OaktownBear said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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OaktownBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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I would have left out the shot of Sueing but the body language of the players didn't look bad to me. There was even a shot of Gordon nodding his head to something Fox said. Regardless, I thought the video was fine and ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I don't know what people would have expected from players hearing from their new coach in person for the first time. Seems that they were listening intently and I thought the message was generally was fine. Still, it's really hard to make a judgment about a meeting from just a 2 minute clip. While I'm not over the moon with the hire, I suspect we'll ultimately give Fox good marks for his leadership and how he treats/communicates with players.

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Souse - it is really hard to make a judgment about a 3 hour football game from just a 2 minute clip. And yet they release them and their point is to fire up the fanbase. Cal even made videos that made Dykes' first year look good. That's the point of the video. To make Cal look good.

I expect nothing from players hearing from their new coach for the first time. Which is why I said they should have kept the meeting private. They chose to release something. They didn't have to. No one was expecting it.

I've been around youth sports a long time. The last huddle and cheer "together" (I can't put an exclamation point on that) is literally the most lackluster I have ever heard. Which might be completely reasonable given this is a team meeting in a classroom 6 months before the next game. Why show this?

I have zero judgment of Fox from this. What I expect from Fox in his first team meeting is irrelevant. This is a video released to the pubic to get fans on board. It is a lame video. It makes Fox look lame and that is unfair to him.

Fox - No judgment
Video - Lame.

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I just watched that again, for some reason (I'm in full-on Cal masochist mode).

The part where he talks about the average NBA career being 4.7 years...maybe 6 years... and then you're 30 and you have to figure out what to do with the rest of your life... I'd be like, OK, I just made $25M in that timeframe... I think I'm good. And if i was really smart, which many of our guys are, I'd say, i invest that conservatively (after various professional fees) so as to get a 4% ammortization, I'm living on 1/2 million dollars a year for the rest of my life. yea, i think I'm good with that too. What was your point Coach?

The degree isn't your safety net if you make it to the Association... it's for if you don't. I know, I know...

And that "together" at the end is just sad... Seriously, sad. That's the only word I can think of.

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I am just flabbergasted at how out of touch adults can be about messaging to young people. How much they forget about being that age. No, you wouldn't have been motivated by that. Sorry. No. That speech was not designed to reach young people. It was designed to make adults feel good. It is like every assembly my kids get fed about drugs, or bullying or the perils of social media, or too much screen time, etc. My kids are very straight laced and they come back rolling there eyes and tell me it all is what the parents think is helpful and the kids don't want to listen to and they've heard it a million times before.

I guarantee you every guy in that room has heard the "you need an education in case basketball doesn't work out" speech many times. None of them are sitting there thinking "you mean I might NOT make millions in the NBA?" If they haven't gotten it yet, a new adult they don't know coming in and telling them isn't going to do it.

Yes, the message was all very important and needs to be conveyed. It does not need to be conveyed in a lecture in the first meeting. They don't know him. There is no reason for them to listen to him. He needs to gain trust and respect. That's when the message can be delivered. What th.ey needed was a confidence boost and something to believe in.

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Right. After you gain their trust you can berate them and even embarrass them on national TV like Izzo and they still would run through a wall for you. Cal basketball is soooo depressing.

KoreAmBear said:

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...But maybe that's what drew Knowlton to Fox, that military type talk.....

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calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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Well I didn't care much either way about the speech, but since it had an actual negative effect on Sueing (transfer portal), then it was not good. So far the Fox era has started off about to lose his best player. With Sueing leaving, you have to think McNeil will stay in the portal too. It's such a fun life being a Cal fan.

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We were bound to have some roster change. We're at the ripping the bandaid off portion of the post-Wyking era. Doesn't mean the bandaid shouldn't come off, but coach changes equal transfers probably no matter who you hire.

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Biggest test of his recruiting ability is his ability to keep the guys he has.

The players are looking for what is going to change, how can this guy 1) do something on his part to help us win, 2) help me get better, and/or 3) make basketball fun again.

