agree. braun was a good coach and that included being a good evaluator of talent, and even finding a couple jewels overseas (e.g. Tamir)SFCityBear said:I was pretty critical of Ben Braun, but in retrospect, in Cal's history since Newell, Ben Braun was not bad. First of all, he did what he was hired to do, and that was to try and quickly rescue Cal's reputation after the sordid Bozeman affair, get some results on the floor, bring in some interesting players, keep the fans interest up, and sell tickets. He did all that, and won a lot of games as well, especially his first 7 seasons, which were all winning seasons. Campanelli was Cal's first coach since Newell with a winning record, but Braun's record, a .587 winning percentage was higher. Montgomery was a better coach, but Braun had kept the program going in a positive direction. He went to a Sweet 16 with Bozeman's recruits, but he also went to the NCAA four more times and won an NIT championship. He finished in the top 4 spots in the PAC10 several times. Considering all the losing seasons with Herrerias, Padgett, Edwards, and Kuchen, and Jones, we could have hired much worse than Ben Braun, and often did. He ranks 3rd best of Cal coaches I have seen, behind Newell and Montgomery. His worst decision was probably taking the Rice job, where he flopped, but at Cal he did well compared to all the other Cal coaches.59bear said:Is "not so horrible" the new floor? By that standard Braun's record looks pretty good!south bender said:
SCT, so maybe Fox is not so horrible a hire?
very likable guy, donated to the program, and ran a clean program
still love that story from benson about braun and the jorge kicker
