ducky23;842820458 said:
Here's my biggest issue with randy Bennett.
He's been able to exploit a market inefficiency. But like all market inefficienies, it won't last forever. The rest of your competition inevitably catches up.
ducky23;842821707 said:
Sure that may all be true.
But St. John's was bad before lavin got there and bad after he left. Give the guy some credit?
TheSouseFamily;842821804 said:
So where did good teams get their coaches? Here's how the current Top 25 (RPI) teams got theirs:
2 of them hired an NBA head coach (Louisville, Florida State)
18 of them hired a HC at another school. (Villanova, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, Duke, Oregon, Florida, Baylor. Cincinnati, UCLA, Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa State, VCU, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Michigan)
4 of them promoted an assistant at the school (Gonzaga, Butler, SMU, Purdue)
1 of them hired an assistant at another school (St Mary's, who hired Randy Bennett as an assistant from Saint Louis in 2001)
6956bear;842821812 said:
Hamilton (FSU)spent 1 season as an NBA assistant. The rest of his career he has been a college coach. Pitino (Louisville) of course spent more time in the NBA but his real mark as a coach has been in college. So while they each came to their current program from the NBA both have had long careers in college. Looks like hiring a current HC from elsewhere is best bet given the list. I agree generally that is likely best. Just not sure the guy on Cal's list is the best guy for this job.
WhatABonanza;842819884 said:
Travis Decuire.
He's a very good recruiter. He started building a good program at Montana. His teams finished first, second and fourth in three years. This year's team was young. Getting Ahmaad Rorie as a transfer from Oregon was a good get - and a sign, again, that he can recruit.
TheSouseFamily;842821804 said:
So where do good teams get their coaches? Here's how the current Top 25 (RPI) teams got theirs:
2 of them hired an NBA head coach (Louisville, Florida State)
18 of them hired a HC at another school. (Villanova, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, Duke, Oregon, Florida, Baylor. Cincinnati, UCLA, Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa State, VCU, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Michigan)
4 of them promoted an assistant at the school (Gonzaga, Butler, SMU, Purdue)
1 of them hired an assistant at another school (St Mary's, who hired Randy Bennett as an assistant from Saint Louis in 2001)
stu;842821829 said:
Here's how Times Higher Education ranked the Top 25 and Cal for 2017:
10 - Cal
14 - UCLA
18 - Duke
21 - Michigan
53 - Minnesota
56 - North Carolina
70 - Purdue
121 - Virginia
134 - Florida
143 - Notre Dame
156 - Arizona
201-250 - Cincinnati, Florida State
301-350 - Oregon
351-400 - Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky
NR - Baylor, Butler, Gonzaga, Louisville, Saint Marys, Southern Methodist, Virginia Commonwealth, West Virginia
IMHO our academic situation is significantly different from most of the Top-25. I think we should be looking at the origins of relatively successful coaches at other top-tier academic universities.
MinotStateBeav;842821709 said:
If Cal doesn't make a run at Bennett I'll be disappointed. Being a good coach that can teach should always be #1 in finding a coach..the rest is fluff. If the donors are really that self absorbed the program is doomed.
Quote:
Randy Bennett is not a squeaky-clean coach. Moreover, a betting man would probably venture to say that he'll stay at Saint Mary's. Yet, college sports programs in search of a transformative hire can't meekly accept the conventional wisdom. They can be cognizant of likelihoods, but a realistic appraisal of the coaching marketplace should not prevent athletic directors from being aspirational in their employment decisions.
If Cal wants to take a great leap forward as a program, Randy Bennett is the bold choice which makes sense. Imagination, vision and leadership will be needed to make it happen.
*
Cuonzo Martin resigning after Wendesday's NIT flameout against Cal-State Bakersfield should be received as a golden moment for the Golden Bears and their fans.
Martin is, on balance, a mediocre coach. He made a Sweet 16 run at Tennessee in 2014, but only on the heels of a questionable at-large invitation and a "just-above-the-cut-line" placement in the First Four. Tennessee drew a cratering Iowa team in Dayton. Then it met a noticeably weak 6 seed (Massachusetts). Then, the Vols were lucky enough to play 14th-seeded Mercer in the round of 32 after the Bears shocked third-seeded Duke. The Sweet 16 is the Sweet 16, but Martin's Vols underachieved during that 2014 regular season and received several bracket breaks to get as far as they did.
That's the only season in which Martin has won any NCAA Tournament games. He has coached nine Division I seasons, three apiece at Missouri State, Tennessee, and Cal.
