The Rodcast: UCLA Weekend

Man Rod that was a bummer. I had to stop listening to you. It has kind changed my perspective on you a bit. I have been to 4 or 5 games and what I thought you were going to talk about was the night and day energy you felt between last year and this year. I thought you would also point out how much Madden's positivity has ignited Haas and the fan base. I have also been to other teams games and I do not see them stopping the program to ensure they get every past player announced.For everyone to make a special effort to say to you but not have it on the PA, send you into the I am going negative mode. Just kills me.

First Rod, thanks for flying up for the game, and repping Cal with all your Cal gear.

You covered a lot of ground in this podcast so I'll respond to just a few...

first, I guess I really started it with my comment about the lack of your announcement, but I don't think it's personal. I've actually complained about it on this board before. One example was when the Thurmantor attended a game and not being announced either.

I also think with a little notice they should do more than announce former players. They should also put up a picture on the scoreboard when they were at Cal.

I think the comment that Cal needs advanced notice to get on the docket is probably the issue. They shouldn't and that needs to be fixed, but it is the current state of the Cal administration.

I also have asked if Cal has sent a Cal swag package to the former players. I've seen prior players rep Cal on social media with Cal gear. Has Cal sent you and your teammates any of the new Nike gear?

Regarding Cronin. Interesting take on him screaming at his players. I've said since his hire that he's a bad fit for UCLA with his ugly ball and personality. Kinda a Ben Howland II. He will get recruits as long as he's succuessful, but if not I expect transfer outs.

I did notice that Cal went zone in the second half which worked, but didn't realize ucla scored so few points against it. Hopefully Coach will mix more zone into his scheme.

Since you were sitting directly in front of the last Bona shot, was that a cheap foul? Sure looked like it from where I was sitting.

And here's a little gift for you...

Thanks for posting! It's good to hear what the Athletic Department is and is not doing even though the news is disturbing.

FWIW I had a great experience at Cal between 1967 and 1970. I wasn't an athlete or other prodigy, just some clueless kid from an all-white suburb. Just being in Berkeley at that time opened my eyes to things I never could have imagined. So did at least half of my classes. I doubt I could have found anything like those experiences anywhere else at that time.

However, the only University employees who ever knew my name were an academic advisor and the dorm maintenance man I worked with one summer. We didn't even have a graduation since the riots were so intense that year. The only subsequent contacts have been getting my degree in the mail and occasional solicitations.

I knew Cal was impersonal. That's OK, I wouldn't trade my Cal experience for anything. But I can't say that would be the case for other students at other times. I sure wish Cal would take better care of students and alums, especially those like athletes who give so much.

I don't know if he yelled at his players, but Cronin's style reminds me of Ben Howland. Eventually, the great recruits stopped coming. Could easily see that history repeated again.

Totally agree. In my post above I wrote Jim Harrick, but meant Howland so I edited my post

Cronin comes from the same old school ugly ball, yelling camp

philbert said:

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I don't know if he yelled at his players, but Cronin's style reminds me of Ben Howland. Eventually, the great recruits stopped coming. Could easily see that history repeated again.

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Rod, I know I can't speak for everyone, but my gut is the majority of us understood that you were speaking about the alumni players in general and not just specifcally yourself.

May I say, most of this comes down to one thing, Marketing. The failure to promote features such as introducing alumni players is just another subset of the many categories that the administration seems clueless about. This subject is right up there with Shocky's ongoing issues about the AD being asleep and not taking advantage of the fact that finally we have an entertaining basketball team. Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I started a thread suggesting that the final UCLA game should have been marketed as a "Cal Bear Blue Out" with our guys wearing their road blues, (like YOU actually did at the game), and putting an emphasis on how UCLA deviated from the color during their history. I suspect it might have brought a few extra butts into the seats. It might have even gave the team a little more energy in the first half and maybe we wouldn't have started out so slow.

I can't believe that there's not one individual in the Cal athletic department that doesn't have the ability to come up with some of this stuff. It's not rocket science. In any case Rod, keep the podcasts coming.

The bureaucrat AD administrators probably got enough bump in attendance figures for the year that they've met their bonus goals so there's no need to put in any additional effort.

BeachedBear said:

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GerryLopezBear said:

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Man Rod that was a bummer. I had to stop listening to you. It has kind changed my perspective on you a bit. I have been to 4 or 5 games and what I thought you were going to talk about was the night and day energy you felt between last year and this year. I thought you would also point out how much Madden's positivity has ignited Haas and the fan base. I have also been to other teams games and I do not see them stopping the program to ensure they get every past player announced.For everyone to make a special effort to say to you but not have it on the PA, send you into the I am going negative mode. Just kills me.

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That is not what I got out of it. It seemed Rod was focusing on the dysfunction of Cal marketing/athletic department. I thought it was very insightful and felt like a call to action to help force change at Cal for the better.

But, then again, I was also multi-tasking while listening.....

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That was my takeaway as well. I actually think a lack of concern is being called dysfunction by some. I believe 100% the administration and AD are intentionally being obstructionists. Particpating is good enough. Winning? If it happens they will gladly take credit while doing almost anything in their power to keep real winning from occurring.