Abdur-Rahim seems like a really good dude. Clearly solid in the character department. But, he's only had one winning season (this one) in four; his first two years he was 6-47 -- Wyking/Fox type numbers. His third year was sub-.500 and then finally broke out this year. After what we've been been through the past 6 years, do we have the patience should it take another 4 to get back to a winning record?
Good point. To his credit, he does have experience building a program from scratch. The cupboard was completely bare at Kennesaw State, even more so than the likely roster he would inherit in Berkeley. His teams improved a great deal each year, at least doubling their win total from the previous season. The win total is what it is, but there is still a lot to like, and if it brings Shareef and Jaylen more into the fold, all the better.
I'm concerned he might not have the clout to get the assistance/concessions from the administration needed to elevate the program. I don't know the man, but in addition to his coaching, recruiting, and turn-around skills, if he can use his brother (not with direct involvement, but as man with tremendous experience dealing with a basketball bureaucracy) as an oracle to help navigate the red tape, and massage the donors, it could be a big win.
He inherited a really, really bad situation. Program that only been D1 for a little over a decade and was one of the worst D1 programs in the nation during that stretch. Cal is not quite the rebuild. Not a whole lot talent on the roster, but there will be a lot of slots available. You can recruit impact players immediately since we're a power conference team with other things to sell, and we (theoretically) play a bunch of cupcakes in non-con that can pad our record.
This is encouraging. More intrigued by Abdur-Rahim, although Pasternack would undoubtedly elevate the program and help get better resources for the program. I suspect they will at least reach out to Bennett tomorrow. I know he’s staunchly rebuffed us, but if the rumors are true that we’re ready to double our salary budget, maybe we become more attractive.
With a little extra cash jingling around, perhaps he might be led to reflect that he might be able go a bit further than with his current setup, without having to move anywhere. He's got that great Australian pipeline already. He could add European and Asian players since the prestige of Cal can draw them. Remember, for Dirk Nowitski, it came down to either Cal or the NBA. You add Jerome Randle as an assistant for the Cal alum connection and splurge a little on a highly regarded recruiter who can draw from another region in the US. You could build a formidable program in short order with this setup.
After watching Bennett's offense in the tourney (both Bennetts actually), offenses that can be timed by hourglass, I'll take a pass. Haas needs some excitement to scare away the ghosts.
I've the hots for AAR too, but RB offers the very least ambiguity by a mile. So much pressure on Knowlton and donors to stick this one, you gotta imagine they might be willing to pay a little more for more certainty. Side benefit to Bennett for Cal amin. is those international guys are disqualified from NIL participation.
Rumors of doubling salary budget? Where'd ya hear that? I'd love for that to be true if it results in the wins that will quadruple the program revenue.
There is talk that the donors have stepped up and doubled the salary commitment from the $1.8 that Fox made this year, and given the HC authority over a rapidly growing NIL fund.
my number 1 is Amir Abdur-Rahim. A dynamic personality who can lead, inspire, recruit and coach. He has the passion and vision to mobilize our donors, and break though the Cal admin.
His relationship with Reef and the Abdur-Rahim family is a major plus on all levels of the program.
Joe P would be a solid hire, but there is danger in group think and check-the-box selection approach. If he could bring his PG with him, it would be a plus.
Exactly...hate to raid my local school, but bringing Ajay Mitchell would be a huge game changer. Not even sure if it is realistic, as he's apparently a great and loyal teammate, but it would sure be a nice building block.
Pulling former All-Star and current G-League president Reef closer could be popular with recruits and fans. I also think Amir Abdur-Rahim (AAR) may have a higher ceiling with a more exciting style, though there will probably be a learning curve.
Pasternak is probably more ready to go due to his experience and West Coast ties. Turned around UCSB quickly but I'm not sure how well his style will translate with a higher level of competition.
Based on my limited knowledge, I'd choose AAR though I think a first year Pasternak team might look better than a first year AAR team.
"Haas Pavilion, an 11,877-seat arena built in 1999 on the site of old Harmon Gym, is in need of another rebuild." I hope he's talking about the program & not the building? What does it need, gold-plated toilets?
