CALIFORNIA The hiring of Wyking Jones was the single-worst high-major basketball hire of the past decade, an inevitable and unmitigated disaster that no one outside the walls of Berkeley could have envisioned working. Cal is 13-41 overall in two seasons, winless in Pac-12 play this year and generally hopeless. Cal isn't flush with cash, but it's hard to imagine them continue floundering with an overmatched coach. The obvious hire here should have been made last time Montana's Travis DeCuire, who is a former Cal associate head coach from better times. This being Cal, they could slog through another year of Jones to save money.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-hoops-coaching-carousel-whos-next-ucla-060907941.html

Congrats to Mike Williams for accomplishing the worst ever. Basically we have become a national joke, just like that TCU bowl game was a national joke. We really need for the end of the season to come quickly so we can move on.

As others have noted. It was not just that we took a risk on the hire. It was the 5-year guarantee on that risk -- that contract was malpractice by Mike Williams.

socaliganbear said:

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CALIFORNIA The hiring of Wyking Jones was the single-worst high-major basketball hire of the past decade, an inevitable and unmitigated disaster that no one outside the walls of Berkeley could have envisioned working. Cal is 13-41 overall in two seasons, winless in Pac-12 play this year and generally hopeless. Cal isn't flush with cash, but it's hard to imagine them continue floundering with an overmatched coach. The obvious hire here should have been made last time Montana's Travis DeCuire, who is a former Cal associate head coach from better times. This being Cal, they could slog through another year of Jones to save money.

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-hoops-coaching-carousel-whos-next-ucla-060907941.html

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That is exactly what I have said. Many times.

The article talks about ucla not Cal

oskidunker said:

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The article talks about ucla not Cal

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You gotta keep scroll'in brother, you gotta keep scroll'in ( and don't be discouraged by the ad or the "story continues" prompt).

This part me made me lol: "Luke Walton appears to have about as much chance to remain with the Lakers as his father does joining President Trump's cabinet."

As for the part about Cal? Oof. That's pretty brutal.

Knowlton likes the recruiting class.

Just a sign of the times in our hate-addicted society. The more negative the story, the more the haters are eager to gobble it up and the more ad revenue the publishers will receive.

Not gonna take the click bait.

Yes, this is the worst season in Cal basketball history, and Wyking has made plenty of mistakes. I'd rank losing Theo as an assistant and running Coleman out of town among the biggest. Chasing Winston and McCullough out the door was morally questionable.

The 5-year, $5 million dollar contract makes sense to me though. It's cheap for a major conference job and we can't afford much more with the football stadium debt hanging over our heads.

I think we're on track for a good season next year and better ones after that. Wyking may get fired this year, but if he sticks around another year we'll have a group of players that create a strong incentive for a high quality young coach to come in and take over for 2020-21.

...of course two years later that coach may move on to a higher paying job, after the maturing players make him look like a turnaround master.

I think everyone who criticized calbear80 owes him an apology.

hanky1 said:

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touchdownbears43 said:

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The writer is absolutely right - WJ is the worst hire in the history of Cal athletics - it's not hate - it's based on actual numbers and results.

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Don't tell that to Mike Williams. He still thinks criticism of Our Bball coach is racist.

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When did Mike Williams say that? I don't recall hearing about it.

He said it. How else could he defend the hire?

Facts:
. 0-10 in the Pac-12 this year.
. 18 consecutive losses against Pac-12 opponents.
. BPI of 300+ (worst among all the schools in major conferences and worse than 225 schools in minor conferences).

by the way: For those of you who don't know, when Hillary was at college, she wrote her thesis on the wonderful---------Saul Alinsky. Just thought you would like to know.

touchdownbears43 said:

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The writer is absolutely right - WJ is the worst hire in the history of Cal athletics - it's not hate - it's based on actual numbers and results.

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The results just reflect what was evident on paper to seemingly everyone besides the Cal administration 2 years ago.

R90 said:

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Just a sign of the times in our hate-addicted society. The more negative the story, the more the haters are eager to gobble it up and the more ad revenue the publishers will receive.

Not gonna take the click bait.

Yes, this is the worst season in Cal basketball history, and Wyking has made plenty of mistakes. I'd rank losing Theo as an assistant and running Coleman out of town among the biggest. Chasing Winston and McCullough out the door was morally questionable.

