can get. Got to give him just a little bit more leeway.

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It is the AD (and the Chancellor). They do NOT demand (or maybe even encourage) engagement by the university to its sports team

I see this a LOT closer up with a kiddo at Cal.

What would be marketing 101 ? Show up with the team (or even just one player)\ at Foothill dining the day before the game. Have Madsen make an EMPHATIC please to attend. Open up "overflow" to students to general AD tickets unsold 10 minutes prior to tip that are in a standby line. Etc. etc. etc.

These things are done even at ****ty sports schools like San Diego state. But cal can NOT be bothered.

Until this changes....and until donors demand concerte measurable metrics of key performance indicators by an Athletic department for whom marketing is a KEY objective we will remain where we are.

socaltownie said:

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RedlessWardrobe said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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This is going to be really tough for us because I don't see big donors wanting to plunk down on any of our top players with the exception of Wilkinson. Why do we suck so bad at recruiting and coaching? So many other small teams are kicking our ass, from coast to coast. It's frankly embarrassing.

We should be a ranked team nearly every year. We're paying for that in Madsen. We're funding it with NIL. We're getting absolutely terrible results. The casual layman could tell Rytis was a gamer who would make major contributions from day 1, but it took forever for him to get into the starting lineup. Blacksher continues to eat up massive minutes in what can generously be described as a head-scratcher. Andrej was mediocre at Furd but paid big to come be our savior for some reason (just because he had 5 stars in high school playing against weak Sacramento valley competition?). He plays hard but takes way too many shots and isn't facilitating team success. There's almost no game plan from day to day. We continue to make dumb mistakes and commit lazy turnovers. We lead the conference in offensive rebounding because we miss everything in sight.

I think we need to clean house next season if Madsen and his clueless assistants don't find a way to a winning conference record and at LEAST an NIT bid next spring.

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I understand your passion and concern but already coming to conclusions about next year might be a bit premature. I want Cal to be relevant in basketball as well, but the sh*t situation that Madsen inherited is about as bad as you can get. Got to give him just a little bit more leeway.

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It is the AD (and the Chancellor). They do NOT demand (or maybe even encourage) engagement by the university to its sports team

I see this a LOT closer up with a kiddo at Cal.

What would be marketing 101 ? Show up with the team (or even just one player)\ at Foothill dining the day before the game. Have Madsen make an EMPHATIC please to attend. Open up "overflow" to students to general AD tickets unsold 10 minutes prior to tip that are in a standby line. Etc. etc. etc.

These things are done even at ****ty sports schools like San Diego state. But cal can NOT be bothered.

Until this changes....and until donors demand concerte measurable metrics of key performance indicators by an Athletic department for whom marketing is a KEY objective we will remain where we are.

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Yep, good point. Under the hypotheticals you mention, there would certainly NOT be a problem with Madsen putting out as much time as possible to support this stuff. That's why I contend that MM is not the real problem.

RedlessWardrobe said:

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socaltownie said:

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RedlessWardrobe said:

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bearsandgiants said:

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This is going to be really tough for us because I don't see big donors wanting to plunk down on any of our top players with the exception of Wilkinson. Why do we suck so bad at recruiting and coaching? So many other small teams are kicking our ass, from coast to coast. It's frankly embarrassing.

We should be a ranked team nearly every year. We're paying for that in Madsen. We're funding it with NIL. We're getting absolutely terrible results. The casual layman could tell Rytis was a gamer who would make major contributions from day 1, but it took forever for him to get into the starting lineup. Blacksher continues to eat up massive minutes in what can generously be described as a head-scratcher. Andrej was mediocre at Furd but paid big to come be our savior for some reason (just because he had 5 stars in high school playing against weak Sacramento valley competition?). He plays hard but takes way too many shots and isn't facilitating team success. There's almost no game plan from day to day. We continue to make dumb mistakes and commit lazy turnovers. We lead the conference in offensive rebounding because we miss everything in sight.

I think we need to clean house next season if Madsen and his clueless assistants don't find a way to a winning conference record and at LEAST an NIT bid next spring.

