The source on the Faraudo blog said they are looking for a home run hire. That is unlikely to happen.

Reading some of the posts in this thread, I can't help but laugh a bit. How anyone can be so sure that Travis will be this or that is beyond me. None of us know. Not even Travis himself does. How anyone can surely say he's the next Shaka Smart is a little funny to me. How about Lorenzo Romar or someone else? None of us know. There's a wide range of ways this could turn out. My main hope is that the recruiting improves and that he has a style of play and identity that he wants to build the program on. The last two coaches (BB and MM) had some success, but the program has not had a brand or identity to be known for.

tsubamoto2001;842302275 said:

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The source on the Faraudo blog said they are looking for a home run hire. That is unlikely to happen.

Reading some of the posts in this thread, I can't help but laugh a bit. How anyone can be so sure that Travis will be this or that is beyond me. None of us know. Not even Travis himself does. How anyone can surely say he's the next Shaka Smart is a little funny to me. How about Lorenzo Romar or someone else? None of us know. There's a wide range of ways this could turn out. My main hope is that the recruiting improves and that he has a style of play and identity that he wants to build the program on. The last two coaches (BB and MM) had some success, but the program has not had a brand or identity to be known for.

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Of course no one knows. But the issue is that we can pretty much predict that the guy from UCI will have a painful first 2 weeks. Now maybe he holds the class, avoids transfers and signs the Austrian. Fantastic. But if he doesn't the problem is that he isn't brining any recruits with him that are likley to be Pac-12 caliber. So he would possibly (likely?) starting in the hole.

TD, on the other hand, likely doesn't have this problem. Now maybe he sucks. Maybe Cal wins a total of 20 games over the next three years and recruiting goes in the tank. So Cal would move on. Hire someone else. Let them build with a long leash.

A home run would have been great. Didn't happen. The ONLY move right now, given that, is to hire TD (or pull one of the greatest surprises in modern coaching history and show up with few or smart on Friday)

Oh and BTW - the mom of the five we desperately need to play big minutes next year just put down a pretty big marker over on the other site/twitter feed. Ain't tiddlewinks Sandy. Get this done NOW!

socaltownie;842302122 said:

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Good point and better expressed than I in my "bashing thread". I mean if you are not happy with Travis than you should be prepared and ready to make a monster hire. So much of what Sandy does in the searches from revenue sport coaches seems improvising. Good ADs have plans in place months (if not YEARS) for their big sports.

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You can be prepared to make a monster hire all you want but the monster has to agree to it and whether you like it or not it ain't happening because, among other things, someone would have to put up one hell of a lot of money to move a monster to Cal.

This is not a prized job. We need someone to make it into one despite the way the University handles things.

calumnus;842302080 said:

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Do you really think hiring Turner would bring excitement? The fans would come out in droves to see Pasternack coach?

If we hire DeCuire, it will be because he is the best candidate, not to "preserve continuity."

I for one will be happy if DeCuire is hired and will be looking forward to next season.

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I got news for you (in case you didn't already know). Fans won't drive 1 mile to see a coach. They come to see what players he has recruited play.

#1 objective is to hire a guy that can recruit (without bringing shame to Cal in terms of violations or flunking students). ALL other talk is miniscule.

Not sure why people complain about 'named' coaches filling seats. Winning fills seats...we could hire calipari..if he went 5-22 ...nobodys goin to the game. Todd Bozeman filled seats.

bluesaxe;842302278 said:

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You can be prepared to make a monster hire all you want but the monster has to agree to it and whether you like it or not it ain't happening because, among other things, someone would have to put up one hell of a lot of money to move a monster to Cal.

This is not a prized job. We need someone to make it into one despite the way the University handles things.

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Go back and reread your post. So any half assed decent manager (much less one making 600K as reported by someone in another thread) has assembled a LONG list of GREAT assistants and up and comers and is ready to speed dial about a nano-second after Monty's presser. We should be hearing TONS of rumors - not the retreads that are being reported.

I am aghast that anyone who has been around ANY other athletic program can defend Sandy's performance on Football and mens basketball. She is burning all equity gained from smartly canning Braun when she found out Monty would say yes. THAT is how it is done in the majors.

pierrezo;842302130 said:

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It may be more than just continuity. It could also be that the admin. knows TD better than if he were an assistant at another school. I would think it'd much easier to identify a diamond in the rough head coach if you've had a working relationship with them.

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Yes, like Ollie at UConn, Brad Stevens, Mark Few, etc. Stevens had never been a head coach, gets the job and wins 30 games in his first year. Few took Gonzaga to the sweet 16 his very first year and then again the following year.

socaltownie;842302283 said:

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Go back and reread your post. So any half assed decent manager (much less one making 600K as reported by someone in another thread) has assembled a LONG list of GREAT assistants and up and comers and is ready to speed dial about a nano-second after Monty's presser. We should be hearing TONS of rumors - not the retreads that are being reported.

I am aghast that anyone who has been around ANY other athletic program can defend Sandy's performance on Football and mens basketball. She is burning all equity gained from smartly canning Braun when she found out Monty would say yes. THAT is how it is done in the majors.

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OH NO WE'RE NOT HEARING RUMORS! THE SKY MUST BE FALLING!!!

Did you consider that perhaps we're not hearing many rumors because the AD runs a pretty tight ship?

I think it's a really funny tension you're displaying that one the one hand you're trying to come off like a sage and world-weary person, wise in the internal machinations of big time college sports programs, and on the other hand, you're extremely eager to fill the vacuum of our collective ignorance about what is a fairly tightly controlled, closed-door process with all sorts of speculative worry and panicky conclusions.

I mean, if you're just an anxious person in general and you don't have the patience to just wait a few more days at the most until the announcement is made, suit yourself. Worry up a storm. It just seems kind of silly to me.

concordtom;842302279 said:

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I got news for you (in case you didn't already know). Fans won't drive 1 mile to see a coach. They come to see what players he has recruited play.

#1 objective is to hire a guy that can recruit (without bringing shame to Cal in terms of violations or flunking students). ALL other talk is miniscule.

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That was my point. Read SmellingRoses' post that I was responding to criticizing the hiring of DeCuire because it would be "joyless" and "wouldn't fill seats." My responding question about Turner and Pasternack filling seats was purely rhetorical.

If TD is hired as our next head coach and hires a monster recruiting/great staff the future is very bright.
Our basketball program is right there, we are one or two strong recruits a year away from jumping from good to great.
Competitiveness, teamwork and consistency are things the I hope the program gets out of every player going forward.
Players like Theo, Jamal B, MSF, Jorge and Harper were models of what I'd like to be heart beat of our team. Was TD lead recruiter for any of them?
Surround leaders like them with a couple more great players and we are championship caliber

Need toughness and leadership combined with talent or else you got a rudderless direction

I really hope TD as leader creates a program going forward with strong leadership and consistent effort. Wallace, Ricky K and Kravish all seem poised to be those type of guys next year. Get the young talent on board to support them and then take over when they depart