Seriously OoT...saw that as well and thought WTF...what kind of rebuild? Short of converting all 11,877 spots to some sort of baseball stadium-type plastic chair backs, or a retrofit mandated by the state for safety, what the hell does Haas need, other than an f-ing competent Men's basketball team on the court?
shnikes, what a read. Would still vibe harder for AAR, but Pasternak's got enough chops that we might feel he's more than "settling". If it's Miles, then put the nail in the relevance coffin cuz the program should fold up & go Ivy League. Hate the roller coaster w/ Knowlton at the controls. That's extra punishment no one needs or deserves. Keep us posted, please!
hopefully enough people feel that way too, so it won't be Miles [prayer hands]. If Knowlton were hired to sh*t the revenue sports into oblivion -- intentionally, on purpose -- how would it look any different?
Good rumors. Like Bob I'm no expert on either guy but both have track records of taking second tier teams into first tier contention. That's Cal in a nutshell. I have to say I prefer a Rahim brother if possible, just because Shareef is/was such a stellar dude and if he speaks highly enough of his brother for Cal to consider him then that goes a long way in my book. I'd be happy with Pasternak given his record. I want the guy who wants Cal the most, and who can turn the program back into a consistent winner.
Total speculation, but my concern with Amir is if he is successful, like Cuonzo he is a serious candidate to jump back East to a better job and then we have the potential of yet another hire. Sure, it's not a bad problem to have, but you could argue Pasternack may be more likely to hang around Cal for awhile and build a solid program back up.
IMHO that's just a bad attitude for hiring. If they did well enough that they're in a position to be poached, then they did great for us and put us in position with momentum. It's then on us to hire the best coach we possibly can after that. Every time, we should just be hiring the best coach possible with no worries about being "safe". And if it turns up that we're just not paying enough to hold on to our coaches, then we need to figure out how to increase the salary. It looks like that last part is partially getting taken care of.
Yeah, if coach is successful and they get poached by a better program, that is a problem of Cal as an institution more than the coach itself. As long as Cal remains a non-elite basketball school, we will always have this problem. So we should hire the best coach we can.
Agreed…just to clarify, I am not advocating we hire a guy simply because he’s less likely to jump… arguments can be made that the best HC candidate is actually Pasternack, who it just so happens would also be less likely to bolt.
Thanks for the clarification. I think hiring west coast guy is better in the long run, but I also just can't forget the immediate impact of Cuonzo and his recruiting ability. Just want someone who can have immediate impact whoever that is. I have no knowledge
Also Cuonzo elevated our profile even if it was fleeting. Had we followed up with the right hire we could have capitalized on that over the long term. Not to make your head explode, but imagine what Musselman or Gates could have done with the juice Cuonzo brought the program.
Word was Musselman was turned off by the hiring process of Mike Williams, which was apparently incredibly disorganized....he leveraged Cal for a big raise at UNR.
That's a good point, Jimmy. However, after thinking about it I guess I would rather have an up and comer that leaves after 4 years than a retread or never will be. I mean, we only had Monty a while and we liked that pretty well. Doubt Pasternak would stick at Cal very long either. It's sort of a devil's bargain, and I would tell the devil to give me the person who will be FANTASTIC for three or four years.
Sucks that too much excitement could work against you. I do think Amir has that Cuonzo like recruiting swagger that would do well locally and the fact that he is doing well at Kennesaw says it's not just recruiting.
Blessing and curse of being a mid-level program. Best strategy is to take the best candidate. If the coach jumps you've at least raised the profile of the program for recruiting and for good coaches looking to climb the ladder.
Might depend long term on whether his wife likes the Bay Area. Dudes are usually good wherever, but make wife homesick and you are screwed. Kinda wonder if that happened to Sonny too.
I like it. Pasternack if it could galvanize donor support and lessen the role of Jim Knowlton...Amir if it could galvanize Shareef/Jaylen support and help increase the NIL war chest, which is Cal's ticket to counter balance the self-imposed, stringent and completely asinine academic hurdles.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean but I don't think we believe Cal's academic standards or reputation are asinine. What am I not understanding about what you mean?
Cal's admission standards for athletes are a great deal higher than those required by the NCAA, which is one of the main things people talk about when they argue that the University does not value athletics.
I am not arguing they should let absolutely everyone in so long as they know their A-B-C's, but there are ways to soften those requirements without sacrificing academic standards amongst the student body. As a university, they need to be more committed to student services and tutors, but Cal really shoots itself in the foot.
In that case, I think the minimum admission requirements used to be a lowly 3.3 or something like that, that no one else would get in with. Unless they have raised the minimum, I don't support lowering the threshold below a B+, given grade inflation I know about in high schools these days. For example, I know a kid who was a full on drug addict/dealer and skipped most of school and graduated with a 3.4 or something like that.