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Agree with you. Except the "running Coleman out of town" part.

helltopay1 said:

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Dear Hanky: The previous Chancellor didn't want to hire a real AD because he really didn't support the major programs, so, Williams was the perfect 'don't rock the boat AD." We now have a real Chancellor and a real AD. In other words, we now have a license to hunt. Now comes the hard part. Making the right decisions most of the time.

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Not the main reason that Dirks hired Williams. It was more in keeping with his general MO, which was to dither about decision-making until it was too late (he failed to pull the trigger on other candidates) and then just choose whoever was the last person to talk with him. He did the same thing on other non-sports hires.

touchdownbears43 said:

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The writer is absolutely right - WJ is the worst hire in the history of Cal athletics - it's not hate - it's based on actual numbers and results.

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+1

UrsaMajor said:

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hanky1 said:

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I think everyone who criticized calbear80 owes him an apology.

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Not true, Hanky. Many who criticize calbear80 do owe him an apology, but many of the criticisms are not because people disagree, but because he refused for a long time to use the coach's name (which seemed petty) and because he posted the same thing over and over again.

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Cal basketball this year is even worse than Cal football during Dykes' first year. Atleast there was hopeful for improvement then. Here, there is no hope.

The saddest part about the writer's statement is that I think he's right about Wyking coming back for another year.

The threshold for donor fatigue has always been low at Cal and I think we're already there. Ursa, you would know better than I though.

ursa: Thanks for setting me straight.

OK, we all acknowledge Mike Williams made a huge mistake.

I have always been taught that when you make mistake, acknowledge it right away and work diligently to correct it immediately.

What are we all doing to correct Mike Williams' huge mistake as soon as possible?

Go Bears!

hanky1 said:

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UrsaMajor said:

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hanky1 said:

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I think everyone who criticized calbear80 owes him an apology.

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Not true, Hanky. Many who criticize calbear80 do owe him an apology, but many of the criticisms are not because people disagree, but because he refused for a long time to use the coach's name (which seemed petty) and because he posted the same thing over and over again.

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Cal basketball this year is even worse than Cal football during Dykes' first year. Atleast there was hopeful for improvement then. Here, there is no hope.

The saddest part about the writer's statement is that I think he's right about Wyking coming back for another year.

The threshold for donor fatigue has always been low at Cal and I think we're already there. Ursa, you would know better than I though.

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Disagree. There is plenty of hope for next year's basketball team: Several of the young players have potential and there are three decent players committed to come here for next season. Jones has done a pretty good job recruiting. True, the prospects for the rest of this season don't look bright... about the same as things looked 2/3 of the way through Dykes' 2013 season.

So you are counting on three freshmen, none rim protectors, to turn this mess around?

When you have an undersized team coaching is very important.

Kelly and Vanover will be better next year. Thorpe will contribute. Maybe we get a grad transfer. Anticevich could improve.

Obviously. the whole team needs to PLAY BETTER BASKETBALL, whoever's the coach.

The core of this team will improve (there will be transfers after this disaster). I could see a scenario in where we improve a lot and win maybe 3 league games and hope for a CTI invite. I could see it improve even more and eventually start to set our sights on the NIT in year 5 or so.

There's hope that this team will win more games than this year. There's little to no hope that this will be a good program, like it used to be. Whatever you think of them as recruiters, it will only get harder. They will now have to recruit against their own results. There was benefit of the doubt last year, none going forward. This is what happens when you have a historically bad run.

And of course there's the conference. You can't expect our peers to stay as down as they are right now. Most have shown they are willing to support basketball. We haven't. That's yet another thing we're working against.

Golden One said:

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hanky1 said:

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Williams suggested to various donors that the vitriol directed towards Wyking was due to racism.

LOL - never mind the fact that the previous guy was African American and welcomed by Cal w open arms. I thought Williams greatest strength was suppose to be his intelligence but him crying racism proves that he's an idiot.

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Labelling people "racist" is becoming commonplace in today's society. It's absolutely shameful.

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Except that there has been an awful lot of racist behavior going on lately--or rather emerging into the open. But let's talk about basketball

Big C said:

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Kelly and Vanover will be better next year. Thorpe will contribute. Maybe we get a grad transfer. Anticevich could improve.

Obviously. the whole team needs to PLAY BETTER BASKETBALL, whoever's the coach.

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In my view we need a better coach. Again we underestimate the importance of coaching. We have some good players, though young. We have some good recruits coming. We need some other pieces, clearly. But if they are not coached well they won't win. If they are well coached they will win some games, not all of them, but much better than what we are witnessing now.