With the historically unsuccessful Mark Fox era over at Cal, let's take a look at some potential replacement candidates in this critical juncture of Cal basketball.
But before we begin, the profound level of futility of not just the Mark Fox era but also the preceding two years of comparable lack of success from Wyking Jones needs to be examined to understand just how big a hole AD Jim Knowlton and the athletic department needs to figure out a way to dig itself out of.
Following the relatively successful 3-year tenure of Cuonzo Martin, who went 62-39 overall and
29-25 in conference before departing to Missouri with a substantial raise that more than doubled his Cal contract, prior AD Mike WIlliams made a critical error in hiring Martin assistant Wyking Jones, who had no head coaching experience. The results were even worse than the gloomiest of sceptics could have imagined, with a pair of last-place finishes and an overall record of 16-47 overall and just 5-31 in conference.
Veteran coach Mark Fox, who had had a modest level of success took over and fared little better in his 4-year tenure at Cal, going just 38-67 overall and 17-61 in conference.
Fortunately in this day of portal transfers and NIL, if a program like Cal that has something
beyond futility to offer under the right leadership and framework, including a robust NIL program, the right coach and a few key transfer additions can dramatically change the fortunes of a program without having to suffer through a painfully slow rebuild project.
There are some non-negotiable traits this go-round that are crucial to picking the right person to lead what is not a particularly easy turnaround of a Cal program that’s been down six years now: A strong recruiter, a dynamic personality, high character, problem solver vs. a complainer, an inclusive approach (former players, donors, press, fans input considered), a proven head coach and teacher, a builder/change agent type and energetic.
With that in mind, here are some candidates that Cal can, will or possibly should consider:
Potential primary candidates:
Joe Pasternak UCSB head coach, age 41
Pasternack currently holds a record of 132–52 (.713) and 70–30 (.700) in Big West conference play in six seasons in Santa Barbara. The Gauchos tied for 1st in conference this season with a 15-5 record and 27-7 overall, also winning the Big West conference tourney. The Gauchos earned a 14th seed in the NCAA tournament, facing No. 3 seed Baylor in the first round of the South Region on Friday He has experience as an assistant at Cal and Arizona, where he was their lead recruiter, which could be viewed as a strong positive with the elite players he helped bring in
or potentially a negative if he was personally involved in any of their recruiting violations when he was on staff under Sean Miller. He also helped engineer a turnaround at his first head coaching job at New Orleans so he also has experience digging out of holes. UCSB had also gone 25-36 in the two seasons prior to Pasternack’s arrival. He has strong west coast ties and is known as a strong recruiter.
Darian DeVries Drake head coach, age 47
DeVries currently holds a record of 122–47 (.722) and 63–29 (.685) in Missouri Valley conference play in 5 seasons at Drake. Drake is currently 27-7 and finished 2nd in conference with a 15-5 record. Drake earned the No. 12 seed in the Midwest Region and will face No. 5 Miami in Albany, NY. DeVries was twice voted conference Coach of the Year and
has a 1-1 record in NCAA tourney play. Prior to his arrival, Drake went just 23-40 before he engineered a quick turnaround. Combined with his time as an assistant at Creighton, he has a reputation as a strong recruiter and as a dynamic young coach who comes from a good coaching tree, though he does not appear to have particularly strong west coast ties.
Leon Rice, Boise State head coach, age 59
Rice currently holds a record of 267–153 (.636) and 141–88 (.616) in conference play at BSU. They went 13-5 in Mountain
West play this season, and 23-8 overall. Rice was twice named conference Coach of the Year and won two regular season conference and one conference tournament championship in his 14 seasons at BSU. He has significant coaching experience also serving as an assistant at Oregon and Gonzaga, though his age might be a bit less attractive.
