oskidunker said:

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I thought Cal looked better against Texas than either usf or Santa Clara. Hard to understand, except Texas was at a neutral site . I think Fresno has a losing record. Still bad Memories of Cal vs Fresneck in the ncaa playoffs in Memphis. The jelani Gardner debacle.

Hoping for a win and better play.

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bluesaxe said:

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I'm not disagreeing at all on Knowlton's handling of this. It wasn't at all adequate.

But I recall reports that players told him they were leaving if Wyking stayed as well. And I suspect that other issues could have been in play. For example, imo the most important guy we lost was Vanover. Was he comfortable in Berkeley, after being raised in Arkansas? Maybe, but his return to home base might suggest otherwise. McNeill did something similar. Maybe the guy was out there who could have convinced them all to stay, but it may be that those guys all had different ideas about what they were looking for. It's hard for me to assume that there's a guy who we could have hired who would have fixed every issue with those guys.

Where we probably agree is that I doubt Knowlton knew enough about what the players wanted or disliked to know what might work best or that he knew enough about the talent pool of younger coaches to make the call.

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HoopDreams said:

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Lost on who?

GBear4Life said:

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caltagjohnson said:

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The Vanover and Sueing losses make this team worse than last year. McNeil is not a difference maker. I wonder how Jones is spending his $1M this year.

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Exactly. How is this lost upon people?

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Civil Bear said:

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bluesaxe said:

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I'm not disagreeing at all on Knowlton's handling of this. It wasn't at all adequate.

But I recall reports that players told him they were leaving if Wyking stayed as well. And I suspect that other issues could have been in play. For example, imo the most important guy we lost was Vanover. Was he comfortable in Berkeley, after being raised in Arkansas? Maybe, but his return to home base might suggest otherwise. McNeill did something similar. Maybe the guy was out there who could have convinced them all to stay, but it may be that those guys all had different ideas about what they were looking for. It's hard for me to assume that there's a guy who we could have hired who would have fixed every issue with those guys.

Where we probably agree is that I doubt Knowlton knew enough about what the players wanted or disliked to know what might work best or that he knew enough about the talent pool of younger coaches to make the call.

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I recall those reports as well, but it was never evident it was the same players. There were to be defections regardless, for sure. I believe Kelly was one.

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south bender said:

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I can fully imagine why Kelly would want to leave, if Jones stayed.

I thought his mismanagement of Kelly was up there with the worst I have seen of Cal coaching, since 1978.

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