The Golden Bears have hired decent coaches in the past 35 years (Lou Campanelli, Ben Braun), and an upper-tier coach who didn't quite pan out (Mike Montgomery), but since the iconic Pete Newell stepped away from coaching at a relatively young age in 1960, Berkeley has been bereft of a brilliant basketball mind. The program doesn't occupy the top tier of the Pac it is a mid-level job in the realm of the Power 5 conferences so the elite coaches in the sport probably won't make their way to the Cal campus.
Yet, Arizona was a nothingburger program in the early 1980s. Then it hired Lute Olson away from Iowa.
Oregon had its moments as a program, but nothing sustained on a relentless basis. Then it plucked Dana Altman from Creighton.
Stanford was going nowhere in the 1980s and then it hired Mike Montgomery. Cal thought it had a gem in "Monty," but was the victim of bad luck. The illustrative point about Montgomery is that no one knew he was a superb coach when Stanford first brought him aboard.
Programs in the Pac-12 can change if they hire the special coach other schools don't notice. Arizona, Oregon and Stanford all offer proof, as does Washington State in the Dick and Tony Bennett years.
No, Cal isn't likely to become a giant the way Arizona did under Lute or as Oregon is in the process of becoming under Altman, but what's likely and what's possible are two different things.
Cal can't settle for an ordinary coach or someone who hasn't demonstrated considerable basketball acumen. Bennett is as good a hire as the program could realistically make. It's time to make a robust effort to get him but have a Plan B ready.
08 FEB 2014: St. Mary's Gaels head coach Randy Bennett exhorts his players during a timeout during the NCAA basketball game between the Pepperdine Waves and the Saint Mary's Gaels at Firestone Filedhouse in Malibu, CA. Saint Mary's beat Pepperdine 69-67 in overtime.
Let's acknowledge this about Bennett: He ran afoul of the NCAA and got whacked for recruiting violations a few years ago. There is no point in trying to hide or wish away the baggage Bennett would bring to Berkeley if hired.
However, Bennett's violations when compared to the biggest stain on Cuonzo Martin's tenure at Cal are relatively tame.
It's also necessary to admit that Cal is not awash in cash, and that the athletic program didn't maximize cost savings by pushing out former football coach Sonny Dykes before the 2017 season. (Waiting one more year would have significantly lowered Dykes's buyout.)
Because of this, the idea that Bennett would come to Berkeley is tenuous. Bennett was reportedly given an offer by the University of Utah several years ago, but he turned it down, presumably because the Utes didn't offer top dollar. (Larry Krystkowiak became Utah's new coach.) This is why Cal will need to be creative in structuring a package for Bennett as its new coach
but try Cal must.
Bennett would not have to change his home residence. He could stay in the San Francisco Bay Area. He could still bring his Australian pipeline into town. The difference: He would be able to challenge himself against a much higher level of competition, something most coaches dream of being able to do.
It's true that Mark Few, the only coach better than Bennett in the West Coast Conference, seems happy to stay at Gonzaga forever. The same could be true for Bennett at Saint Mary's, but his eyes have wandered enough to make a pursuit worth Cal's time. If the Golden Bears don't engage in a serious courtship of the Gaels' guiding light, they're not doing their jobs.
*
The need to pursue Bennett has been established, but if he isn't interested, any good athletic director has to have a Plan B. What are Cal's best options?
Dennis Gates is an assistant to Leonard Hamilton at Florida State and has worked at Cal before. A dimension of added risk always accompanies hiring a first-time head coach, as opposed to hiring someone who learns how to be a head coach at the mid-major level before jumping to the Power 5 realm. However, if higher-end coaches don't want to come to Berkeley, Gates represents a reasonably solid fallback plan.
A head coach Cal can consider if Bennett is off the board: Eran Ganot. The Hawaii coach knows Cal well, having eliminated the Bears from the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Youthful and able to recruit in the West, Ganot could be a long-term project, but he'd be inclined to take a lower salary in exchange for getting a bigger job. This checks a number of boxes for a Plan B (not a Plan A).
Retreads such as Tom Crean (if fired by Indiana) and Mark Gottfried could represent additional backup plans, but their established histories and recent bad press could depress the fan base instead of lighting a spark. These choices should be moved to the back of the line.
Worth considering as outside-the-box moves:
A) Poaching Ben Howland from Mississippi State and bringing him back to the West, which he knows well.
B) Asking Jason Kidd if he's tired of the NBA and wants to come home to Mama (Golden) Bear.