Brian Dutcher, San Diego State head coach, age 63
Dutcher currently holds a record of 144–46 (.757) overall and 81–25 (.764) in conference play as head coach at SDSU. SDSU
went 15-3 this season, winning the Mountain West conference title and Mountain West conference tourney. SDSU earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, facing 12th-seeded College of Charleston. Dutcher was a longtime assistant head coach for 9 years at Michigan and 18 years at SDSU under highly-successful head coach Brian Fisher. He’s won 3 conference championships and 2 conference championship tournaments in his 5 seasons with the Aztecs. Dutcher has strong west coast ties and a good recruiting reputation though his age may be seen by some as a drawback.
Mark Pope, BYU head coach, age 50
Pope currently holds a record at BYU of 85–40 (.680) overall and 39–21 (.650) in conference in his 4 seasons at BYU. They went 7-9 in conference this season and 17-15 overall, tying for fifth in the West Coast Conference. The Cougars went to the NCAA tourney in 2020-21 after finishing 20-7
and 10-3, 2nd in conference and to the NIT quarterfinals the next season. Dutcher also was an assistant at Wake Forest and Georgia as well as a player for 6 years in the NBA with Denver, Milwaukee and Indiana. He played for Washington and was the captain of Kentucky’s national championship team in 1996.
Next let’s take a look at several potential targets who some might see as a higher risk/higher reward option for various reasons.
Ryan Odom, Utah State head coach, age 48
Odom holds a record at Utah State of 41–23 (.641)overall and 20–15 (.571) in conference play at Utah State in his two seasons there, currently 23-7 and 12-6 in Mountain West Conference play,
finishing 2nd behind San Diego State and tied with Boise State. Prior to Utah State, Odom turned around an awful UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) who had gone 11-51 in the 2 seasons prior to his arrival to a first-season 21-13 record and 97-60 in 5 seasons. He was also an assistant at Virginia Tech, South Florida, Furman, UNC-Ashville and Charlotte.
Danny Sprinkle, Montana State, age 45
Sprinkle holds a record of 81–42 (.659) 49–23 (.681) at Montana State in Big Sky play, going 25–9 overall and 15–3 in conference this season, finishing 2nd in the regular season and earning a second straight NCAA tourney appearance with a Big Sky conference tournament championship this season. The Bobcats will face No. Kansas State on Friday in the opening round of the tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sprinkle was named the Big Sky Coach of the Year this season. He took over a program that went just 28-46 in the two seasons before he arrived so he’s no stranger to big turnarounds. He's recruited on the west coast as an assistant at Cal State Northridge and Fullerton State and played collegiately at Montana State in the 90s.
Todd Simon, Southern Utah head coach, age 42
Simon holds a record at Southern Utah of 117-105 overall and 65-54 in conference play at Southern Utah in his 2 seasons there. They finished 20-11 overall currently and 12-6 in WAC Conference play. His teams have finished 64-27 in the last 3 seasons. Interestingly, Simon was part of the founding staff of Findlay Prep in Las Vegas and coached former Cal star Jorge Gutierrez in high school. He was also an assistant head coach and interim head coach at UNLV.
Stan Johnson, Loyola Marymount head coach, age 43
Johnson holds a record at LMU of 43–39 (.524) overall and 19–24 (.442) in WCC conference play at
LMU in his 3 seasons there. They finished this season at 19-12 overall and 9-7 in conference play this season, finishing 4th. Before LMU, Johnson was an assistant at Marquette, ASU, Drake and Utah. He took over a Lions program that went 31-33 prior to his arrival.
Shantay Legans, Portland head coach, age 41
Legans holds a record at Portand of 32–33 (.492) overall and 12–18 (.400) in WCC conference play in his 2 seasons there. They finished this season 13-18 overall and 5-11 in conference play, finishing 8th. He took over a program that had gone just 15-38 the 2 seasons before his arrival. Legans went 39-14 in his final two seasons at Eastern
Washington before taking the Portland job. Legans played point guard at Cal from 1999 to 2002 before transferring to Fresno State.
