Was just about to post this. Great news. Also nice to get Gonzaga out of the way, since I had thought they were our main comp. Seems like we're going head to head with old friend David Grace and Vandy a lot lately for recruits.

This would be a massive get for Cal. Top 150 player nationally at a position of need.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Was just about to post this. Great news. Also nice to get Gonzaga out of the way, since I had thought they were our main comp. Seems like we're going head to head with old friend David Grace and Vandy a lot lately for recruits.

This would be a massive get for Cal. Top 150 player nationally at a position of need.

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I didn't realize he was that highly rated. Nice!

89Bear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Was just about to post this. Great news. Also nice to get Gonzaga out of the way, since I had thought they were our main comp. Seems like we're going head to head with old friend David Grace and Vandy a lot lately for recruits.

This would be a massive get for Cal. Top 150 player nationally at a position of need.

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I didn't realize he was that highly rated. Nice!

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It was just recently Rivals moved him into their top 150. His profile has really taken off in his prep year. He wasn't nearly as highly rated in HS.

Could help our chances. Vaughn is a 6'5 G/F

ole miss just signed a top grad transfer SG
might knock them out

but vanderbilt is our top competitor anyway, and is the favorite to sign Tyrin

NathanAllen said:

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Lawrence will make his decision at 1 p.m. (PST) on Thursday, per Corey Evans.

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What is the word on his decision? Coming up in 30 mins.

The suspense is absolutely unbearable.He will go to Mo as it is closer to home. Thiscould be a trend. we will see.Gonzo might get lucky here.

Hoping for a Jaylen Brown like surprise here.

dang... he makes the call for Vandy. Was hoping he would come here given the lack of depth at PG

Perhaps the outbreak will result in more players wanting to stay closer to home. That obviously would help us with Bay Area recruits.

Jeff82 said:

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Perhaps the outbreak will result in more players wanting to stay closer to home. That obviously would help us with Bay Area recruits.

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At a minimum, it puts more pressure on developing a strong virtual visit pitch. I don't believe Lawrence ever visited Vandy and only did a virtual visit. A lot of schools are now doing these virtual visits. Would be interesting to know what Fox and his operations team have up their sleeves in this regard.

TheSouseFamily said:

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Jeff82 said:

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Perhaps the outbreak will result in more players wanting to stay closer to home. That obviously would help us with Bay Area recruits.

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At a minimum, it puts more pressure on developing a strong virtual visit pitch. I don't believe Lawrence ever visited Vandy and only did a virtual visit. A lot of schools are now doing these virtual visits. Would be interesting to know what Fox and his operations team have up their sleeves in this regard.

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Fox hasn't landed one high profile recruit yet. Only real win from his own staff's recruiting effort was Kuany Kuany.

KoreAmBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Jeff82 said:

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Perhaps the outbreak will result in more players wanting to stay closer to home. That obviously would help us with Bay Area recruits.

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At a minimum, it puts more pressure on developing a strong virtual visit pitch. I don't believe Lawrence ever visited Vandy and only did a virtual visit. A lot of schools are now doing these virtual visits. Would be interesting to know what Fox and his operations team have up their sleeves in this regard.

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Fox hasn't landed one high profile recruit yet. Only real win from his own staff's recruiting effort was Kuany Kuany.

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He can't keep having seasons like last season and hope to last very long. Being better than Wyking is only going to get you so far. You have to recruit and if he just can't or won't, we'll need to cut bait again.

bearchamp said:

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Geez, people are very quick on the trigger with regard to Fox. First, his hiring was such a disappointment, then he designed a tremendous turnaround. Now, if he doesn't land a recruit, we need to start over. Give the man some time. Cal will be better next year with just the players coming back. New guys are coming, just give it time.

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You are very patient.

Fox hasn't yet landed a high-ranked impact recruit. I've seen the guys play who are coming in, and they likely aren't difference makers.

Chapman_is_Gone said:

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bearchamp said:

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Geez, people are very quick on the trigger with regard to Fox. First, his hiring was such a disappointment, then he designed a tremendous turnaround. Now, if he doesn't land a recruit, we need to start over. Give the man some time. Cal will be better next year with just the players coming back. New guys are coming, just give it time.

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You are very patient.

Fox hasn't yet landed a high-ranked impact recruit. I've seen the guys play who are coming in, and they likely aren't difference makers.

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+1. It is, however, an extremely odd year but we do not seem to have much of a plan when it comes to putting the pieces together. Of course....we sorta knew this story when we hired him - not much of a recruiter in Georgia either.....

<sigh> Someday we will get back to the tournie.....someday.

Garou said:

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KoreAmBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Jeff82 said:

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Perhaps the outbreak will result in more players wanting to stay closer to home. That obviously would help us with Bay Area recruits.

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At a minimum, it puts more pressure on developing a strong virtual visit pitch. I don't believe Lawrence ever visited Vandy and only did a virtual visit. A lot of schools are now doing these virtual visits. Would be interesting to know what Fox and his operations team have up their sleeves in this regard.