Creativity, leadership, vision these qualities need to be used to lure Randy Bennett to Berkeley, and if Bennett says no, Cal needs to think widely in terms of other options.
socaliganbear;842821845 said:
Wow! Brad Underwood leaves Oklahoma State after just one year!!! To Illinois..
tequila4kapp;842821498 said:
I'm 7 pages in to this thread and I'm skipping ahead to say this:
1. Some of you are aiming pretty low. Our last 2 hires have been Mike Montgomery and Cuonzo. We are not institutionally constrained to mid major and P5 assistant coaches.
2. Whoever it is, we need to believe that they are who they are and not expect any transformations. Montgomery was known as an indifferent recruiter ... and he recruited badly. Cuonzo had a reputation as a poor offensive coach ... and our offenses sucked. We are 0-2 on the idea that we'll hire a kick ass assistant coach to overcome the HC's MO. We need to find someone that has a demonstrated competency at all facets of the job.
I don't have any names. One thing the last 3 years have shown me is the CM philosophy of having 2 unathletic seven footers with no offensive skills is mega-antiquated. (I admittedly haven't watched a lot of the tourney but so far I haven't seen a single tourney team using that approach). Just saying...
tsubamoto2001;842821844 said:
View from a national writer:
MinotStateBeav;842821709 said:
If Cal doesn't make a run at Bennett I'll be disappointed. Being a good coach that can teach should always be #1 in finding a coach..the rest is fluff. If the donors are really that self absorbed the program is doomed.
stu;842821852 said:
Thanks, good perspective. However the conclusions don't line up with my priorities:
1) Squeaky clean
2) All in with Cal's academics
3) Smart
4) Good people skills
I doubt we could afford any experienced head coach with these qualities, so I would be looking for an up-and-coming prospect with potential to hit that half-court shot (no baseball metaphors, please).
mikecohen;842821849 said:
Not to offer excuses for CM, whose manner of departure leaves a stain on him forever to the point where I do not wish him well, but: The hand he was dealt . . . .
Big C_Cal;842821860 said:
Disagree. Usually pretty hard to leave for a better job in the perfect way, at the perfect moment. This wasn't a "Tosh situation", by any means.
GB54;842821859 said:
I'm in for the winning box
stu;842821864 said:
Bozeman won more than he lost but winning isn't the whole story.
CalHoopFan;842821671 said:
Couple of thoughts:
- Pasternak, Musselman and Shaw will all get strong consideration
- Almost unheard of for a P5 school to hire someone who has never been a HC in basketball. Gap between HC and assistants in basketball is HUGE. This is not football
- Recruiting acumen >> X's and O's for our AD. Attendance, donations and interest in basketball are FAR higher now than under Monty.
- We want someone who is West Coast centric. Someone who wants to be at Cal and someone who is humble and flexible enough to deal with Cal's unique approach to revenue sports
- Randy Bennett is not a Cal guy. Relationship to donors, public persona, NCAA violations all prevent him from being our HC
tsubamoto2001;842821832 said:
UCLA got Alford from New Mexico.
Michigan and Virginia poached their coaches from other high-major schools.
Wisconsin promoted an assistant--which was recommended by their previous coach, who had clout coming off of 2 straight FF's.
Northwestern hired a Duke assistant, Chris Collins, who also happens to be a native of Northbrook, IL.
Stanford tried the Duke assistant thing with Dawkins but it didn't work out. They then got a coach from the mid-major ranks, Haase, who is from South Lake Tahoe.
Vanderbilt got a coach from the mid-major ranks in Bryce Drew, who left his alma mater, Valparaiso.
You can't compare Cal to any of the Ivies. Different level conference and they don't offer athletic scholarships.
CalEnviroLaw;842821869 said:
Pasternak?
You kick Jorge, you kick all of us. Remember, the Sturdy Golden Bear is always watching, he saw that, and he has not forgotten.
CalEnviroLaw;842821869 said:
Pasternak?
You kick Jorge, you kick all of us. Remember, the Sturdy Golden Bear is always watching, he saw that, and he has not forgotten.
SFBearz;842821884 said:
Please, Pasternack should be a top 3 candidate based on recruiting success alone.
SFBearz;842821884 said:
Please, Pasternack should be a top 3 candidate based on recruiting success alone.
SFBearz;842821884 said:
Please, Pasternack should be a top 3 candidate based on recruiting success alone.
tsubamoto2001;842821900 said:
Pasternack is a candidate because of his ties to the program. If not for that, he isn't on Cal's radar.
CalEnviroLaw;842821920 said:
Anybody watching Xavier-Florida State? Xavier up 10 at the half. Dennis Gates may be available for an interview soon, we'll see.
