Thinking about how historically awful Cal basketball has become and the fact that there's currently a $3m impediment to try to make a positive change reminded me of this thread and how laughable it is that the university awarded Mr. Williams after his service.
I would argue that the WJ hire was lazy. It reminds me of when I was once trying to fill a position before going on vacation for 3 weeks and just hired one of our first interviews even though I wasn't impressed by the candidate. I didn't have time to go through my normal process and assumed it's better to just have the position filled with anyone than left vacant but man was I wrong. It took us months to recover from that horrible hire.
But what bothers me the most is not so much the gamble on a completely unqualified candidate, but tying the university to a 5 year contract. Are you telling me you couldn't negotiate a 3 year contract with someone who had zero experience and no other chance at being a HC anywhere to triple their salary? I find it very hard to believe they couldn't have reached an agreement on a 3 year contract with some negotiation and effort.