Tim Miles, San Jose State head coach, age 56
Miles holds a record of 27–35 (.435) overall and 11–25 (.306) at San Jose State in Mountain West play in his 2 seasons there. They finished this season 20-12 overall and 10-8 in MWC play after struggling his first season, taking over a Spartans program that
went just 20-93 in the 4 prior seasons. Prior to SJS, Miles went 116–114 (.504) in 7 seasons at Nebraska and 71-88 at Colorado State.
Grant McCasland, North Texas head coach, age 46
MacCasland holds a record of 129–65 (.663) overall at North Texas and 71–36 (.664) in Conference USA play in his 6 seasons with the Mean Green. They finished the regular season 26-7 overall and 16-4 in C-USA, finishing second. He took over a North Texas program that has gone just 20-42 prior to his arrival, engineering a nice turnaround. His coaching experience at Baylor gave him bigger recruiting exposure and MacCasland also played at Baylor in the 90s.
Rodney Terry, Texas interim head coach, age 54
Terry holds a record of 17-7 overall at Texas and 12-6 in Big-12 conference play since taking over as interim coach after previous head coach Chris Beard was suspended then fired by the
Longhorns. After knocking off No. 1 seed Kansas in the conference tourney, the Longhorns earned the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region against No. 15 seed Colgate in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday. Terry got his head coaching start at Fresno State in 2011, taking a few years before turning around the program and winning 20+ games his last three seasons with the Bulldogs. He then took over at UTEP, going 37–48 (.435) overall and 19–33 (.365) in C-USA play in three seasons before moving over to Texas.
Mark Madsen, Utah Valley head coach, age 47
Madsen holds a record of 65–49 (.570) overall at Utah Valley and 38–25 (.528) in WAC conference play since taking over 4 years ago. Utah Valley went 23–7 overall and 14–3 in conference play, winning the WAC conference championship.
The former Stanford power forward had a 9-year NBA career with the Timberwolves and Lakers and spent the preceding years as an assistant, most recently with the Lakers for 4 seasons before taking over at Utah Valley.
Amir Abdur-Rahim, Kennesaw State, age 43
Abdur-Rahim holds a record of 45–73 (.381) overall and 24–41 (.369) in ASUN conference, though after three tough seasons to start his coaching career taking over a program that had gone just 16-46 in the two prior seasons, the younger brother of former Cal star forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim had a breakthrough season this year, going 26–8 overall and 15–3 in conference, winning the conference this season and earning them a No. 14 seed in the Midwest bracket and will take on No. 3 seed Xavier Friday. Prior to his first head coaching job, Abdur-Rahim was an assistant at Georgia, Texas A&M and College of Charleston.
The next category of coaches are likely not available due to various reasons, including jobs that currently could be considered better opportunities, higher salaries that perhaps couldn’t be matched, buyouts that would be impossible to cover and other various factors.
Dennis Gates, Missouri head coach, age 43
Gates holds a record of 24–8 (.750) overall and 11–7 (.611) in SEC play in his first season after taking over for former Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin after the Tigers stagnated in his final
seasons there. The Tigers earned a 7th seed in the 2023 NCAA tourney where they’ll face 10th-seeded Utah State in the first round, playing as part of the South regional in Sacramento. Gates got his start as a head coach at Cleveland State, going 50–40 (.556) overall and 38–21 (.644) in Horizon League play after taking over a program that had gone just 40-89 in the four seasons prior to his arrival. However Gates has a prohibitive buyout that would make it very difficult to afford him even if he wanted to come to Cal. Gates played for the Bears from 1998 to 2002 and was an assistant at Cal when he got his start in coaching as well as at Northern Illinois, Nevada and Florida State before taking over at Cleveland State.
Jamie Dixon, TCU head coach, age 53
Dixon holds a record of 138–95 (.592) overall and 51–73 (.411) in Big 12 play and 21-12 overall and 9-9 in Big 12 play this season, earning 6th seed in the 2023 NCAA tournament, facing the winner of the First Four matchup between Arizona State and Nevada. The winner of that matchup will be the 11th seed. Dixon guided the Horned Frogs to the NCAA tourney last season as well, reaching the round of 32. Dixon took over a TCU team that had gone 30-36 in the two seasons prior to taking over after posting an impressive 328–123 (.727) overall and 143–81 (.638) ACC record at Pitt before making the move to TCU. Dixon however was extended to 2028, making his buyout prohibitive.
