Sounds like we really need to retain Grace. If not Grace himself, then somebody AT LEAST as good at recruiting California.

Big C said:

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Sounds like we really need to retain Grace. If not Grace himself, then somebody AT LEAST as good at recruiting California.

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Which California players did Grace recruit? Was he the lead on Bradley and Kelly? Those are the only California players I see in our last two classes.

Recruiting African players is typically a little different than recruiting Aussies or Europeans. Typically, an African player will come over first to a host family in the US (and there are several "charities" actively involved in this). So usually, they'll go to HS in the US and recruited like any other player. Bak Bak, for example, went to Village Christian in CA before coming to Cal.

I'm not aware of African players going straight from Africa to college in the US simply due to the challenges of demonstrating academic eligibility. But there certainly is a pipeline in place to bring these guys to the US. It's just usually for high school first. I think Fox actually had a couple guys like this at Georgia though not big contributors.

what about recruiting in China? At least Larry Scott is televising over there, even if DTv has given the p12.net the shaft.

stu said:

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Whatever, as long as they bleed blue and gold.

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...but then there is that nasty elephant in the room, BEING TOO BLUE!

He looks like a good hire. My question is what else does he bring to the table aside from some recruiting ability? There needs to be a much stronger focus on player development and game strategy. I'm not sure what he brings there, if anything. (That's not a knock, I honestly don't know.)

GoCalBears said:

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ducky23 said:

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59bear said:

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smokeyrover said:

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Associate Head Coach at UNM. He is a former pg from Australia. Previous stops at Nebraska under Tim Miles and Saint Louis under Rick Majerus.

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I'm hopeful. Aussies are nice and the language barrier is lower but it's a pretty small pool. Europe and Africa would be my preferred target areas.

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Exactly.

I like the idea that cal needs to think differently if it's going to compete in the recruiting wars. Moneyball is all about doing more with less by identifying and then exploiting a market inefficiency.

I would argue that's exactly how Bennett was able to do so much with Smc. By tapping into a previously untapped market. But today, that market has already been exploited. And that market is already fairly small to begin with.

If you want to tap into the next big thing, find someone who can recruit Africa. Maybe Kevin bacon is available.

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since you brought it up, what recent college star players are from Africa? i thought soccer is more popular there and basketball was an afterthought if one is tall and not an elite soccer player or runner.

cal had bak bak

euro ball or fiba is where to mine. a cal team full of the likes of Moretti and Hachimura could deep in march.

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In recent years Kansas has had Joel Embiid (Cameroon), Cheick Diallo (Mali), Udoka Azubuike (Nigeria) and and Silvio De Sousa (Angola). Virginia has Mamadi Diakite from Guinea. Tacko Fall is from Senegal. Sean Obi of Duke is Nigerian. There have been some very good African players over the years. The NBA and FIBA are about to start up a professional league in Africa, though, so I wonder if that'll be the route for the good players.

Odd how no one in this thread is talking about Canada, which has produced 13 current players in the NBA.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Recruiting African players is typically a little different than recruiting Aussies or Europeans.

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One interesting case is Rama N'Diaye, who played for our women's team. Originally from Senegal, she went to high school in Japan then college at Cal. English was her fourth language!

Cal bio

stu said:

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Big C said:

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Sounds like we really need to retain Grace. If not Grace himself, then somebody AT LEAST as good at recruiting California.

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Which California players did Grace recruit? Was he the lead on Bradley and Kelly? Those are the only California players I see in our last two classes.

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Grace just joined the staff a year ago and so had nothing to do with last year's class. He has us in pretty good with a number of 2020 and 2021 recruits, supposedly (not an easy task, considering our record the past two seasons).

Hey, I don't know how good he is, really. How would I? I'm going by what EricBear and others say. Eric has seen him with recruits and talked to a bunch of people about him and ... Eric raves about David Grace. As I stated above, if there's somebody else that's better for recruiting California, let's get him. I don't care who it is, as long as they bring in talent that fits Cal and they play by the rules.

Big C said:

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Grace just joined the staff a year ago and so had nothing to do with last year's class. He has us in pretty good with a number of 2020 and 2021 recruits, supposedly (not an easy task, considering our record the past two seasons).

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That makes sense - I suppose we'll see in a couple of years. I wonder if Fox is talking to any of the kids Grace was working on?

TheSouseFamily said:

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Recruiting African players is typically a little different than recruiting Aussies or Europeans. Typically, an African player will come over first to a host family in the US (and there are several "charities" actively involved in this). So usually, they'll go to HS in the US and recruited like any other player. Bak Bak, for example, went to Village Christian in CA before coming to Cal.

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Are you implying The Air Up There is not accurate? Nope. I refuse to believe that.

ducky23 said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Recruiting African players is typically a little different than recruiting Aussies or Europeans. Typically, an African player will come over first to a host family in the US (and there are several "charities" actively involved in this). So usually, they'll go to HS in the US and recruited like any other player. Bak Bak, for example, went to Village Christian in CA before coming to Cal.

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Are you implying The Air Up There is not accurate? Nope. I refuse to believe that.

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Probably about as accurate as Ted Stryker bringing hoops to the Malombo tribe.