His speech "I'm going to work you guys hard" implies they weren't working hard before. It fails on all three categories. Nothing there to excite them and it clearly didn't.

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I'm strugging to remember. Did Monty lose anybody he cared about? I got the feeling he wasn't sorry to let Garrett Sim out of his LOI.

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The guy he said was his most important recruit was Anderson, he tried to convince him he wasn't ready for the NBA and should stay in school.

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That's right! However, losing someone to the NBA versus losing them to another program isn't bad.

To play devil's advocate (and also to be fair), we don't know what OTHER communication he has had with the players -- both group and individual -- over the past few days. I'm guessing he spoke with them each before this, at least on the phone.

Yes, if this was the FIRST THING they heard him say, and that was it for a while, horrible. But I suspect this is just what some idiot in the marketing dept. chose to send out.

Also, as I mentioned elsewhere: When a new teacher first talks to a class, when a new CEO first talks to employees, or when a new coach first talks to players, if the initial message is "I'm your buddy", that's not going to work well, long term. (Yes, I understand there is a lot of distance between "task master" and "buddy".)

FiatLux and Oaktown - you guys obviously feel pretty strongly about the efforts of Cal Marketing. You're both smart guys and I respect you both but I think you overstate the reach and influence of the Cal Basketball twitter feed. It just doesn't matter. Is that clip which has obsessively analyzed here likely to change anyone's behavior with respect to Cal Basketball? Certainly not me. If that was a better tweet/video or a worse one or none at all, it still wouldn't matter. What does move the needle on behavior is having a winning program or at least the hope of a winning program because of the players we bring in. To that end, there's only 1 comment here on the social media communication about Charles Smith and his family feeling great about Fox and noting his positive energy and vision. Why's that? That kind of stuff matters far more to me, even if it's less likely to elicit strong responses because it's happening outside of our visual purview. Cal Marketing may indeed suck but it's pretty irrelevant when it comes to whether the team is gonna dig itself out of the hole or whether people will be there to see it.

As for the content of the message, Fox has been a coach for 30 years dealing with 18-22 year olds for several hours a day. He has ascended up through the ranks as an assistant to a head coach at a mid major to a head coach at two P6 schools. He's ascended to the top 1% of the profession (ok, at Cal maybe it's top 3%). He wasn't my choice for this job, but I think he has a better sense for how to communicate with 18-22 year olds than anyone here., especially the 99% of you who are lawyers. Plus; his shortcomings at previous stops had nothing to do with his leadership style or communication approach. By seemingly all accounts, those that followed him speak highly of his leadership style. Give the man a chance before blasting him because of a heavily edited 2 minute clip and lets all pay attention to the things that actually matter.

TheSouseFamily said:

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FiatLux and Oaktown - you guys obviously feel pretty strongly about the efforts of Cal Marketing. You're both smart guys and I respect you both but I think you overstate the reach and influence of the Cal Basketball twitter feed. It just doesn't matter. Is that clip which has obsessively analyzed here likely to change anyone's behavior with respect to Cal Basketball? Certainly not me. If that was a better tweet/video or a worse one or none at all, it still wouldn't matter. What does move the needle on behavior is having a winning program or at least the hope of a winning program because of the players we bring in. To that end, there's only 1 comment here on the social media communication about Charles Smith and his family feeling great about Fox and noting his positive energy and vision. Why's that? That kind of stuff matters far more to me, even if it's less likely to elicit strong responses because it's happening outside of our visual purview. Cal Marketing may indeed suck but it's pretty irrelevant when it comes to whether the team is gonna dig itself out of the hole or whether people will be there to see it.

As for the content of the message, Fox has been a coach for 30 years dealing with 18-22 year olds for several hours a day. He has ascended up through the ranks as an assistant to a head coach at a mid major to a head coach at two P6 schools. He's ascended to the top 1% of the profession (ok, at Cal maybe it's top 3%). He wasn't my choice for this job, but I think he has a better sense for how to communicate with 18-22 year olds than anyone here., especially the 99% of you who are lawyers. Plus; his shortcomings at previous stops had nothing to do with his leadership style or communication approach. By seemingly all accounts, those that followed him speak highly of his leadership style. Give the man a chance before blasting him because of a heavily edited 2 minute clip and lets all pay attention to the things that actually matter.