On a serious note, I wish it were the case that colleges were able to discern potential in their applications. Now it's just a numbers game. Here in WA the U of W had 62,000 applicants this cycle. It's just a numbers game. You either have a 4.0 plus all the right classes and volunteering and leadership or no chance. There are so very many young people with the intelligence and character to excel in school but don't figure that out until they are Juniors or something. Not every kid can see that they can take the JC route into most big schools. It's a rougher world when it comes to this stuff than ever before. Loads of 3.9 and with all the AP class kids at my son's school didn't even get into U of W.
Agreed…and this is admittedly a slippery slope, as it does create unequal admission standards, and there is no hard and fast rule…I just think that student athletes that have the potential to generate revenue for Cal should not be held to higher standards than every other P12 school not named Stanford, which does not face the same financial crunch. Even fUCLA’s standards align more with the NCAA’s minimum requirements than Cal. It just makes it that much tougher to compete.
My #1 is Pitino. Whatever that dirty dog does to get his programs hopping, I'm willing to put up with it to get CAL going. These other candidates are just the next Fox if our goody-two-shoes culture and irrelevant academic standards for players continue.
(P.S. Are we "bady" if we only have one shoe? I refuse to google the origins of that saying, so I can continue to enjoy its mystery)
Both of these guys are mid-range candidates with some, but not a lot of, sustained successes - they probably are the best that Knowlton can amass (and that's scary) - the Cal program needs an excitement generating stud! - with the women's program in the toilet too, there is a big, wet towel covering Harmon - I'd rather that Cal take a dynamic, aggressive, innovative, extremely successful junior college coach and get out of his way - it's risky, but what the hell? Cal's program is in dire straits and this hire needs to be a bold, excitement generating one.
Shareef is as true a Bear as there is. Can't help he was so talented that he went quickly to the NBA. That he came back and finished his degree is a huge statement, as the guy didn't need the money! How many of the current Cal students would finish their degree if they never needed money in their life, especially coming back to do it in their 30's? Very few. It's a statement of his intellectual curiosity and vigor. Love that guy.
Right. Folks probably remember he put his name in, then pulled it out before putting it back in again. He was totally conflicted. His heart was in Berkeley.
Abdur-Rahim seems like a really good dude. Clearly solid in the character department. But, he's only had one winning season (this one) in four; his first two years he was 6-47 -- Wyking/Fox type numbers. His third year was sub-.500 and then finally broke out this year. After what we've been been through the past 6 years, do we have the patience should it take another 4 to get back to a winning record?
Good point. To his credit, he does have experience building a program from scratch. The cupboard was completely bare at Kennesaw State, even more so than the likely roster he would inherit in Berkeley. His teams improved a great deal each year, at least doubling their win total from the previous season. The win total is what it is, but there is still a lot to like, and if it brings Shareef and Jaylen more into the fold, all the better.
I'm concerned he might not have the clout to get the assistance/concessions from the administration needed to elevate the program. I don't know the man, but in addition to his coaching, recruiting, and turn-around skills, if he can use his brother (not with direct involvement, but as man with tremendous experience dealing with a basketball bureaucracy) as an oracle to help navigate the red tape, and massage the donors, it could be a big win.
He inherited a really, really bad situation. Program that only been D1 for a little over a decade and was one of the worst D1 programs in the nation during that stretch. Cal is not quite the rebuild. Not a whole lot talent on the roster, but there will be a lot of slots available. You can recruit impact players immediately since we're a power conference team with other things to sell, and we (theoretically) play a bunch of cupcakes in non-con that can pad our record.
This is encouraging. More intrigued by Abdur-Rahim, although Pasternack would undoubtedly elevate the program and help get better resources for the program. I suspect they will at least reach out to Bennett tomorrow. I know he’s staunchly rebuffed us, but if the rumors are true that we’re ready to double our salary budget, maybe we become more attractive.
I doubt Bennett wants to deal with the anarchy that is the Cal bureaucracy. He seems happy where he's at
With a little extra cash jingling around, perhaps he might be led to reflect that he might be able go a bit further than with his current setup, without having to move anywhere. He's got that great Australian pipeline already. He could add European and Asian players since the prestige of Cal can draw them. Remember, for Dirk Nowitski, it came down to either Cal or the NBA. You add Jerome Randle as an assistant for the Cal alum connection and splurge a little on a highly regarded recruiter who can draw from another region in the US. You could build a formidable program in short order with this setup.
