calumnus said:
SFCityBear said:
bearister said:
SFCityBear said:
89Bear said:
helltopay1 said:
Desire is hard to maintain if it is not ingrained in your DNA.
Maintained it for the 7 game winning streak that only ended yesterday on a fantastic buzzer-beating 3 pointe
If Montgomery had stayed at Cal, do you think he would have held on to Jordan Mathews and then signed Jonah Mathews?
...at the end of his reign, Monty remained a superb X and O guy, but not much of a recruiter and not big on the warm and fuzzies (i.e. shoving Crabbe), so I'm not sure he possessed the skill set to prevent a player from trading up to an elite program or spotting and closing the deal on good talent). He had shot his wad.
I agree with you in general, but I was talking only about the Mathews brothers. Monty didn't recruit real well, but he did bring in some good players, just not enough of them to satisfy Cal fans. The only ranked players who left his program were a couple of head cases, Gary Franklin, ranked #57 who apparently didn't like the position he was asked to play, and jumped to a better program at Baylor, and DJ Seeley (#60), who he closed the deal with, but Seeley was not big on effort, and sulked on the bench, finally transferring to a lesser program at Cal State Fullerton. Neither one was a loss of any kind, and maybe losing both of them improved the team. He did find and close the deal with Crabbe (#71) and he did the same with Jabari Bird (#20), and Wallace (#94). He brought in some very good unranked players like Justin Cobbs, Richard Solomon, David Kravish, Jorge, MSF, and Jordan Mathews. Just not enough of them.
I think if Monty had stayed, Jordan would not have left, as his beef was with Cuonzo, not Montgomery. And if Jordan had stayed for a coach he liked, maybe Jonah might have given Montgomery a chance to land him.
Monty's problem was not just that he couldn't land top players at Cal, it was that top local players: Lee, Gordon, Rabb... who WANTED to go to Cal, wouldn't just because of Monty.
What would have been great is if Monty had arranged a transition plan for DeCuire to take over with Monty settling into an advisory role.
Which players did Travis recruit, or help influence their decision, while he was on the Cal staff? I remember he was instrumental in signing Emerson Murray.
And can I ask who or what is your source for the info on Lee, Gordon, and Rabb?