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Souse

I'm going to respond because I'm afraid your post is going to cause Fiat to cause permanent brain damage from pounding his head against a wall.

I really don't understand your response given Fiat explicitly addressed your argument in the first paragraph and I followed up on his point. I am not saying anything about the reach of the Twitter feed. It could be minimal. Your argument that it doesn't matter just doesn't make sense. Whether it matters or not does not excuse doing a poor job. Again to reiterate Fiat's point, if it doesn't matter, don't do it. If it matters enough to do it, do it right. It's that simple.

I'm not criticizing Fox. I'm criticizing the video and disputing that anything said there inspired that team. The rest of the meeting could be great for all I know, but what was on that video was not inspiring and probably wasn't designed to be.

OaktownBear said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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OaktownBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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I would have left out the shot of Sueing but the body language of the players didn't look bad to me. There was even a shot of Gordon nodding his head to something Fox said. Regardless, I thought the video was fine and ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I don't know what people would have expected from players hearing from their new coach in person for the first time. Seems that they were listening intently and I thought the message was generally was fine. Still, it's really hard to make a judgment about a meeting from just a 2 minute clip. While I'm not over the moon with the hire, I suspect we'll ultimately give Fox good marks for his leadership and how he treats/communicates with players.

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Souse - it is really hard to make a judgment about a 3 hour football game from just a 2 minute clip. And yet they release them and their point is to fire up the fanbase. Cal even made videos that made Dykes' first year look good. That's the point of the video. To make Cal look good.

I expect nothing from players hearing from their new coach for the first time. Which is why I said they should have kept the meeting private. They chose to release something. They didn't have to. No one was expecting it.

I've been around youth sports a long time. The last huddle and cheer "together" (I can't put an exclamation point on that) is literally the most lackluster I have ever heard. Which might be completely reasonable given this is a team meeting in a classroom 6 months before the next game. Why show this?

I have zero judgment of Fox from this. What I expect from Fox in his first team meeting is irrelevant. This is a video released to the pubic to get fans on board. It is a lame video. It makes Fox look lame and that is unfair to him.

Fox - No judgment
Video - Lame.

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I just watched that again, for some reason (I'm in full-on Cal masochist mode).

The part where he talks about the average NBA career being 4.7 years...maybe 6 years... and then you're 30 and you have to figure out what to do with the rest of your life... I'd be like, OK, I just made $25M in that timeframe... I think I'm good. And if i was really smart, which many of our guys are, I'd say, i invest that conservatively (after various professional fees) so as to get a 4% ammortization, I'm living on 1/2 million dollars a year for the rest of my life. yea, i think I'm good with that too. What was your point Coach?

The degree isn't your safety net if you make it to the Association... it's for if you don't. I know, I know...

And that "together" at the end is just sad... Seriously, sad. That's the only word I can think of.

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I am just flabbergasted at how out of touch adults can be about messaging to young people. How much they forget about being that age. No, you wouldn't have been motivated by that. Sorry. No. That speech was not designed to reach young people. It was designed to make adults feel good. It is like every assembly my kids get fed about drugs, or bullying or the perils of social media, or too much screen time, etc. My kids are very straight laced and they come back rolling there eyes and tell me it all is what the parents think is helpful and the kids don't want to listen to and they've heard it a million times before.

I guarantee you every guy in that room has heard the "you need an education in case basketball doesn't work out" speech many times. None of them are sitting there thinking "you mean I might NOT make millions in the NBA?" If they haven't gotten it yet, a new adult they don't know coming in and telling them isn't going to do it.

Yes, the message was all very important and needs to be conveyed. It does not need to be conveyed in a lecture in the first meeting. They don't know him. There is no reason for them to listen to him. He needs to gain trust and respect. That's when the message can be delivered. What th.ey needed was a confidence boost and something to believe in.