For sure, but you have to at least try. He’s a grand slam.
He's probably neighbors with a schitt ton of Cal donors, FWIW.
After watching Bennett's offense in the tourney (both Bennetts actually), offenses that can be timed by hourglass, I'll take a pass. Haas needs some excitement to scare away the ghosts.
obviously a good X&O coach, and like his Australian pipeline, but no thanks for Cal
I've the hots for AAR too, but RB offers the very least ambiguity by a mile. So much pressure on Knowlton and donors to stick this one, you gotta imagine they might be willing to pay a little more for more certainty. Side benefit to Bennett for Cal amin. is those international guys are disqualified from NIL participation.
I had no idea that there no NIL for international students. I wonder how that is justified.
Student visa issues: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/college/article/march-madness-fuels-nil-deals-st-mary-s-17846402.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3Nwb3J0cy9jb2xsZWdlL2FydGljbGUvbWFyY2gtbWFkbmVzcy1mdWVscy1uaWwtZGVhbHMtc3QtbWFyeS1zLTE3ODQ2NDAyLnBocA==&time=MTY3OTMzNjExMDI0OA==&rid=NzlhNTE5MDQtMzBiYi00YmU1LTg3MWMtM2Y1NTg4NzFhZWQx&sharecount=MQ==
It's apparently not an NCAA by-law, but a US one...
"The obstacle for them to make NIL money is federal immigration law, not NCAA rules." - Sports Business Journal
Still hearing Tim Miles’ name hanging around, and SJSU is still playing….which absolutely terrifies me.
Why you gotta bum us out, Jimmy?
Because from what I’ve heard, Jim Knowlton is actually THAT bad, P…
Still, I’m optimistic this time will be different…but as Cal fans, it helps to be prepared. ;-)
Apparently there is an offer on the table to Tim Miles...tho it may be bullschitt.
Rumors of doubling salary budget? Where'd ya hear that? I'd love for that to be true if it results in the wins that will quadruple the program revenue.
There is talk that the donors have stepped up and doubled the salary commitment from the $1.8 that Fox made this year, and given the HC authority over a rapidly growing NIL fund.
my number 1 is Amir Abdur-Rahim. A dynamic personality who can lead, inspire, recruit and coach. He has the passion and vision to mobilize our donors, and break though the Cal admin.
His relationship with Reef and the Abdur-Rahim family is a major plus on all levels of the program.
Joe P would be a solid hire, but there is danger in group think and check-the-box selection approach. If he could bring his PG with him, it would be a plus.
Exactly...hate to raid my local school, but bringing Ajay Mitchell would be a huge game changer. Not even sure if it is realistic, as he's apparently a great and loyal teammate, but it would sure be a nice building block.
Amir is pure inspiration & would be a great recruiter! I'm guessing Shareef is on the search committee?
Pulling former All-Star and current G-League president Reef closer could be popular with recruits and fans. I also think Amir Abdur-Rahim (AAR) may have a higher ceiling with a more exciting style, though there will probably be a learning curve.
Pasternak is probably more ready to go due to his experience and West Coast ties. Turned around UCSB quickly but I'm not sure how well his style will translate with a higher level of competition.
Based on my limited knowledge, I'd choose AAR though I think a first year Pasternak team might look better than a first year AAR team.
Pasternack is tight with Ryan Silver, who is a good guy to be tight with, FWIW.
Don't mean to screw UCSB, but if there is any chance Cal could lure Ajay Mitchell as well, that would really help JP hit the ground running....
Incidentally Silver just tweeted a list of Cal candidates and Joe Pasternack is not featured. Interesting....
Must mean it's Pasternak.
I'm good with either.
From the local news here in SB:
https://www.noozhawk.com/mark-patton-cal-expected-to-hire-ucsbs-joe-pasternack-as-next-basketball-coach/
"Haas Pavilion, an 11,877-seat arena built in 1999 on the site of old Harmon Gym, is in need of another rebuild." I hope he's talking about the program & not the building? What does it need, gold-plated toilets?
Seriously OoT...saw that as well and thought WTF...what kind of rebuild? Short of converting all 11,877 spots to some sort of baseball stadium-type plastic chair backs, or a retrofit mandated by the state for safety, what the hell does Haas need, other than an f-ing competent Men's basketball team on the court?
shnikes, what a read. Would still vibe harder for AAR, but Pasternak's got enough chops that we might feel he's more than "settling". If it's Miles, then put the nail in the relevance coffin cuz the program should fold up & go Ivy League. Hate the roller coaster w/ Knowlton at the controls. That's extra punishment no one needs or deserves. Keep us posted, please!
