This sounds good. He has to be involved with Brown in some manner right?

Dear Fat: Why??

I take that back. of course he has been recruiting Brown for a long time. Does this hire push Brown into Bear territory??Not necessarily. But it could!!!!!

I assume it's purely coincidence that our new Athletic Director and our new Assistant Basketball Coach are both Air Force guys, but it seems like QUITE a coincidence.

Good hire for a lot of reasons.

Oh, YOU were in the Air Force, too?

j/k

Welcome, indeed, Coach Grace. You round out the staff rather well. Congrats to Coach Jones for continuing to build a solid staff,

Good hire. He'll make an excellent interim coach in a few months.

Big C said:

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Oh, YOU were in the Air Force, too?

j/k

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Scary thought for our national defense.

Grace has ins on the west coast AAU level beyond that of our current coaching staff. He also apparently knows his "x's" and "o's". And he is real motivated to show his worth.

wifeisafurd said:

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Big C said:

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Oh, YOU were in the Air Force, too?

j/k

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Scary thought for our national defense.

Grace has ins on the west coast AAU level beyond that of our current coaching staff. He also apparently knows his "x's" and "o's". And he is real motivated to show his worth.

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He coached a Compton Magic satellite team in Arizona, recruited the Balls and TJ Leaf to UCLA and seems to be a very highly regarded person. Good addition to an improved staff I think.

tequila4kapp said:

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The Cal hoops situation is really looking up with the last two hires, maybe this one especially. Plus these guys wouldn't come to Cal unless WJ was held in high regards.

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Maybe they just didn't have more attractive options. Cal might not be a great job but it is a paycheck.

So... you're saying you're more of a... a... glass half-empty kinda guy?

59bear said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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The Cal hoops situation is really looking up with the last two hires, maybe this one especially. Plus these guys wouldn't come to Cal unless WJ was held in high regards.

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Maybe they just didn't have more attractive options. Cal might not be a great job but it is a paycheck.

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That's a bit of a cheap shot. This guy is very highly regarded. People like him always have options.

tequila4kapp said:

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59bear said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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The Cal hoops situation is really looking up with the last two hires, maybe this one especially. Plus these guys wouldn't come to Cal unless WJ was held in high regards.

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Maybe they just didn't have more attractive options. Cal might not be a great job but it is a paycheck.

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That's a bit of a cheap shot. This guy is very highly regarded. People like him always have options.

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Tequila:

You misunderstand the reasoning. Player X chooses Cal; therefore Player X is a loser. Coach Y is hired at Cal; therefore Coach Y can't find any other job. Cal=bad school; bad athletic programs; bad people. Only then will some posters feel happy.

Have to admit that Cals recruiting is 180 degrees removed from the Monty years. All the pieces are in place to get the talent we need to make a run. Am optimistic staff can coach what we already have up. We get JB Sky's the limit.

Cal has hired two new assistants that could take over as the head coach if Wyking doesn't turn the program around next season. As one recruiting service put it, Cal's recruiting can only improve with these two additions.
David Grace spent the last five years at UCLA so he knows Cal's academic standards...Does anyone know how
old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere. GO BEARS!

young ivee on Coach Grace....

'My guy!'

Schroeder71 said:

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Cal has hired two new assistants that could take over as the head coach if Wyking doesn't turn the program around next season. As one recruiting service put it, Cal's recruiting can only improve with these two additions.
David Grace spent the last five years at UCLA so he knows Cal's academic standards...Does anyone know how
old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere. GO BEARS!

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My guess is ~50. 20 years AF, ~10 years coaching

Schroeder71 said:

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Cal has hired two new assistants that could take over as the head coach if Wyking doesn't turn the program around next season. As one recruiting service put it, Cal's recruiting can only improve with these two additions.
David Grace spent the last five years at UCLA so he knows Cal's academic standards...Does anyone know how
old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere. GO BEARS!

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Not sure I see it this way. First, let's just hope that Coach Jones and the staff DO turn things around and your point is a moot one. But if they don't and a change does need to be made at some point, we're surely not gonna promote someone from the same staff that couldn't win. Especially not a guy like Wilson who had a poor HC record at Pepperdine or a guy like Grace who has never been a HC (like Coach Jones).

But let's just work on the assumption that Wyking turns things around and that the new hires prove to be solid assistants.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Schroeder71 said:

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Cal has hired two new assistants that could take over as the head coach if Wyking doesn't turn the program around next season. As one recruiting service put it, Cal's recruiting can only improve with these two additions.
David Grace spent the last five years at UCLA so he knows Cal's academic standards...Does anyone know how
old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere. GO BEARS!