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Exactly. These are young men who were recruited to Cal, came to Cal and are Cal students. They have heard this many times before and bought in, or they would not be at Cal and all still be in good academic standing. They know all of that, probably better than him. They are working their butts off. He is the one that played basketball at Garden City CC and then Eastern New Mexico. They just went through a losing season and need to hear how things will be better. Him "pushing them" to work even harder is not an answer that brings any encouragement.

And people using the excuse "he's been a coach for 30 years, he must know how to talk with young people" is clearly not a valid argument. Parents of ten children are not necessarily good parents; CEOs of 20 years are not necessarily good CEOs and actors with 20 years of experience can remain bad actors the entire time, especially if they are continually richly rewarded for mediocre performance.

I offered earlier that the rest of the discussion might have been completely different, and I hope so. I think it was bad to post these clips because it does not inspire the fanbase.

OTB - I don't disagree with anything that you (or Fiat, for that matter) have said about Cal Marketing. If it's not worth doing or can't be done well, I agree that we simply shouldn't do it. Pretty simple. No disagreement there. All I'm suggesting is that it just doesn't matter ultimately and probably doesn't deserve such a long thread when there are much more impactful things going on with the program and the start of Fox's tenure.

Calumnus - To build on your CEO analogy, if someone in a particular industry started out in a low level staff role for one of the companies in that industry, got promoted several times for strong performance with the company, got promoted to CEO and then hired by a larger more prestigious firm because of his or her strong performance as CEO , then yeah I'm more likely to defer to his or her understanding of that industry than someone from a completely unrelated industry.

Yogi Bear said:

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calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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Well I didn't care much either way about the speech, but since it had an actual negative effect on Sueing (transfer portal), then it was not good. So far the Fox era has started off about to lose his best player. With Sueing leaving, you have to think McNeil will stay in the portal too. It's such a fun life being a Cal fan.

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We were bound to have some roster change. We're at the ripping the bandaid off portion of the post-Wyking era. Doesn't mean the bandaid shouldn't come off, but coach changes equal transfers probably no matter who you hire.

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Biggest test of his recruiting ability is his ability to keep the guys he has.

The players are looking for what is going to change, how can this guy 1) do something on his part to help us win, 2) help me get better, and/or 3) make basketball fun again.

His speech "I'm going to work you guys hard" implies they weren't working hard before. It fails on all three categories. Nothing there to excite them and it clearly didn't.

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I'm strugging to remember. Did Monty lose anybody he cared about? I got the feeling he wasn't sorry to let Garrett Sim out of his LOI.

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The guy he said was his most important recruit was Anderson, he tried to convince him he wasn't ready for the NBA and should stay in school.

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That's right! However, losing someone to the NBA versus losing them to another program isn't bad.

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Agreed. At the time I also wished Hardin had more eligibility, I think Monty would have really helped him.

"That speech was not designed to reach young people. It was designed to make adults feel good."

Exactly right, Oaktown. Our very professional AD hired a very professional head coach. Fox killed the professional interview and so, as page 78 of the professional AD's handbook states, you hire the coach who wins the interview.

TheFiatLux said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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I would have left out the shot of Sueing but the body language of the players didn't look bad to me. There was even a shot of Gordon nodding his head to something Fox said. Regardless, I thought the video was fine and ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I don't know what people would have expected from players hearing from their new coach in person for the first time. Seems that they were listening intently and I thought the message was generally was fine. Still, it's really hard to make a judgment about a meeting from just a 2 minute clip. While I'm not over the moon with the hire, I suspect we'll ultimately give Fox good marks for his leadership and how he treats/communicates with players.

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I know I get flack for this, but for cryin' out loud, if you think doing something is irrelevant, then don't do it. Don't spend the time, money or effort on it. Just like you don't send an insipid email out. But if you are going to do it, do it well. And this is not well done. Whether you think it is or not, it's not.