Rollah if it's Miles, I'm out. Done. I will no longer support the program until Knowlton is gone.
Send the paramedics to my house if its Miles.
As unimaginative a hire as you can find.
A middling coach that the uninformed think is a miracle worker because he inherited a future NBA player/MWC POY and rode him to a CBI bid.
He's not inheriting that at Cal...
hopefully enough people feel that way too, so it won't be Miles [prayer hands]. If Knowlton were hired to sh*t the revenue sports into oblivion -- intentionally, on purpose -- how would it look any different?
I honestly don't think it is Tim Miles, because it just can't be...can it???
even if we've internally decided on Pasternack, need to have a backup as part of the negotiation.
Good rumors. Like Bob I'm no expert on either guy but both have track records of taking second tier teams into first tier contention. That's Cal in a nutshell. I have to say I prefer a Rahim brother if possible, just because Shareef is/was such a stellar dude and if he speaks highly enough of his brother for Cal to consider him then that goes a long way in my book. I'd be happy with Pasternak given his record. I want the guy who wants Cal the most, and who can turn the program back into a consistent winner.
Total speculation, but my concern with Amir is if he is successful, like Cuonzo he is a serious candidate to jump back East to a better job and then we have the potential of yet another hire. Sure, it's not a bad problem to have, but you could argue Pasternack may be more likely to hang around Cal for awhile and build a solid program back up.
Thoughts?
IMHO that's just a bad attitude for hiring. If they did well enough that they're in a position to be poached, then they did great for us and put us in position with momentum. It's then on us to hire the best coach we possibly can after that. Every time, we should just be hiring the best coach possible with no worries about being "safe". And if it turns up that we're just not paying enough to hold on to our coaches, then we need to figure out how to increase the salary. It looks like that last part is partially getting taken care of.
Yeah, if coach is successful and they get poached by a better program, that is a problem of Cal as an institution more than the coach itself. As long as Cal remains a non-elite basketball school, we will always have this problem. So we should hire the best coach we can.
Agreed…just to clarify, I am not advocating we hire a guy simply because he’s less likely to jump… arguments can be made that the best HC candidate is actually Pasternack, who it just so happens would also be less likely to bolt.
Thanks for the clarification. I think hiring west coast guy is better in the long run, but I also just can't forget the immediate impact of Cuonzo and his recruiting ability. Just want someone who can have immediate impact whoever that is. I have no knowledge
Sure, in a perfect world, I would agree. But this is Cal.
Though I think AAR offers perhaps more upside, I tend to think Pasternack would be the better hire.
Also Cuonzo elevated our profile even if it was fleeting. Had we followed up with the right hire we could have capitalized on that over the long term. Not to make your head explode, but imagine what Musselman or Gates could have done with the juice Cuonzo brought the program.
That's very fair. It took an unprecedented level of AD incompetence to bring 30 years of solid Men's basketball momentum to a screeching halt.
Word was Musselman was turned off by the hiring process of Mike Williams, which was apparently incredibly disorganized....he leveraged Cal for a big raise at UNR.
Not surprising. Wasn't it under Mike Williams that Cuonzo basically didn't have an official contract for the longest time?
He was operating and being paid on the basis of a term sheet, which is not "definitive documentation". Sad (and incompetent) state of affairs,
That's a good point, Jimmy. However, after thinking about it I guess I would rather have an up and comer that leaves after 4 years than a retread or never will be. I mean, we only had Monty a while and we liked that pretty well. Doubt Pasternak would stick at Cal very long either. It's sort of a devil's bargain, and I would tell the devil to give me the person who will be FANTASTIC for three or four years.
Sucks that too much excitement could work against you. I do think Amir has that Cuonzo like recruiting swagger that would do well locally and the fact that he is doing well at Kennesaw says it's not just recruiting.
Blessing and curse of being a mid-level program. Best strategy is to take the best candidate. If the coach jumps you've at least raised the profile of the program for recruiting and for good coaches looking to climb the ladder.
Not too worried about it. I don’t think that should be priority for where this program finds itself. And I like Georgia, but California sure is nicer.
Might depend long term on whether his wife likes the Bay Area. Dudes are usually good wherever, but make wife homesick and you are screwed. Kinda wonder if that happened to Sonny too.