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Not sure I see it this way. First, let's just hope that Coach Jones and the staff DO turn things around and your point is a moot one. But if they don't and a change does need to be made at some point, we're surely not gonna promote someone from the same staff that couldn't win. Especially not a guy like Walker who had a poor HC record at Pepperdine or a guy like Grace who has never been a HC (like Coach Jones).

But let's just work on the assumption that Wyking turns things around and that the new hires prove to be solid assistants.

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Agree with your main point, but note that the new guy from Pepperdine is Marty Wilson.

Yep my bad. Momentary brain lapse.

We see that Wyking can build a staff. That bodes well for building a program. I just hope all of you nattering nabobs of negativism are ready to pony up for Wyking's next contract. It's gonna be a doozy.

I'm curious, how does this staff stack up against our best staffs of the past?

Schroeder71 said:

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Does anyone know how old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere.

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This Yahoo article says he "graduated high school in 1983". I suppose he would have been about 18 at that time, which would make him about 53 now.

tequila4kapp said:

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Fyght4Cal said:

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We see that Wyking can build a staff. That bodes well for building a program. I just hope all of you nattering nabobs of negativism are ready to pony up for Wyking's next contract. It's gonna be a doozy.

I'm curious, how does this staff stack up against our best staffs of the past?

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WJ is going to be another example of how coaches get pretty damn smart as soon as they put more talent on the floor.

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Best and most accurate post by anyone in a very long time.

and let's not forget that jay John, former HC at Oregon state and former ass'r to lute Olson, remains on the staff as head of basketball operations.' This is a very, very talented staff. best i've seen in a long, long, time. WJ needs to figure how to get thew best from each man without fracturing egos in the process. never an easy task. he needs to set up an organizational chart which clearly delineates the duties of each ass't and then stick to it. i.e. who are the coaches and who are the recruiters, etc. roles set up by WJ need to be accepted and adhered to by the assistants. As reagan used to say, " if nobody cares who gets the credit, much can be accomplished."

Actually, Grace was a head coach at the high school and AAU level with phenomenal results. If we had known we were going with a cheap and lesser known hire for the job a year ago, I would have actually been more impressed if we hired Grace over Wyking. He had some head coaching experience, significant Pac-12 experience, west coast experience, AAU connections and an unbelievable recruiting track record. In any event I'm excited to have him on the staff and hope it is the start of turning things around.

helltopay1 said:

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and let's not forget that jay John, former HC at Oregon state and former ass'r to lute Olson, remains on the staff as head of basketball operations.' This is a very, very talented staff. best i've seen in a long, long, time. WJ needs to figure how to get thew best from each man without fracturing egos in the process. never an easy task. he needs to set up an organizational chart which clearly delineates the duties of each ass't and then stick to it. i.e. who are the coaches and who are the recruiters, etc. roles set up by WJ need to be accepted and adhered to by the assistants. As reagan used to say, " if nobody cares who gets the credit, much can be accomplished."

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Is John still on the staff?
He's not listed as such on the calbears.com site.
Keith Brown is listed as Director of Operations.

http://calbears.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

eric---thanks for the clarification.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Schroeder71 said:

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Cal has hired two new assistants that could take over as the head coach if Wyking doesn't turn the program around next season. As one recruiting service put it, Cal's recruiting can only improve with these two additions.
David Grace spent the last five years at UCLA so he knows Cal's academic standards...Does anyone know how
old Grace is? I couldn't locate it anywhere. GO BEARS!

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Not sure I see it this way. First, let's just hope that Coach Jones and the staff DO turn things around and your point is a moot one. But if they don't and a change does need to be made at some point, we're surely not gonna promote someone from the same staff that couldn't win. Especially not a guy like Wilson who had a poor HC record at Pepperdine or a guy like Grace who has never been a HC (like Coach Jones).

But let's just work on the assumption that Wyking turns things around and that the new hires prove to be solid assistants.

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We just did promote someone from the same staff that couldn't (or rather, didn't) win. It was a staff that, even with top recruits, could not design an effective, good looking offense. Cuonzo Martin was a mediocre coach, who could coach a defense to look better and be effective, but who had no clue whatsoever how to coach offense.

That's a little different SFCB. The premise of S71's post was that Wyking might fail to win and be fired, in which case we'd have available and capable options on staff to take the HC job. Yes, Wyking was elevated but Coach Martin wasn't fired and nor was that even a consideration at the time. So it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Plus, he had a 62-39 record for us which I wouldn't call "not being able to win."

Regardless, it's an unsavory hypothetical scenario to even consider so let's just worry about making sure Coach Jones is successful.