---

I understand your passion and concern but already coming to conclusions about next year might be a bit premature. I want Cal to be relevant in basketball as well, but the sh*t situation that Madsen inherited is about as bad as you can get. Got to give him just a little bit more leeway.

---

It is the AD (and the Chancellor). They do NOT demand (or maybe even encourage) engagement by the university to its sports team

I see this a LOT closer up with a kiddo at Cal.

What would be marketing 101 ? Show up with the team (or even just one player)\ at Foothill dining the day before the game. Have Madsen make an EMPHATIC please to attend. Open up "overflow" to students to general AD tickets unsold 10 minutes prior to tip that are in a standby line. Etc. etc. etc.

These things are done even at ****ty sports schools like San Diego state. But cal can NOT be bothered.

Until this changes....and until donors demand concerte measurable metrics of key performance indicators by an Athletic department for whom marketing is a KEY objective we will remain where we are.

---

Yep, good point. Under the hypotheticals you mention, there would certainly NOT be a problem with Madsen putting out as much time as possible to support this stuff. That's why I contend that MM is not the real problem.

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Trust me. Mark gets it. This is on the AD. He is the "face" of the program but the marketing team needs to support that and leverage it.

Johnfox said:

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Losing Joshua Ola joseph and DJ campbell wouldn't hurt

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That depends on who else we lose.
I've seen 2 games in Haas this season, and in both games Campbell drove into the paint and it was his first instinct to pass to a teammate who made an easy bucket. He did it more than once in both games. Who else on this team does that? I'd suggest you try and keep him as your backup point.

bearsandgiants said:

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This is going to be really tough for us because I don't see big donors wanting to plunk down on any of our top players with the exception of Wilkinson. Why do we suck so bad at recruiting and coaching? So many other small teams are kicking our ass, from coast to coast. It's frankly embarrassing.

We should be a ranked team nearly every year. We're paying for that in Madsen. We're funding it with NIL. We're getting absolutely terrible results. The casual layman could tell Rytis was a gamer who would make major contributions from day 1, but it took forever for him to get into the starting lineup. Blacksher continues to eat up massive minutes in what can generously be described as a head-scratcher. Andrej was mediocre at Furd but paid big to come be our savior for some reason (just because he had 5 stars in high school playing against weak Sacramento valley competition?). He plays hard but takes way too many shots and isn't facilitating team success. There's almost no game plan from day to day. We continue to make dumb mistakes and commit lazy turnovers. We lead the conference in offensive rebounding because we miss everything in sight.

I think we need to clean house next season if Madsen and his clueless assistants don't find a way to a winning conference record and at LEAST an NIT bid next spring.

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You have some points, but I wouldn't lay all this on Madsen. His teams are far better than those of Fox and Wyking. Cal has sucked at recruiting since Cuonzo (he had only one good class), so really since Braun, and Cal has sucked at coaching since Monty. We just don't have a good reputation as a school kids want to play for.

One problem Cal has in getting ranked is that we need to play and do well against ranked opponents. The ACC is the weakest of all the power conferences, and we play most of our games against the ACC. Only one ACC team, Duke, is ranked.

Fact is, we are just not that good. And jumping from last place to a winning record is reachable, as a few of our games were lost by a single bucket. Very few coaches have figured out how to recruit successfully in a system that favors the teams that have money and larceny in a system with fewer rules than ever before.

BJ Omot might be really good next year

Johnfox said:

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BJ Omot might be really good next year

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in the few games he played in he showed huge potential

when we were getting blitzed by Vanderbilt, it was only Andrej and BJ that kept firing back

...and moved into starting lineup

With the season nearing it's end, players are already starting to enter the portal. The big question for us is player retention. Who's leaving and how many scholarships will we have to fill? Sissoko has apparently applied for an additional year of eligibility but that seems doubtful. I placed an asterisk on Curtis and Pavlovic since they are presumably healthy yet not able to earn PT. I think they are gone. I would expect other players in the returning group to depart (Wilkinson getting poached? Campbell?) but at this point it's speculation. So, according to my list, we would be losing 5 players and we have 2 incoming---leaving 3 open scholarships. IMO we need a PG, a combo guard and a big. It's crucial that those 2 guards are able to shoot. Curious to hear everyone's thoughts!

