OneTopOneChickenApple said:
SFCityBear said:
Go!Bears said:
OaktownBear said:
Yogi Bear said:
Go!Bears said:
Or Theo and Frank. I have no idea if it is even something they would consider but it seems to me that a reunion of Theo Robertson and his old coach (an advisor now at USF) Frank Allocco could be exactly what our young team needs. It would be great for Theo to have strong mentor. Might be great for Frank to get back to what he has done so well (teach athletes how to play the game). Allocco has taken the role of Associate Head Coach before. It probably would not be terribly expensive and I think they would certainly know how to right the ship.
Why do people have such low aspirations for our basketball program?
As I said before, tell me what we are willing to spend and I might consider figuring out who might be a good candidate. If our price point is the same as last time, this might be a legitimate option. It's not what I aspire to, but I'm assuming the OP is assuming that we are on a tight budget. For the same money I think it likely better than the last choice, not that that is the standard we want to go with
That is kind of where I was coming from. I do not see us showing up in Utah (or wherever) with a Brinks truck and it is also true that I think an alum is our only real hope long term. Why do I have such low aspirations? What is it about the last 30 years of Cal basketball that makes anyone think we will hire, or could retain a 'rock star' coach? I believe we need to build a coach. Take someone not yet ready and invest in them. I think it needs to be an alum because I think only an alum might stick with us if they ever break through to the top tier. Theo is someone who might be worth that investment, but he needs help. Because of the relationship to Allocco who has proven he can teach, it seems like something that might work. I think the best we can hope for is a roll of the dice. Why not take a chance on Theo? He was astute enough to see early that Wyking was a bust.
You make good points. I feel your pain and frustration. But the biggest drawback to hiring a guy like Jones is that he had never been a head coach at any level from pee-wee to college. He had never been the guy fully responsible for a team's play. He had never had any experience trying his ideas, methods, strategies or tactics out to see if they worked. He had never been held accountable by players, press, or fans before, and Cal chose to throw him into the lions' den or into the fire. He agreed, and even if Cal retains him, he has dug himself a hole, as has Cal, which will be a few years digging out of for either party. No offense, but Theo (and Dennis Gates) has the same problem, lack of ever having been the head man anywhere. Maybe you can name some successful head coaches who had never been head coaches at any level. There must be some, but I can't think of any. Allocco has the high school chops, and would be less of a risk than Theo in my mind, in terms of having been the head guy at some level, but I'm not sure it translates to a jump to the next level, where the age and maturity of players is different. As I've said before, two of San Francisco's most successful high school coaches Herrerias and Ben Neff, failed as college head coaches. And nobody had a better basketball mind than Rene. The era in which he coached had some truly great challenges both in opponents and in a new culture, but his teams could have done better. Mike Montgomery was a darn good college coach. He was successful first and Montana, then at Stanford, and at Cal.. I felt the game was beginning to pass him by with all the rule changes, some designed to take away the things his Stanford teams did best, like defense, and a more structured offense. He failed to be successful in the NBA, in a culture of athletic stars, different rules and a faster shot clock. I would rather see us do a search for an experienced head coach. And put some focus on the parochial schools. Xavier, for example, is a training ground for head coaches, like Thad Matta, Sean Miller, and Chris Mack. Those priests and nuns know basketball, based on the success of small schools like USF, Villanova, Gonzaga, Chicago Loyola, Marquette, and many more. There may be more diamonds in the parochial rough somewhere.
You make good points too, and not necessarily disagreeing, but here's a list off the top of my head of head coaches who started successfully without previous head coaching experience. I'm sure there are more. Just saying it's not impossible.
I was really hoping we hired Travis DeCuire when we had a chance.
You mentioned Chris Mack and Sean Miller - Xavier
Tom Izzo - Michigan State
Kevin Ollie - UConn (OK, he cheated)
Jim Boeheim - Syracuse
Gary Cunningham - UCLA
Bobby Knight - Army
Gregg Marshall - Winthrop
Greg Popovich - Spurs
Paul Westhead, Pat Riley - Lakers
Steve Kerr - Dubs
Chris Mack was a high school head coach for 5 years before he got a college assistant job. Tom Izzo was a high school head coach for 3 years before he became a college assistant.
John Wooden was a high school head coach for 11 years before he got the head coaching job at Indiana State.
If we are looking at coaches who got their first job with no previous head coaching (or any coaching) experience, we need look no farther than Pete Newell, whose first job was head coach of USF, and a couple of years later he won the national championship at USF.
Greg Popovich was a head coach at Pomona Pitzer (with a record of 76-129) before he landed an NBA job.
In thinking about it, I don't think naming NBA coaches here is quite relevant to college coaches, as the NBA players are much older, more fundamentally sound, and far more experienced, than coaching kids coming out of high school into college before they fully mature. Plus, the NBA quite often hires a former player with no experience coaching to be a head coach. But if we do want to look at pro coaches, we don't have to look much farther than the Warriors head coaches who got their first head coaching job with an NBA team: Alex Hannum, Bill Sharman, Al Attles, Don Nelson, Mark Jackson, and Steve Kerr whom you mentioned.
SFCityBear