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Fox hasn't landed one high profile recruit yet. Only real win from his own staff's recruiting effort was Kuany Kuany.

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He can't keep having seasons like last season and hope to last very long. Being better than Wyking is only going to get you so far. You have to recruit and if he just can't or won't, we'll need to cut bait again.

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This past season was a relative success. Next season will likely be somewhat better. Fox may even get us to .500 in conference the year after that, but if he does not land upper Pac-12 level recruits .500 will be our ceiling as it was Georgia's ceiling when he was there.

bearchamp said:

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Geez, people are very quick on the trigger with regard to Fox. First, his hiring was such a disappointment, then he designed a tremendous turnaround. Now, if he doesn't land a recruit, we need to start over. Give the man some time. Cal will be better next year with just the players coming back. New guys are coming, just give it time.

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This is just a fan board shooting the ***** None of us has the authority to PULL THE TRIGGER on Fox. But we do care enough to keep a critical eye on what's happening. Since most of us are hoping for the best, the recruiting results are simply not there. Give him time? Sure. How much time? That seems to be the real question.

Despite contracts (which can be bought out), the era of giving a coach 5 years (or even 3) are probably 10 years out of date. Maybe that will change with Covid impacts, but if the trajectory is not right after year or two or three - one needs to cut bait. Jones was 2 years and fired. Cuonzo was 3 years and Mizzou did us a solid. For Fox:

Year 1 - Big Check plus in my mind. I enjoyed last season, because it followed Jones. If it followed Cuonzo, Monty or Braun (or any others), I think all of us would feel much worse about the Fox hire.

Year 2 - I'm looking for stability, player development and talent upgrade through recruiting. IMHO, if he succeeds with the first two (I'm confident) and fails on the third (looking that way, but who knows at this point) - he gets year three. With the caveat that he may need to adjust his staff to bump recruiting (and I don't see that he wouldn't do that).

Year 3 - more of the same, but three cycles of sub standard recruiting is probably not gonna cut it at this level.

The other obvious question is, what do you do if you decide to make a change? I'm happy with last season, all things considered, but I still would have hired Travis Decuire over Fox, because I think his upside might be higher. If it's true, as others have said, that Travis didn't get the job because he didn't interview well, that was a dumb reason, considering the result the last time we basically hired a coach (Dykes) based on his interview skills. If we switch from Fox, the choices will basically be the same as they were when we hired him, unless there's some other change in the school's commitment level to the basketball program, which we've discussed ad nauseum in this thread and others. Really, getting the superior coach we all want is probably going to be more a matter of Tedford/Wilcox luck than anything else.

Fox is a "system" guy and that's gonna take a while to take hold (just like it did Tony Bennett at Virginia). This is not gonna be a "2 baskets and a ball" type of program. Fox is not the coach and Cal is not the school to get a bunch of elite guys who can break people down 1:1 and win by overwhelming teams with talent.

We made some important strides defensively this year and we need to build on that going forward. We went from one of the worst defenses in the country to being 116th In defensive efficiency by doing "little things" like reducing opponent's transition from 30% of possessions under Wyking to 25% (important because efg% is 10% higher in transition than non-transition). We made improvements in % of opponent's assisted baskets, which is important too because those are statistically higher % opportunities. Our success will come from stacking those kinds of improvements.

The biggest areas for improvement for me next year are: 1) defending without fouling. We really struggled with that this year and the truly elite defense teams are elite because they don't foul much. And 2) improving 3 point shooting defense. This was gonna be a challenge this past season with our lack of length around the perimeter but bringing in longer guys like Celestine and Bowser can hopefully improve that.

I'd expect our defense to take a significant leap forward next year and I'd hope for a small improvement in the offense, while remaining realistic that offense is still gonna be a challenge next year. That's where someone like Lawrence and a shooter really would have helped.

Jeff82 said:

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The other obvious question is, what do you do if you decide to make a change? I'm happy with last season, all things considered, but I still would have hired Travis Decuire over Fox, because I think his upside might be higher. If it's true, as others have said, that Travis didn't get the job because he didn't interview well, that was a dumb reason, considering the result the last time we basically hired a coach (Dykes) based on his interview skills. If we switch from Fox, the choices will basically be the same as they were when we hired him, unless there's some other change in the school's commitment level to the basketball program, which we've discussed ad nauseum in this thread and others. Really, getting the superior coach we all want is probably going to be more a matter of Tedford/Wilcox luck than anything else.

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I would add two things:

1. I think there is more to the NOT Travis hire, than failing the interview. Monty recommended him and a lot of people here seem to think very highly of him, but the rest of the universe doesn't seem to agree. He's doing great at Montana, but his name is not usually on the lists of hot college coaches. I think his stock is overvalued here on BI.