It's not the fact that Cal can't get the most basic, rudimentary thing rights... Well it's that... but add to that, is it's that people just go along with it and think it's OK... "Hey, I was going to go to the game anyway, so I don't care if they don't include that information" just kills me.

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Precisely Ken. It serves absolutely NO purpose. It put the kids on the spot and used them as marketing message for JK. The more I think about it, the less I like it. That is NOT a time for cameras (or even Trent if it is event a hint he will not be cleared to be on staff). Hell, if you want to do a promo video do one with him WALKING through campus and HIM reflecting on it. Don't put the kids on the spot.

My failure in life is not being smart enough to see things like this immediately. But upon reflection and a nights sleep. SMH....

PS. To be clear, I think the message sucked but OK. Some coaches are that way. Izzo publically humulitates his players on national TV and they still play for him. But what is INEXECUSABLE is that this doesn't market the university or the program. It markets JK and his ability to hire a coach who appeals to a VERY narrow (but sadly influential) group of alumni's (and faculty?) who LOVE that message.

You know. I am increasingly frustrated with Cal. They refuse to spend enough of their considerable brain power thinking about this stuff. I am about out. Sad. Love the place and the Bears. But at some point one gets tired of being Charlie Brown and having the rock pulled out. My life could be happier letting go.

calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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calumnus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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Well I didn't care much either way about the speech, but since it had an actual negative effect on Sueing (transfer portal), then it was not good. So far the Fox era has started off about to lose his best player. With Sueing leaving, you have to think McNeil will stay in the portal too. It's such a fun life being a Cal fan.

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We were bound to have some roster change. We're at the ripping the bandaid off portion of the post-Wyking era. Doesn't mean the bandaid shouldn't come off, but coach changes equal transfers probably no matter who you hire.

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Biggest test of his recruiting ability is his ability to keep the guys he has.

The players are looking for what is going to change, how can this guy 1) do something on his part to help us win, 2) help me get better, and/or 3) make basketball fun again.

His speech "I'm going to work you guys hard" implies they weren't working hard before. It fails on all three categories. Nothing there to excite them and it clearly didn't.

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I'm strugging to remember. Did Monty lose anybody he cared about? I got the feeling he wasn't sorry to let Garrett Sim out of his LOI.

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The guy he said was his most important recruit was Anderson, he tried to convince him he wasn't ready for the NBA and should stay in school.

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Monty offered Anderson a place to live and said he could have the master bedroom. It wasn't enough. If he had stayed, maybe they make the NCAA in year one and they go deeper in the NCAA in year two.

socaltownie said:

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TheFiatLux said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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I would have left out the shot of Sueing but the body language of the players didn't look bad to me. There was even a shot of Gordon nodding his head to something Fox said. Regardless, I thought the video was fine and ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I don't know what people would have expected from players hearing from their new coach in person for the first time. Seems that they were listening intently and I thought the message was generally was fine. Still, it's really hard to make a judgment about a meeting from just a 2 minute clip. While I'm not over the moon with the hire, I suspect we'll ultimately give Fox good marks for his leadership and how he treats/communicates with players.

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I know I get flack for this, but for cryin' out loud, if you think doing something is irrelevant, then don't do it. Don't spend the time, money or effort on it. Just like you don't send an insipid email out. But if you are going to do it, do it well. And this is not well done. Whether you think it is or not, it's not.

It's not the fact that Cal can't get the most basic, rudimentary thing rights... Well it's that... but add to that, is it's that people just go along with it and think it's OK... "Hey, I was going to go to the game anyway, so I don't care if they don't include that information" just kills me.

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Precisely Ken. It serves absolutely NO purpose. It put the kids on the spot and used them as marketing message for JK. The more I think about it, the less I like it. That is NOT a time for cameras (or even Trent if it is event a hint he will not be cleared to be on staff). Hell, if you want to do a promo video do one with him WALKING through campus and HIM reflecting on it. Don't put the kids on the spot.

My failure in life is not being smart enough to see things like this immediately. But upon reflection and a nights sleep. SMH....