Todd Golden, Florida head coach, age 37
Golden holds a record of 16–16 at Florida overall and 9–9 in SEC play since taking over the Gators program this season. He parlayed a record of 57–36 (.613) overall at USF and 23–22 (.511) in conference play to the Florida job. But with 5 years and a 15 million buyout, Golden is not a likely addition.
Chris Beard, former Texas head coach, age 50
Golden posted a record at his most recent stop at Texas of 29–13 (.690) overall and 10–8 (.556) in Big 12 conference play before being dismissed for accusations of physical violence with his fiancee that were later retracted by her. Prior to his brief stint at Texas, Beard went 112–55 (.671) overall and 49–40 (.551) in Big 12 conference play, going to the NCAA finals, the Great 8 and round of 32 in three of his four seasons there. Talk is heating up about Ole Miss making a strong pitch for him and even though the allegations were withdrawn against him, he could be a tricky hire at Cal.
Related:
Cal Makes Change In Men's Basketball Leadership - Fox Gone
We need to get shooters. No more players who are injured or who cant shoot.Cabin14 said:
Agreed…defense wins championships, but offense wins games.
We need to win some games.
BearSD said:Correct, any midmajor coach other than Mark Few would be getting a big pay bump if hired by Cal.socaltownie said:LOL. Joe P gets a 4-5x increase in comp over UCSB. There are NOT many west coast openings (yet). Hopkins is staying put (LOL). Haas is staying put. No openings (yet) at UCLA or USC. Where does Joe go?MilleniaBear said:
The recruiting alone by Cuonzo is what could get us to .500 ball. Fox couldn't recruit.
Also on the retread pile - Ben Braun. Looking back at all those NIT appearances and NCAA appearance every 4 years....looks pretty good. Could we get Braun back? Only 69 years old! Maybe hire him for 3 years with an assistant/future head coach who could recruit?
Last ridiculous thought - lots of names being listed but I think we are fooling ourselves. The Cal stock has fallen so much that I doubt any mid major coach would jump to come to Cal unless we paid TOP dollar. Even some schools below mid majors maybe better places to coach at than Cal. Its going to take a lot to revive this program.
And if he passes and lets say gets a million (which would be ridiculous for UCSB) he STILL is making 33-50% of what he makes at Cal. And we KNOW what Joe P makes cause it is a public university/
Are we getting Randy B? No. Is Mark Few moving South? No. But Joe P is literally sitting right there on the shelf and all we need to do is sign him Friday after Baylor beats the Gauchos.
And, any successful power conference coach isn't taking this job.
The realistic pool of candidates is midmajor coaches, plus power conference coaches who have been fired or are looking to jump before getting fired, plus assistant coaches and former head coaches looking to get back in.
oskidunker said:We need to get shooters. No more players who are injured or who cant shoot.Cabin14 said:
Agreed…defense wins championships, but offense wins games.
We need to win some games.
BearSD said:Correct, any midmajor coach other than Mark Few would be getting a big pay bump if hired by Cal.socaltownie said:LOL. Joe P gets a 4-5x increase in comp over UCSB. There are NOT many west coast openings (yet). Hopkins is staying put (LOL). Haas is staying put. No openings (yet) at UCLA or USC. Where does Joe go?MilleniaBear said:
The recruiting alone by Cuonzo is what could get us to .500 ball. Fox couldn't recruit.
Also on the retread pile - Ben Braun. Looking back at all those NIT appearances and NCAA appearance every 4 years....looks pretty good. Could we get Braun back? Only 69 years old! Maybe hire him for 3 years with an assistant/future head coach who could recruit?