2. I think from a future coach's perspective, Cal is MUCH more attractive post FOX than it was under Jones. First off, the whole program is not so much a dumpster fire (less of a rebuild). Secondly, we have an Athletic Director, who may not be the best, but I'm sure he is deemed competent to a potential hire (unlike Williams). Finally, we have a Chancellor in Christ who is much more supportive of athletics than her predecessor(s).

But yeah, replacing FOX won't be a guaranteed slam dunk.

BeachedBear said:

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Jeff82 said:

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The other obvious question is, what do you do if you decide to make a change? I'm happy with last season, all things considered, but I still would have hired Travis Decuire over Fox, because I think his upside might be higher. If it's true, as others have said, that Travis didn't get the job because he didn't interview well, that was a dumb reason, considering the result the last time we basically hired a coach (Dykes) based on his interview skills. If we switch from Fox, the choices will basically be the same as they were when we hired him, unless there's some other change in the school's commitment level to the basketball program, which we've discussed ad nauseum in this thread and others. Really, getting the superior coach we all want is probably going to be more a matter of Tedford/Wilcox luck than anything else.

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I would add two things:

1. I think there is more to the NOT Travis hire, than failing the interview. Monty recommended him and a lot of people here seem to think very highly of him, but the rest of the universe doesn't seem to agree. He's doing great at Montana, but his name is not usually on the lists of hot college coaches. I think his stock is overvalued here on BI.

2. I think from a future coach's perspective, Cal is MUCH more attractive post FOX than it was under Jones. First off, the whole program is not so much a dumpster fire (less of a rebuild). Secondly, we have an Athletic Director, who may not be the best, but I'm sure he is deemed competent to a potential hire (unlike Williams). Finally, we have a Chancellor in Christ who is much more supportive of athletics than her predecessor(s).

But yeah, replacing FOX won't be a guaranteed slam dunk.

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This is not a can Fox but I think you chalk up a lot of Travis's issues that it is MONTANA. How many games have ANY pundits or reporters seen - Mountain time zone, difficult to get TV to, Big Sky isn't a great TV market, etc. etc. etc.

Plus it was VERY strange time for the coaching carousel this year (I mean - how in the **** is Brian Dutcher still at SDSU. I get that he is 60 but in normal years there are P5 programs shoveling money there)

Back to Fox - The issue is whether the system can survive without a back up point guard or one that is as shooting challenged as Joel. I hope so. Hard to see how that system is a good system but I might be surprised.

As long as we can finish the 2020 class with Malik Zachery and one of Quan Jackson/Ryan Betley, I'd be happy.

Brown/Zachery
Quan or Betley/Celestine or Bowser
Bradley/JHD
Anticevic/Kuany
Kelly/Lars or Thorpe

actually has the look of a pretty solid depth chart

BeachedBear said:

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Jeff82 said:

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The other obvious question is, what do you do if you decide to make a change? I'm happy with last season, all things considered, but I still would have hired Travis Decuire over Fox, because I think his upside might be higher. If it's true, as others have said, that Travis didn't get the job because he didn't interview well, that was a dumb reason, considering the result the last time we basically hired a coach (Dykes) based on his interview skills. If we switch from Fox, the choices will basically be the same as they were when we hired him, unless there's some other change in the school's commitment level to the basketball program, which we've discussed ad nauseum in this thread and others. Really, getting the superior coach we all want is probably going to be more a matter of Tedford/Wilcox luck than anything else.

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I would add two things:

1. I think there is more to the NOT Travis hire, than failing the interview. Monty recommended him and a lot of people here seem to think very highly of him, but the rest of the universe doesn't seem to agree. He's doing great at Montana, but his name is not usually on the lists of hot college coaches. I think his stock is overvalued here on BI.

2. I think from a future coach's perspective, Cal is MUCH more attractive post FOX than it was under Jones. First off, the whole program is not so much a dumpster fire (less of a rebuild). Secondly, we have an Athletic Director, who may not be the best, but I'm sure he is deemed competent to a potential hire (unlike Williams). Finally, we have a Chancellor in Christ who is much more supportive of athletics than her predecessor(s).

But yeah, replacing FOX won't be a guaranteed slam dunk.

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I don't disagree with either point. The whole Travis thing is weird, because I've come to believe that Monty retired when he did partly because he was sure that Travis would get the job, especially since there were people who claimed that Jakob Poetl definitely would have gone to Cal to play for either Monty or Travis.

No question that Fox is putting out the blaze. How much more attractive Cal will be down the road, who knows? Everyone thought we would also be attractive when Monty left, but the names that came up as really being interested the board found underwhelming. That's why people were happy with Martin, even though that ended up being a complete tangent for the program. Before Fox was hired, the Chronicle interviewed Monty about the job search. One of the things he said was that when Sandy became the AD, she asked him the biggest need for the basketball program, and he told her it was a dedicated practice facility. That was 16 years ago, and we're still not close to having that facility. That may be a bigger problem than anything else in attracting coaches.

In the Covid-19 era, Easter practice in the Rec is unlikely.