If I was some incompetent AD who had no idea who should be coaching the basketball team, would I put my faith in a search firm (probably one or two people) or would I crowdsource? If the search firm choice goes bad, the finger would be pointed at me, while if the crowdsource choice failed, I could legitimately say everyone thought it was a good idea at the time.

I also think a crowdsourced choice would probably be on average better, but that is just a feeling that I cannot demonstrate. I do think crowdsourcing is viable both by assessing fan sentiment on the internet and by feeding information to sources to tweet in order to get reaction. There is no way crowdsourcing would lead to Mark Fox.

As to Mark Fox, I believe he is probably competent, unlike WJ, but it is discouraging to hire someone who is known to be offensively challenged. The same can be said about every Cal hire starting with Campanelli (I don't go back farther than Campanelli) other than Monty. If I were choosing a coach the ability to coach offense would be my first criterion. I figure anyone who can coach offense can learn to coach defense, but the reverse is clearly not true.

Sluggo

sluggo said:

---

If I was some incompetent AD who had no idea who should be coaching the basketball team, would I put my faith in a search firm (probably one or two people) or would I crowdsource? If the search firm choice goes bad, the finger would be pointed at me, while if the crowdsource choice failed, I could legitimately say everyone thought it was a good idea at the time.

I also think a crowdsourced choice would probably be on average better, but that is just a feeling that I cannot demonstrate. I do think crowdsourcing is viable both by assessing fan sentiment on the internet and by feeding information to sources to tweet in order to get reaction. There is no way crowdsourcing would lead to Mark Fox.

As to Mark Fox, I believe he is probably competent, unlike WJ, but it is discouraging to hire someone who is known to be offensively challenged. The same can be said about every Cal hire starting with Campanelli (I don't go back farther than Campanelli) other than Monty. If I were choosing a coach the ability to coach offense would be my first criterion. I figure anyone who can coach offense can learn to coach defense, but the reverse is clearly not true.

Sluggo

---

If the AD relies on the search firm to recommend the best candidate, the AD is screwed, and not doing his/her job. Yes, in some hiring, the search firm will recommend the best candidate. That should not be happening in hiring college head coaches.

Crowdsourcing to hire a college head coach would also be a really bad idea. Not that crowdsourcing won't give the AD some good feedback (just like a search firm might give some good feedback).

The AD relies on the search firm to find candidates, to expand the pool beyond what the AD would otherwise get, and to conduct some of the off-line confidential communications that need to happen.

In the end, however, if the AD is incompetent and has not idea how to hire a men's basketball coach, then the school is screwed no matter what.

Jon Wilmer sort of nailed it...search firm driven. They probably provided a short list and then Cal picked one.

Hiring a coach is always a crap shoot...and in Berkeley that would be vegan crap but still a crap shoot. Look how Tedford was hired. Gladstone might have been the laziest AD ever but he pulled Tedford's name.

I'm of the mind that an AD should be connected enough to revenue sports to have a sense of coaches, if not some kind of pipeline or insider to help...or a gift of evaluation and instinct.

Otherwise, don't hire a hockey guy to pick a hoops coach.