Losing (3):
Blacksher
Sissoko
Tucker

Returning (10):
Campbell
Curtis*
Dort
Mahoney
Ola-Joseph
Omot
Pavlovic*
Petraitis
Stojakovic
Wilkinson

Incoming (2):
Carr
Ruff

Keepers, if they decide to stay, should be Jeremiah, Drej, Rytis, BJ, CJ and Lee. On the fence depending upon their NIL cost could be Spencer and JOJ. Gone are Vlad and Devin Curtis who contributed 0 to this year's squad (if they stay, then no NIL 4s and no PT as if they were walk-ons).. TT and Jovan will get some PT and perhaps grow like Jeremiah did this season. Mady is a long shot to get another much desired, additional year. Thinking outside the box, we should consider making Drej our tall PG that we have lacked for too long and then go into the portal for a deadeye SG from the 3 point arc who can create his own shots and also for an athletic 7' center to replacew Mady who can match his competing sizeable 5's in the ACC.

Harky4 said:

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Keepers, if they decide to stay, should be Jeremiah, Drej, Rytis, BJ, CJ and Lee. On the fence depending upon their NIL cost could be Spencer and JOJ. Gone are Vlad and Devin Curtis who contributed 0 to this year's squad (if they stay, then no NIL 4s and no PT as if they were walk-ons).. TT and Jovan will get some PT and perhaps grow like Jeremiah did this season. Mady is a long shot to get another much desired, additional year. Thinking outside the box, we should consider making Drej our tall PG that we have lacked for too long and then go into the portal for a deadeye SG from the 3 point arc who can create his own shots and also for an athletic 7' center to replacew Mady who can match his competing sizeable 5's in the ACC.

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…. And a partridge in a pear tree….
Speaking of athletic 5's, I thought I would check in with our friend Aziz Bandaogo. Remember him? He was the 7-footer who Madsen was going to bring to Cal and save the Bears from mediocrity… then he didn't. Turns out Bandaogo is not exactly tearing it up at Cincy: 7.7 pts, 6.1 rebs, 67% shooting. Not bad, but Mady's 7.9 pts, 7.8 rebs on 66% is better.
So even if Madsen had grabbed the "athletic 7-footer" last year, we'd be no closer to a .500 season.
Athletic 7-footers who can dominate the paint are like albino tigers, super rare and very unlikely to be housed at Haas. They will go to a top 25 team, and we're not that (yet) so cross that off your shopping list. I do think good rebounders with great hands for receiving short passes are around (Mady+?), and we can recruit that person. 6' 10 will do. Please maybe have one go-to move in the paint, too?
Did Vlad and Curtis really get NIL money? I thought only the starters and a few on the bench get paid, but please correct me if you know the facts.

concernedparent said:

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DJ was a blackhole all year and had some of the worst shooting percentages on the team. I would be shocked if Madsen wanted him back.

JOJ is a decent roleplayer and I hope he comes back though he might want a bigger role somewhere else. He was the only real athlete on the team and really needed to play with better playmakers to take advantage of his cutting ability.

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Agree about DJ. He's a solid player but doesn't do anything above average. If he can put in serious work on his shot during the offseason, maybe he'll be a nice piece for next year. But really, we should be trying to get better players than him---Ruff might already be that guy that cuts into his minutes.

DJ repeatedly plays too fast and sloppy and loses/gets stripped of the ball so then hustles like crazy to try to retrieve the ball.

Harky4 said:

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Thinking outside the box, we should consider making Drej our tall PG that we have lacked for too long and then go into the portal for a deadeye SG from the 3 point arc who can create his own shots and also for an athletic 7' center to replacew Mady who can match his competing sizeable 5's in the ACC.

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I really love this idea! I will watch this more closely when JW is on the court next to Drej in the final two games. It may be easier to find that shooter in the portal. I think it will help Drej become a better ball handler. Yes, a big man with post moves.

Stojakovic brings the ball upcourt now sometimes. JMO though, he doesn't seem like a natural facilitator. He seems to give up the ball more, lately, but once he gets locked in that he's going to shoot, he only has eyes for the basket.

OTOH, maybe it would help his development to begin to see the game from a PG's perspective... and keep him happy.