I like it. Pasternack if it could galvanize donor support and lessen the role of Jim Knowlton...Amir if it could galvanize Shareef/Jaylen support and help increase the NIL war chest, which is Cal's ticket to counter balance the self-imposed, stringent and completely asinine academic hurdles.
Either would be fine hires.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean but I don't think we believe Cal's academic standards or reputation are asinine. What am I not understanding about what you mean?
Cal's admission standards for athletes are a great deal higher than those required by the NCAA, which is one of the main things people talk about when they argue that the University does not value athletics.
I am not arguing they should let absolutely everyone in so long as they know their A-B-C's, but there are ways to soften those requirements without sacrificing academic standards amongst the student body. As a university, they need to be more committed to student services and tutors, but Cal really shoots itself in the foot.
In that case, I think the minimum admission requirements used to be a lowly 3.3 or something like that, that no one else would get in with. Unless they have raised the minimum, I don't support lowering the threshold below a B+, given grade inflation I know about in high schools these days. For example, I know a kid who was a full on drug addict/dealer and skipped most of school and graduated with a 3.4 or something like that.
See, if you ask me, a full on drug dealer would probably be an excellent candidate for Haas Business school....
;-)
On a serious note, I wish it were the case that colleges were able to discern potential in their applications. Now it's just a numbers game. Here in WA the U of W had 62,000 applicants this cycle. It's just a numbers game. You either have a 4.0 plus all the right classes and volunteering and leadership or no chance. There are so very many young people with the intelligence and character to excel in school but don't figure that out until they are Juniors or something. Not every kid can see that they can take the JC route into most big schools. It's a rougher world when it comes to this stuff than ever before. Loads of 3.9 and with all the AP class kids at my son's school didn't even get into U of W.
Agreed…and this is admittedly a slippery slope, as it does create unequal admission standards, and there is no hard and fast rule…I just think that student athletes that have the potential to generate revenue for Cal should not be held to higher standards than every other P12 school not named Stanford, which does not face the same financial crunch. Even fUCLA’s standards align more with the NCAA’s minimum requirements than Cal. It just makes it that much tougher to compete.
What knowlton consider bringing back cuonzo? Or has that ship sailed? I doubt he would given the way he jumped ship
Lost in the shuffle is the news that Kuany entered the portal.
You can’t have him - Owl Nation
You don’t want to go to war with the Owls!!!
My #1 is Pitino. Whatever that dirty dog does to get his programs hopping, I'm willing to put up with it to get CAL going. These other candidates are just the next Fox if our goody-two-shoes culture and irrelevant academic standards for players continue.
(P.S. Are we "bady" if we only have one shoe? I refuse to google the origins of that saying, so I can continue to enjoy its mystery)
Both of these guys are mid-range candidates with some, but not a lot of, sustained successes - they probably are the best that Knowlton can amass (and that's scary) - the Cal program needs an excitement generating stud! - with the women's program in the toilet too, there is a big, wet towel covering Harmon - I'd rather that Cal take a dynamic, aggressive, innovative, extremely successful junior college coach and get out of his way - it's risky, but what the hell? Cal's program is in dire straits and this hire needs to be a bold, excitement generating one.
Shareef is as true a Bear as there is. Can't help he was so talented that he went quickly to the NBA. That he came back and finished his degree is a huge statement, as the guy didn't need the money! How many of the current Cal students would finish their degree if they never needed money in their life, especially coming back to do it in their 30's? Very few. It's a statement of his intellectual curiosity and vigor. Love that guy.
Right. Folks probably remember he put his name in, then pulled it out before putting it back in again. He was totally conflicted. His heart was in Berkeley.
Well, he did win conference player of the year, the first freshman to do so in the conference's history. And he came back and finished his degree.
and adding to what pawloski said, he and his wife made a big donation to the Cameron Institute
Randle played while Pasternak was at Cal, right? Wonder what he thinks of him and if a potential relationship could solidify Jerome as an assistant.
Maybe bring Theo back as well for a 2nd go around....
I understand the NCAA will allow 2 more assistants (non-recruiting) next season
if so, would love to see Randle back as a skills trainer
This would be ideal, especially when it's likely the next Cal MBB coach is gone after 4-5 seasons for a higher profile job.
Given recent history it’s just as likely that they’re fired after 4-5 years.
Ideally Knowlton is gone sooner than that.