Last ridiculous thought - lots of names being listed but I think we are fooling ourselves. The Cal stock has fallen so much that I doubt any mid major coach would jump to come to Cal unless we paid TOP dollar. Even some schools below mid majors maybe better places to coach at than Cal. Its going to take a lot to revive this program.
And if he passes and lets say gets a million (which would be ridiculous for UCSB) he STILL is making 33-50% of what he makes at Cal. And we KNOW what Joe P makes cause it is a public university/
Are we getting Randy B? No. Is Mark Few moving South? No. But Joe P is literally sitting right there on the shelf and all we need to do is sign him Friday after Baylor beats the Gauchos.
And, any successful power conference coach isn't taking this job.
The realistic pool of candidates is midmajor coaches, plus power conference coaches who have been fired or are looking to jump before getting fired, plus assistant coaches and former head coaches looking to get back in.
Shocky1 said:
calumnus, fired nba head coaches got no interest in academics and/or recruiting 24/7/365 and even if hired would return to the league in about 2 minutes if offered another opportunity to coach the best athletes on planet earth
zero fit in berkeley
Sure the statement is accurate. But not all "mid major" programs are created equally. Altman was at Creighton. Which is and has been a very good basketball school for a long time. He also spent 6 seasons as the HC at Kansas St. which is a P6 program. Cronin came from Cincinnati which at one time was in the Big East and that hoops league was a definite P6 at that time. They moved to the American Athletic for football but the league is pretty good. Houston is a current #1 seed. Memphis also has a rich hoops history. While at Cincy Cronin built that program into a powerhouse. They have somewhat fallen off since he left but is still a strong hoops school.HoopDreams said:
the top 3 teams (ucla, Az, oregon) all got their coaches from mid-majors) and so did USC, Utah and OSU
only UW got their coach from a P6 team. i don't remember where the coaches for the other teams came from)
point is no Pac12 team has a current coach who was a prior P6 head coach besides Cal ( hired Fox)BearSD said:Correct, any midmajor coach other than Mark Few would be getting a big pay bump if hired by Cal.socaltownie said:LOL. Joe P gets a 4-5x increase in comp over UCSB. There are NOT many west coast openings (yet). Hopkins is staying put (LOL). Haas is staying put. No openings (yet) at UCLA or USC. Where does Joe go?MilleniaBear said:
The recruiting alone by Cuonzo is what could get us to .500 ball. Fox couldn't recruit.
Also on the retread pile - Ben Braun. Looking back at all those NIT appearances and NCAA appearance every 4 years....looks pretty good. Could we get Braun back? Only 69 years old! Maybe hire him for 3 years with an assistant/future head coach who could recruit?
Last ridiculous thought - lots of names being listed but I think we are fooling ourselves. The Cal stock has fallen so much that I doubt any mid major coach would jump to come to Cal unless we paid TOP dollar. Even some schools below mid majors maybe better places to coach at than Cal. Its going to take a lot to revive this program.
And if he passes and lets say gets a million (which would be ridiculous for UCSB) he STILL is making 33-50% of what he makes at Cal. And we KNOW what Joe P makes cause it is a public university/
Are we getting Randy B? No. Is Mark Few moving South? No. But Joe P is literally sitting right there on the shelf and all we need to do is sign him Friday after Baylor beats the Gauchos.
And, any successful power conference coach isn't taking this job.
The realistic pool of candidates is midmajor coaches, plus power conference coaches who have been fired or are looking to jump before getting fired, plus assistant coaches and former head coaches looking to get back in.