Big C said:

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59bear said:

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smokeyrover said:

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Associate Head Coach at UNM. He is a former pg from Australia. Previous stops at Nebraska under Tim Miles and Saint Louis under Rick Majerus.

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I'm hopeful. Aussies are nice and the language barrier is lower but it's a pretty small pool. Europe and Africa would be my preferred target areas.

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Yeah, I was kinda hoping to see on his bio, "also fluent in Serbo-Croation".

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Big C said:

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Sounds like we really need to retain Grace. If not Grace himself, then somebody AT LEAST as good at recruiting California.

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Coach Fox hires Coach Johnson, Coach Harriman, Coach Wilson and . . . ?

Coach Grace is gone.

Hail Mary full of Grace, not.Grace is a Commodore. Hired by Vanderbilt.

oskidunker said:

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Hail Mary full of Grace, not.Grace is a Commodore. Hired by Vanderbilt.

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Would you mind waking me up if something good happens?

So, now "our" best recruiter has joined a defunct singing group.........

KoreAmBear said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

Seriously, the best news of the fox regime is that we're on max hazzards short list.

BC Calfan said:

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Seriously, the best news of the fox regime is that we're on max hazzards short list.

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A 5-11 second string pg from a mid-major. Oh, the possibilities.

Don't get me wrong, I'd take him for his cool name alone.

He's actually a SG (did start 36 of 37 games, tho). Ex furdie grad transfer Cartwright started at PG for UCI. Hazzard wouldn't start for us, so I'm guessing he's being seen as a 3rd guard type off the bench that can moonlight at the 1 every once in awhile in case Joel Brown doesn't come.

Civil Bear said:

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BC Calfan said:

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Seriously, the best news of the fox regime is that we're on max hazzards short list.

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A 5-11 second string pg from a mid-major. Oh, the possibilities.

Don't get me wrong, I'd take him for his cool name alone.

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BEARUPINDC said:

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oskidunker said:

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Hail Mary full of Grace, not.Grace is a Commodore. Hired by Vanderbilt.

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Would you mind waking me up if something good happens?

So, now "our" best recruiter has joined a defunct singing group.........

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Was he our best recruiter? I don't feel like he had much impact here, but he didn't have much time nor much to sell. I genuinely don't know if I'm sorry we didn't retain him or not. I do suspect that he has more to offer than Marty Wilson, whose only advantage appears to be that he has a pre-existing relationship with Fox.

ducky23 said:

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socaltownie said:

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ducky23 said:

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59bear said:

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smokeyrover said:

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Associate Head Coach at UNM. He is a former pg from Australia. Previous stops at Nebraska under Tim Miles and Saint Louis under Rick Majerus.

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I'm hopeful. Aussies are nice and the language barrier is lower but it's a pretty small pool. Europe and Africa would be my preferred target areas.

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Exactly.

I like the idea that cal needs to think differently if it's going to compete in the recruiting wars. Moneyball is all about doing more with less by identifying and then exploiting a market inefficiency.

I would argue that's exactly how Bennett was able to do so much with Smc. By tapping into a previously untapped market. But today, that market has already been exploited. And that market is already fairly small to begin with.

If you want to tap into the next big thing, find someone who can recruit Africa. Maybe Kevin bacon is available.

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No. Next big thing will be China. Count on it. And Bears are VERY well positioned if they don't blow it. But you, know, Cal is Cal.

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As someone of Chinese heritage, I would be ecstatic to see a bunch of tall, athletic Chinese guys running around in a cal uniform. With that said, I find It very hard to imagine that happening within the next 10 years or so.

But you are right, if China was ever able to become a recruiting hotbed, cal would be extremely well positioned. Whenever I go over there, they only know 3 American schools, cal, furd and Harvard.

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You mean 'Berkeley', furd, and Harvard.

Golden One said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

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That's the ATO. You should be getting your season tickets faster now.

Golden One said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

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This is the new Athletic Department coach search computer:

stu said:

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Golden One said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

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This is the new Athletic Department coach search computer:

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I doubt we could afford that machine on our tight athletic department budget!

Golden One said:

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I doubt we could afford that machine on our tight athletic department budget!

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This was the affordable choice:

stu said:

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Golden One said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

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This is the new Athletic Department coach search computer:

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This is old stuff that has been replaced by the laptop, pad and smartphone.

tsubamoto2001 said:

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He's actually a SG (did start 36 of 37 games, tho). Ex furdie grad transfer Cartwright started at PG for UCI. Hazzard wouldn't start for us, so I'm guessing he's being seen as a 3rd guard type off the bench that can moonlight at the 1 every once in awhile in case Joel Brown doesn't come.

Civil Bear said:

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BC Calfan said:

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Seriously, the best news of the fox regime is that we're on max hazzards short list.

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A 5-11 second string pg from a mid-major. Oh, the possibilities.

Don't get me wrong, I'd take him for his cool name alone.

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Mea culpa, I was reading off of his 2017-18 stats.

KoreAmBear said:

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Golden One said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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So, Cal just updated it's computer hardware?

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That's the ATO. You should be getting your season tickets faster now.

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It's working!! My 1989-90 season tickets arrived in the mail today!!