PS. To be clear, I think the message sucked but OK. Some coaches are that way. Izzo publically humulitates his players on national TV and they still play for him. But what is INEXECUSABLE is that this doesn't market the university or the program. It markets JK and his ability to hire a coach who appeals to a VERY narrow (but sadly influential) group of alumni's (and faculty?) who LOVE that message.

You know. I am increasingly frustrated with Cal. They refuse to spend enough of their considerable brain power thinking about this stuff. I am about out. Sad. Love the place and the Bears. But at some point one gets tired of being Charlie Brown and having the rock pulled out. My life could be happier letting go.

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The brainpower of which you speak is questionable. Cal has it, but it resides primarily in the academic departments, especially the sciences, not as much in the athletic department.

KoreAmBear said:

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Poor presentation perhaps. But again, I would say Wilcox' first presser was worse. He looked really stiff and insecure. And I think Wilcox is a great coach (at least on defense lol). And Wyking's first presser was probably one of the best we've seen. And you know how things turned out.

So I kind of don't care about this. I just want us to have a legitimate product again in men's hoops.

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I think this was probably a hard speech to give, and Fox was visibly a bit nervous about it. It was hard, because I think that most of the players liked Wyking Jones, and that was evident by how hard they worked and played for him in the last few games of the season. They had invested a lot of time and energy in Jones, and they probably hoped, right or wrong, that he would be retained if they finished the season strong, which they did and he wasn't retained. There were a few players who were upset with reduced playing time and their "development," but most were willing to play for Jones. It is notable that it was the veterans of 2 years or more, McNeill, Sueing, and Davis, who quit the program.

The speech was also difficult to give, since Fox had never had to do that before, give first speech to his new players as a group, where most of the group were quite down after playing as well as they did, only to see the coach fired, a coach whom most of them liked as a person at least. At Georgia, the previous coach had already been fired mid season and an interim coach had taken over to finish the season, before Fox was hired. So Fox was not going into a situation where a coach who was liked by many players had just been canned, At Nevada, Fox was promoted to head coach after Trent Johnson had left for Stanford, I think, and the situation he walked into when he gave his first speech to the Nevada team was a much more positive one.

Still, Fox could have done a better job with that speech, taken a different approach. He could have praised more of what they did at the end, shown that he respected the tough task they and Jones had, and then established his own style and goals for the team. And he should have threatened not to do the speech, if there were cameras in that room. I can understand the AD wanting to publicly get a positive face on the program right away, but I think it backfired.

Pick, pick, pick.....we can all agree that there is something, hell a lot of things, we don't like about the happenings at CAL Athletics in recent months, years, even decades. The bottom line is that the biggest factor in winning is $$$$$$$$.
Money (a huge investment & on going streams of it) and a unified all in approach is what most all athletics programs have; witness Oregon.
CAL has invested neither the money (not consistently enough) nor the backing, possibly ever, to be on par with the big jock schools. Its probable that given the DNA at CAL Athletics, it may never happen. The Fault for this is US.
CAL faithful wanted Memorial Stadium to "BE" forever. OK, now it is but almost to a man (or woman) it didn't get paid for. And so that is why we are 'where we are' now.
So unless or until any of US writers in the posting stream above are ready to pony up MEGA bucks (mega as in mortgage your CA appreciated homesteads) for the sake of CAL, better get used to living with what we've built over the decades.
The HOPE: cool heads like Chancellor Christ, Coach Wilcox and (maybe) AD Knowlton might dig us out. We all need to get on board and get behind it....& maybe shut up a little.

Most excellent speech, Coach Fox. Very positive. PMA.

You came here to win. We are going to hold you accountable.

And we are going to be very dedicated to . . . WINNING!

"Go Bears" . . . you forgot to Go Bears!

Any Pac school can develop a program that perennially competes at and near the top of the conference. It takes the coach.

Conferences change, and certainly Monty won the Pac when it was terrible, but Cal can -- and has -- competed at the top of the conference. It requires getting the coaching hire right.

Braun recruited at the top of the conference. Monty coached at the top of the conference. It can be done. It's not implausible or unreasonable.

