Jeff82;842622427 said:
It has been suggested by others that when Monty came to Cal, he thought the program would basically recruit itself, as Stanford did during his later years, based on his coaching and the academics. That did not turn out to be the case. Socaltownie has suggested, and I agree with his assessment, that the recruiting bases for Stanford, a private school, and Cal, a public school, are different. In basketball, Stanford really has only one peer, Duke, whereas Cal competes against all the other high-academic public schools (UCLA, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina), several of whom have more robust recent basketball traditions than we have. That hindered Monty's recruiting, highlighted by the West Coast big men he didn't get. If he was sure he was going to get Poetl, it's hard to fathom why he would retire. Her certainly wasn't going to stay at Cal for 18 years, as he did at Stanford, just because of age. The obvious answer is that he was certain that Travis would get the job, and wanted to leave him a well-stocked roster. That's possible, and something that was basically torpedoed by the football fiasco and Sandy Barbour's departure. Still, I find it hard to believe that Monty, who lusted for years for a quality big man to build his system around, would leave if he was certain that quality 5 was coming. I still appreciate what he did for the program, in the wake of Braun's decline, and I'm now happy to see where Cuonzo Martin takes us.
Anyone who thought that did not listen to the Monty Gets Hired press conference.
In it, he was asked and talked about recruiting and I recall him saying that No, he didn't think it was going to be the same. He said that there was a different type of recruit that was available to him now. At the time, I didn't know if he meant that recruiting would be easier or harder - and I guess he cloaked his response well enough that I still don't know what he meant. However, seeing his recruits, I imagine he meant that recruiting at Cal would not be as easy or straight forward. That's a shame, because I think he just screwed the pooch on that job, either way.
Here are the points that matter on that subject:
A) Monty was HOF bound level coach with Final Four and NBA experience. That recruits!
B) Cal is a GREAT school in a GREAT location.
Recruiting should have been a piece of cake (in my opinion).
Martin's first 2 recruits last year are definitely not inspiring. However, in getting Rabb and Brown, he has already surpassed what Monty was doing. It will be interesting to see if Martin's success continues - flash in the lucky pan or a pattern. What Monty had HEAD AND SHOULDERS above Martin is ALL OF "A" above, and that is a huge advantage. Shame that Martin has shown him up in just year 2. Monty should have been able to manage better. But, he apparently knew that wasn't going to happen, per those initial press conference words. It was ominous to me, and ended up being prescient. Self fulfilling is the take away I have. He predicted his own doom.
When riding a horse, watch where the head is pointed, as that's usually the direction the horse is going to go next.