6956bear said:Sure the statement is accurate. But not all "mid major" programs are created equally. Altman was at Creighton. Which is and has been a very good basketball school for a long time. He also spent 6 seasons as the HC at Kansas St. which is a P6 program. Cronin came from Cincinnati which at one time was in the Big East and that hoops league was a definite P6 at that time. They moved to the American Athletic for football but the league is pretty good. Houston is a current #1 seed. Memphis also has a rich hoops history. While at Cincy Cronin built that program into a powerhouse. They have somewhat fallen off since he left but is still a strong hoops school.HoopDreams said:
the top 3 teams (ucla, Az, oregon) all got their coaches from mid-majors) and so did USC, Utah and OSU
only UW got their coach from a P6 team. i don't remember where the coaches for the other teams came from)
point is no Pac12 team has a current coach who was a prior P6 head coach besides Cal ( hired Fox)BearSD said:Correct, any midmajor coach other than Mark Few would be getting a big pay bump if hired by Cal.socaltownie said:LOL. Joe P gets a 4-5x increase in comp over UCSB. There are NOT many west coast openings (yet). Hopkins is staying put (LOL). Haas is staying put. No openings (yet) at UCLA or USC. Where does Joe go?MilleniaBear said:
The recruiting alone by Cuonzo is what could get us to .500 ball. Fox couldn't recruit.
Also on the retread pile - Ben Braun. Looking back at all those NIT appearances and NCAA appearance every 4 years....looks pretty good. Could we get Braun back? Only 69 years old! Maybe hire him for 3 years with an assistant/future head coach who could recruit?
Last ridiculous thought - lots of names being listed but I think we are fooling ourselves. The Cal stock has fallen so much that I doubt any mid major coach would jump to come to Cal unless we paid TOP dollar. Even some schools below mid majors maybe better places to coach at than Cal. Its going to take a lot to revive this program.
And if he passes and lets say gets a million (which would be ridiculous for UCSB) he STILL is making 33-50% of what he makes at Cal. And we KNOW what Joe P makes cause it is a public university/
Are we getting Randy B? No. Is Mark Few moving South? No. But Joe P is literally sitting right there on the shelf and all we need to do is sign him Friday after Baylor beats the Gauchos.
And, any successful power conference coach isn't taking this job.
The realistic pool of candidates is midmajor coaches, plus power conference coaches who have been fired or are looking to jump before getting fired, plus assistant coaches and former head coaches looking to get back in.
Tommy Lloyd came from Gonzaga. While in a mid major conference they are a high major program. Always good and generally top 10 level program. Even this year they are a #3 seed. Lloyd was an elite recruiter for the Zags and spent a long time at Fews side. He was not leaving for just any job. But he left for the Arizona job which is a true basketball school with a lot of support. Altman, Cronin and Lloyd all coach at schools that provide either great support or have a big legacy of success or both.
I am all for hiring a mid major coach, but Altman, Cronin and Lloyd came from major hoops programs regardless of conference affiliation. Pasternack and DeVries meet the criteria as mid major HCs with background at top basketball schools as assistants. I like Johnson and Abdur-Rahim as well. Both Johnson and Abdur-Rahim have been top assistants at good basketball programs in their past.
But I expect to be disappointed. Knowlton is not who I want leading this search. But he is the one that will be.
That might work for some college head coaching jobs, but not this one.wraptor347 said:
I hope we take a good look at some GLeague coaches. Stackhouse seems to have turned a corner at Vanderbilt after coaching the raptors affiliate for many years. He was someone I was hoping we'd look at before he started at Vanderbilt (definitely has had growing pains).
The timing isn't right (he just became a head coach) and doesn't feel like a great fit but the raptors' new GLeague coach (Eric Khoury) is pretty interesting:
https://theathletic.com/2614724/2021/05/31/hes-too-smart-to-be-in-basketball-how-raptors-905-assistant-eric-khoury-turned-a-masters-degree-into-an-nba-gig?source=user-shared-article (paywall)
Came from a background in fluid dynamics and started by helping the raptors with analytics as an unpaid intern. I'd love a coach who understands the modern game and is receptive to analytics (rather than someone "old school"). Idk if it's practical but I would have loved if there were opportunities to work on analytics for our basketball team when I was in college - even as unpaid research/internship.
There was one negative report about Hart's coaching ability and purporting to state what others think of Hart's coaching abilities. It is enough to warrant caution and investigation.wraptor347 said:
I think the GLeague has coaches who would excel at #2.
Here's another name: Jason Hart.