I don't know if Wyking was a bad coach or not. Nobody really does. I hated the hire so I'm happy to see him go, but I argue the talent was commensurate with the victories, more or less.

Anderson was one of the funner players to watch at Cal. I remember really wondering what that Cal team would have been like with Anderson.

Remember Hardin almost came out after his sophomore year? That's when his stock was the highest. Instead, Hardin simply proved over the next two years that he couldn't improve his offensive skills and thus exposing him. With a little bit of improvement on offense, I thought he'd have a bright career in th eNBA.s

TheSouseFamily said:

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All I'm suggesting is that it just doesn't matter ultimately and probably doesn't deserve such a long thread when there are much more impactful things going on with the program and the start of Fox's tenure.

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I agree. As soon as we recruit a couple of players or win a couple of games I'm sure this will all be forgotten. But right now we're not all in a frame of mind to absorb further failures.

82gradDLSdad said:

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"That speech was not designed to reach young people. It was designed to make adults feel good."

Exactly right, Oaktown. Our very professional AD hired a very professional head coach. Fox killed the professional interview and so, as page 78 of the professional AD's handbook states, you hire the coach who wins the interview.

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An interview can be incredibly helpful, if the right people are conducting the interview. I'm afraid this one looks like the common case of people favoring others just like themselves. Not just thinking inside the box, but inside a mirror box.

GBear4Life said:

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Any Pac school can develop a program that perennially competes at and near the top of the conference. It takes the coach.

Conferences change, and certainly Monty won the Pac when it was terrible, but Cal can -- and has -- competed at the top of the conference. It requires getting the coaching hire right.

Braun recruited at the top of the conference. Monty coached at the top of the conference. It can be done. It's not implausible or unreasonable.

I don't know if Wyking was a bad coach or not. Nobody really does. I hated the hire so I'm happy to see him go, but I argue the talent was commensurate with the victories, more or less.

Anderson was one of the funner players to watch at Cal. I remember really wondering what that Cal team would have been like with Anderson.

Remember Hardin almost came out after his sophomore year? That's when his stock was the highest. Instead, Hardin simply proved over the next two years that he couldn't improve his offensive skills and thus exposing him. With a little bit of improvement on offense, I thought he'd have a bright career in th eNBA.s

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Braun recruited at the top of the conference?

Nobody really knows if Wyking was a bad coach or not?

I respectfully beg to differ on these two points.

It's not about the players 'liking' Wyking or not, or 'liking' any coach

It's about respecting, connecting with, and trusting the coach

And it's also about believing in the coach

Respect and trust take time

From the little I know of him, and by watching his press conference and of his meeting with the team, i'm Concerned about his ability to connect with the players and recruits

And he also doesn't have the benefit of being a certified great coach, former player, nor charismatic personality

But as with our prior coaches, I will support our Cal coach as long as they are the coach, and keep my thoughts to myself on how I feel about them overall. Right now however, I'm having a really hard time getting to acceptance because we passed on a coach that I was really excited about becoming our new coach.

This was so easy, how did we screw it up?

Comments here about coaches "relating" to players, etc., make me wonder if any of the commentators ever competed at an elite level. My experience, collegiately and internationally was that a good portion of every team despised the coach and held the coach in very law regard. Notwithstanding, the players rallied together to achieve success despite their individual feelings. Maybe "relating" is important for recruiting, I never thought so, but high level athletes will go to a program for success despite the coach. If Fox can show some success the rest will follow.

Don't worry. Coach Fox took the players to Albany Bowl for pitchers and smoothed things over.

HoopDreams said:

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It's not about the players 'liking' Wyking or not, or 'liking' any coach

It's about respecting, connecting with, and trusting the coach

And it's also about believing in the coach

Respect and trust take time

From the little I know of him, and by watching his press conference and of his meeting with the team, i'm Concerned about his ability to connect with the players and recruits

And he also doesn't have the benefit of being a certified great coach, former player, nor charismatic personality

But as with our prior coaches, I will support our Cal coach as long as they are the coach, and keep my thoughts to myself on how I feel about them overall. Right now however, I'm having a really hard time getting to acceptance because we passed on a coach that I was really excited about becoming our new coach.

