socaltownie said:My second least favorite argument on these boards (my first is that J. Brown wasn't great for Cal) is that there is value in comparing Furd and Cal to REVENUE SPORTS recruiting.wifeisafurd said:
My two cents.
The basketball programs hit bottom and the AD probably waited too long to make moves.
The issue is how you return to respectability from the basement at a school like Cal. This may or may not happen, but it is clear Fox can coach. The question is can he recruit sufficiently at a school like Cal? Cal is not going to change what it is to accommodate its basketball program. Those that think so have misread the priorities, especially when it comes admissions criteria. And frankly, that is simply excuse making. Furd has a crumpling, outdated Maples, crappy practice facilities and similar academic criteria. Yet Haase (a guy who played at Cal) seems to be recruiting just fine. And at least this year, Furd seems to be able to have a very competitive team. Admittedly, Furd basketball, when Haase took over, had not sunk as low as Cal's program prior to hiring Fox. , Fox just may be the intermediate step needed to get back to being respectable enough to actually be in the conversation for qualified highly rated recruits and to attract a more complete coach (and donors willing to pay for that coach). But Cal right now is far from being attractive to either top players or top coaches because of the sins of the past, and whining about admissions standards or facilities still are just excuses. For better or worse, an AD is evaluated on the football and basketball programs, and over time I assume Knowlton should be held accountable based on how these programs evolve under Wilcox and Fox, or their successors as need be. In most other schools, you find an AD that can provide an environment and personnel for these programs to prosper or you find a new AD that can.
I think this comes up because among the general undergrad population students apply to both schools - especially bay area kids or alumni that say in the Bay Area. But, and I have done this repeatedly over the years, an analysis of Furd's BB and Football rosters tells a VERY different story.
Repeatedly (Cafferty is one of the best examples) key difference makers for the Furd have attended either ELITE prep schools with tuition exceeding 30K a year and/or extremely affluent exurban high schools were property values and taxes serve the same function. These are students, I might suggest, that are night and day from many of the principal difference makers in our revenue sports who hail from middle class and diverse neighborhoods, often in Southern California. I am not at all convinced that students happy on the Farm would be happy hanging out on Telegraph and vis-a-versa.
Cal's true comparatives are UCLA, Michigan, Wisconsin, perhaps UT A - Big state schools that draw a diverse student body which is heavily represented from PUBLIC high schools and which have excellent academic reputations and semi-competitive (and up) admission standards.
Or put another way - do you think what Zaire CLAIMED drove his decision to be on the farm (I sorta scoof at it but for these purposes I will take on face value) can be found at the MUCH larger, much more diverse and much less coddling of undergrads Cal. When does Cal set up wine and cheese stuff for Frosh with VCs?
Getting our benchmark right is the first step. From there we can sorta laugh at the support Cal gives athletics compared to the sister school to the south and how that translates into success.
Rather than compare ourselves to others, I think Cal needs to embrace and develop its unique brand. Identify our comparative advantage. We have landed #1 (or near #1) recruits like Shareef Abdur Rahim, Jaylen Brown and in football Demitris Robertson from the Atlanta area plus local guys like Jason Kidd, Leon Powe, Ivan Rabb, Jabari Bird and Marshawn Lynch.
The top players we attracted from Atlanta came specifically because of Cal's reputation for embracing diversity, social activism, meaningful academic inquiry and intellectualism. Plus the great weather.
Bill Walton, Hakeem Olajuwon, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitski and Isiah Thomas have all been attracted to Cal for the campus environment or academic programs, several saying that if they had know what Cal had to offer they would have come. So one task is to identify top student athletes nationally who are not only good students, but who also want to make a difference in society and are likely to be attracted to Berkeley and all it represents. For those athletes, Cal has no competition. Among the kids coming up, the numbers are huge.
Local players stayed for the opportunity to play in front of family and friends and represent their community. With the Raiders and Warriors leaving Oakland, Cal is the East Bay (or North Bay) team in those sports. We need to embrace that.
Part of that would be having an AD and hiring head coaches that embody and embrace the above and are thus able to authentically sell it to recruits.