Not sure of his coaching chops, but he's a young AA coach with pro experience. He coaches the GLeague unite, so he works with a lot of top recruits. He was an assistant coach at USC beforehand - prob has plenty of ties to California recruit scene given his current and past positions. He got hired by Shareef.
Have now heard from 2 sources that Stan Johnson is in the mix at Cal. Assuming true, great job flying under the radar and his credentials do make sense for that job.
— Coaching Changes (@CoachingChanges) March 15, 2023
Always interesting this time of year!
How does Johnson make sense? He's never been a head coach until his current job, and his best season, this season, his team was 4th in the WCC.BC Calfan said:Have now heard from 2 sources that Stan Johnson is in the mix at Cal. Assuming true, great job flying under the radar and his credentials do make sense for that job.
— Coaching Changes (@CoachingChanges) March 15, 2023
Always interesting this time of year!
BC Calfan said:Have now heard from 2 sources that Stan Johnson is in the mix at Cal. Assuming true, great job flying under the radar and his credentials do make sense for that job.
— Coaching Changes (@CoachingChanges) March 15, 2023
Always interesting this time of year!
BearSD said:How does Johnson make sense? He's never been a head coach until his current job, and his best season, this season, his team was 4th in the WCC.BC Calfan said:Have now heard from 2 sources that Stan Johnson is in the mix at Cal. Assuming true, great job flying under the radar and his credentials do make sense for that job.
— Coaching Changes (@CoachingChanges) March 15, 2023
Always interesting this time of year!
He doesn't have anywhere near the credentials that Kyle Smith had before Wazzu hired him, or that Todd Golden had before Florida hired him from USF. He doesn't even have Pasternack's credentials. And he has no connection whatsoever to Cal -- if he had some connection to Cal, then maybe that would ameliorate the too-thin resume. If we ranked the list at the top of this article, Johnson would be no better than 6th.
That looks like a perfect record that Knowlton would go for.stu said:
Conference record in 3 seasons an Loyola Marymount: 19-24
Interesting story: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-07-09/stan-johnson-hopes-to-put-lmu-on-map-with-a-long-stay-in-l-a
Golden One said:That looks for a perfect record for Knowlton to go for.stu said:
Conference record in 3 seasons an Loyola Marymount: 19-24
Interesting story: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-07-09/stan-johnson-hopes-to-put-lmu-on-map-with-a-long-stay-in-l-a
He gets what it takes to raise the profile of a moribund program. Like LMU, hoops is an afterthought here on campus. He can address that.Quote:
Enter Johnson. Among his first actions was to schedule "Coffee with the Coach" Zoom meetings every Friday with former players, alumni, donors, deans and LMU marketing students. He meets every Thursday with a steering committee whose members can get him in the right doors for fundraising, and he created an advisory circle to help him monitor players' mental and emotional well-being through sharing knowledge. Every two weeks, he talks with athletic department and school marketing officials.
"wonderbread retreads"BC Calfan said:
Stan Johnson at the least is a good candidate. I would be perfectly fine if they hired him.
While he doesn't have Berkeley connections, he has California connections especially in the south where the talent is. And really, only one candidate has Berkeley connections. UC is a different matter.
I loved this paragraph from the article:He gets what it takes to raise the profile of a moribund program. Like LMU, hoops is an afterthought here on campus. He can address that.Quote:
Enter Johnson. Among his first actions was to schedule "Coffee with the Coach" Zoom meetings every Friday with former players, alumni, donors, deans and LMU marketing students. He meets every Thursday with a steering committee whose members can get him in the right doors for fundraising, and he created an advisory circle to help him monitor players' mental and emotional well-being through sharing knowledge. Every two weeks, he talks with athletic department and school marketing officials.
I'd rather take chance on Johnson than any of the 50+ year old wonderbread retreads at non-California schools listed in this article.