This was so easy, how did we screw it up?

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I nearly always respect what you write in your posts. Can I ask, who were the coach or coaches that you were excited about? Send me a PM if you like.

Twitter may not matter much to you and me, but you know who spends a lot of time on twitter - HS recruits.

There is nothing in that video other then the little section where he talked about his desire to win that was motivating at all from my view.

That "together" was the sound of brokeness.

The team is obviously in a tough spot dealing with all this.

Program is broken. God forbid he could question work ethic, oh my lord ? Did anyone see Texas Tech play defense last night? Wake up!

It was insane..: the nature of their defense. Can Cal be the TT of the P12? Not if you have a bunch of Namby pambies that can't take criticism. Oh, you hurt my feelings, ouch

Somebody should report on players who played for Fox at Georgia and/or Nevada regarding their thoughts on the coach.

We're all assuming he doesn't relate to players based on a two minute video. Braun was kind of "stiff" too. Nobody seemed to care. It was actually what I liked about Braun.

Student athletes these day want their authority figures (teachers, coaches, parents) to be more friend than mentor and authority figure. The goal of a coach is to NOT be that to them while also demonstrating they do care for them as kids, as individuals.

Izzo is a p r i c k. But players love him. And Izzo doesn't care one iota if a player can't handle it and transfers. The fan base doesn't either.

rkt88edmo said:

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...The team is obviously in a tough spot dealing with all this.

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The challenges that life can put in your path are often overwhelming and unfair.

Tom Brady crying while recounting the worst day of his life (when he didn't go as high in the NFL Draft as he thought he would):

This was poorly handled. Did Bobby Knight write this speech? Instead of a choreographed, team speech, Fox should have talked with each player individually. NO CAMERAS. Each player is an individual not a basketball robot. Does Cal do anything right?

Wondering: do you know that Fox didn't speak to the players individually prior to the videotaping?

bearchamp said:

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Wondering: do you know that Fox didn't speak to the players individually prior to the videotaping?

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Exactly. Ridiculous to assume this was his ONLY communication to the players. It's just what some idiot in Marketing chose to send out.

Look, I am not enamored with the hire because Fox had a mediocre record at Georgia, but it doesn't mean he's also a lousy communicator. All signs in that regard point to competency.

caltagjohnson said:

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This was poorly handled. Did Bobby Knight write this speech? Instead of a choreographed, team speech, Fox should have talked with each player individually. NO CAMERAS. Each player is an individual not a basketball robot. Does Cal do anything right?

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Agree the speech was poorly handled, and should never have been on camera. It made everyone look bad, the coach the players, and the AD for OKing it. But that did not sound like any speech I ever heard of Bobby Knight making. Too impersonal, too tame, no jokes, no colorful language. The players all looked sort of sullen to me. Were they sullen because of the firing of a coach they liked, or because of the speech itself, or because they had had individual conversations with the coach, and came away unhappy with the new coach?

After a nice guy coach who failed, maybe a Bobby Knight approach might be needed, but Bobby may not be right for these times. It worked with Newell replacing nice guy Nibs Price. Last time it worked was with Campanelli replacing nice guy Kuchen, but it was unsustainable. The player's own focus in Knight's day was more on "team", as opposed to on themselves as individuals. The spoiled and pampered athlete of today might not like a Bobby Knight approach. But if Cal continues to lose, I'd welcome the next Bobby Knight, whoever he is, to light a fire under the Cal team.. Fox's speech, if that was his intention, did not do that. It just turned everyone off, players and fans alike.

GBear4Life said:

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Izzo is a p r i c k. But players love him. And Izzo doesn't care one iota if a player can't handle it and transfers. The fan base doesn't either.

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I'm sure if Fox had Izzo's results it wouldn't be an issue for Cal fans either.

Shades of Bobby Knight?????