The problem is that those teams at least twice as good as Cal's 2022-23 record were BDWs. We were worse than that. I'm not sure what you call a team that is worse than a BDW, but in 2022-23 (and in the Wyking years), calling the Bears a BDW is to understate how bad we were.HearstMining said:
Of course, several of the coaching biographies above reference the turnarounds that the coaches have achieved. It's horrifying to note that the pre-turnaround records of most of these teams were at least twice as good as Cal's recent record. This highlights how deep Cal's program has fallen and how could the administration tolerate so many years of bad results? I'm not telling you folks anything you don't know, but seeing the results at other schools really drives the point home. Six years of being BDWs is crazy.
Something something about "when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging." Whoever Cal hires, must have a very heavy incentives based contract with clear stated expectations. Cal cannot commit another 3-4 years to a coach that doesn't significantly move the needle in the right direction.HearstMining said:
Of course, several of the coaching biographies above reference the turnarounds that the coaches have achieved. It's horrifying to note that the pre-turnaround records of most of these teams were at least twice as good as Cal's recent record. This highlights how deep Cal's program has fallen and how could the administration tolerate so many years of bad results? I'm not telling you folks anything you don't know, but seeing the results at other schools really drives the point home. Six years of being BDWs is crazy.
Interesting profile. Ran powerhouse programs at the JC and D2 levels, local roots and a nice quick transition from D2 to the WAC, going 16-15/8-10 in the first year of transition and a stellar 21-10/10-6 in the 2nd year. Not sure what to think about the 13-10/6-6, 18-15/7-11 and 17-16/8-10 records since then, though. Maybe they lost a lot of key seniors after the 2019 season but you'd like to not see his teams go 21-27 in conference in the last 3 seasons to feel confident in the hire.bayareabear said:
Im hearing Rick Croy - current head coach at Cal Baptist. 10 year run after being Randy Bennet's top assistant for 3 years at Saint Mary's.
Also state champion coach at Citrus College (Junior College)... has the head coaching experience, bay area guy, proven winner and recruiter.
Makes a lot of sense. Has led Cal Baptist through DII to DI transistion period - almost impossible to do and has had a winning record every year. Career head coaching record something like 315-105.
High School in Walnut Creek, played at SF State, mid 40's.
Might actually be hard to get as CBU ammenities / arena / etc better than Cal.
Also have heard has several prominent Cal Alumni backing him.
waterbear2013 said:Something something about "when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging." Whoever Cal hires, must have a very heavy incentives based contract with clear stated expectations. Cal cannot commit another 3-4 years to a coach that doesn't significantly move the needle in the right direction.HearstMining said:
Of course, several of the coaching biographies above reference the turnarounds that the coaches have achieved. It's horrifying to note that the pre-turnaround records of most of these teams were at least twice as good as Cal's recent record. This highlights how deep Cal's program has fallen and how could the administration tolerate so many years of bad results? I'm not telling you folks anything you don't know, but seeing the results at other schools really drives the point home. Six years of being BDWs is crazy.
The salary increase would be substantial for many of these coaches, including Pasternack. You need to leverage that to have favorable buyout terms for the university and ask them to bet on themselves in exchange for a significant raise and bigger budget in all areas.BearGoggles said:I can't imagine any qualified coach would accept less than a 4-5 year contract to step into the mess that is Cal basketball. And in terms of incentives vs salary, to get a candidate like Johnson or Pasternak, you need to pay market (at least). But market for that type of candidate should be lower than a more established coach.waterbear2013 said:Something something about "when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging." Whoever Cal hires, must have a very heavy incentives based contract with clear stated expectations. Cal cannot commit another 3-4 years to a coach that doesn't significantly move the needle in the right direction.HearstMining said:
Of course, several of the coaching biographies above reference the turnarounds that the coaches have achieved. It's horrifying to note that the pre-turnaround records of most of these teams were at least twice as good as Cal's recent record. This highlights how deep Cal's program has fallen and how could the administration tolerate so many years of bad results? I'm not telling you folks anything you don't know, but seeing the results at other schools really drives the point home. Six years of being BDWs is crazy.
Cal went budget with Wyking and that was a disaster.
Of course, the key is always the buyout.
