The latter half of your post is directly on point my friend…Madsen has as much to prove from a coaching aspect as the players do, IMO.
There really hasn’t been much nuance to his schemes, either offensively or defensively, in the first 2 seasons, and it has showed. A lot of freedom, like the NBA…which is great if you have a roster of pro players but not so much when you have unproven guys out of the portal.
I feel like he's shown strong player development each year, X's and O's has been simplistic...but he's had an excuse each year. Almost feels Wilcoxian, haha.
His first year was fresh off Mark Fox, and after losing all our guards to injury we basically had to rely on Tyson for everything. But hey, it got him drafted and us out of the absolute bottom of P5 basketball.
Second year was a slight roster upgrade, but injuries killed us again.
Third year feels like a slight roster upgrade again, but with the downgrade of no known "star" on the team. I'm hoping this actually works out better for us, since it feels like Madsen relies on iso ball as a crutch when the roster's scoring potential isn't coming together. When Stoj was out last hurt last year, our roster seemed to learn how to play together a little better. Same thing with Tyson. Now that we don't have THE GUY like that, maybe they play together the whole year this time?
I think purely healthy, last year's roster has a higher ceiling potentially than this year. But I'm a bit more interested in the chemistry of the roster build this year. We actually haven't had a real guard since Madsen took over and this might be the first year we have somewhat reliable guard play.
Last year we had all of these guys who could create their own shot but they were mostly inefficient shooters that were not good passers (and not great defenders). Bad functional team chemistry to an almost extreme level, so much so that I almost pass it off as a weird outlier.
I think Madsen will show his coaching chops this year but we need way better guard play. If I were gambling with money I would tread with caution, but I'm definitely intrigued (though not "excited").
On paper, sadly, it is tough to be excited. But that’s why they play the games.
The past 2 years, the O has basically been spread it out and let the ball dominant guys with pro futures (be it NBA w/ Tyson or Europe with Andrej/Wilkinson) create their own O. That’s going to need to change this year.
As a fan of Hoosiers ;-), I personally would love to see a structured offense that involves more passing, movement without the ball and picks. We have seemingly better shooters - though a big that can stretch the floor was sorely missing last year. Hopefully Ilic helps here.
Also, it needs a floor general and the staff is counting on Pippen to do so.
We’ll see - he showed so little last year it’s tough to know. If he can play, things could be interesting because Ames, Bell, Camden, Dorsey, Ruff, and Ilic can all shoot it.
It's that still photo that's on line..that basketball in mid air under and between the leg photo...the 6'10 "Pistol Pete" ..and Cal has him.....and by midseason they'll be using "the steal of the recruiting season" cliche for him. Cal is overdo for some good luck.
I wish these athletes could see that Mark Madsen can get them to the .NBA. Look at what he's done so far and he was playing extremely well by the end of the A.C c basketball season. If the group would have stayed together we would have been formidable this season. But big money rules all and I think they're doing a spectacular job under these circumstances. Oh, Get your North Carolina and Duke tickets very early because they will be gone in an instant.. Remember both duke and north carolina can put five thousand fans buy themselves at cal.
Given the dire straits Cal MBB's NIL finds itself in because of the incompetent Jim Knowlton and his bozo-in-crime Mark Fox, this was probably the best the staff could do at this late a juncture in securing post depth.
From the limited video, Mantas has some size and can move his feet a little, though he does not appear to be a plus athlete yet; showed good fundamentals/technique on the boards and outlet, though his hands do not appear to be incredibly soft as he struggled to catch the ball cleanly. Got lost on D but if the staff can coach him up, maybe he can develop into a banger that can at least give you some fouls in the post. He received limited minutes in blow outs against Coastal College of GA and a Larry Bird-less Indiana State team before being injured, so it is really tough from that video to see if he is ready to contribute this year as a backup to Dort. Probably needs a couple of years which, in today's college sports, you do not have. v
Unfortunately on paper, a whole helluva lot probably needs to break right this year if this team is going to come close to matching the 13-14 wins they've paired up in Madsen's first 2 seasons.
It's going to start on defense. If that improves, at least they'll have a chance against mid-majors and the comparable rosters.
I mean, lots of question marks but seems as if we should have improved 3-point shooting and better defense. Not sure where exactly the points will come from and whether we can play better team basketball on offense and defense.
And, this is year 3, can we blame it all on Knowlton and Fox? I know we are behind on facilities and such. Did the NIL freeze affect MBB?
Yes, unfortunately it's been made clear on the socials that Cal is still feeling the effects of the Mark Fox era because of Jim Knowlton, so while our football NIL is competitive, our MBB is nowhere near so.
As for the roster...
Dai Dai, Chris Bell, and Rytis have shown they can hang at the ACC level. So there's 3 proven guys that hopefully will stay healthy and command a majority of minutes as your nucleus. If Rytis can return to the shooting form he showed at Air Force, all the better.
Camden showed some development was needed previously at Memphis/Va Tech BUT hopefully the confidence he gained playing big minutes last year for the Blue Hens will allow him to show a little something more now - even if he doesn't pour in 17 ppg, he can certainly shoot it and in this O, if we get competent PG play, there will be open shots. When AS or JW actually did pass the ball, the shots were there….we didn't hit them, but maybe this year they will.
Milos Ilic is a wild card - can he play at this level? If so, that will help. He can pass a little, shoot a little, bang a little, board a little. Definitely a skill set they did not have last year, but will Loyola MD form translate? If so, he can certainly contribute.
Lee Dort needs to stay out of foul trouble and take a step forward. The analytics say he was real solid in his minutes last year - the eye test less so because he struggled to defend without fouling. If he develops this offseason, it'll go a long way.
Justin Pippen, Nolan Dorsey, Sammy Yeanay, and DJ Campbell need to show they belong, because the jury is out based on what we saw last year. The staff is high on Pippen and hopefully the
Ruff and Carr are FR and as such, total wildcards but Ruff is a player who suffered the Cal Downgrade as a recruit.
Agreed, there are a ton of question marks, but IF they defend better, then a path to at least being competitive vs comparable rosters/programs is possible.
If they defend as poorly as they have in the first 2 seasons for this staff, then it won’t matter and we may win fewer games than the football team.
All of the emphasis is on football right now, which frankly is where it should be. Unless Madsen can get a team to perform better than the sum of its parts and get a little frisky, it going to be really hard to advocate for the resources he needs. It's unfortunate.
Agreed - football drives the entire department. But even before the House settlement, MBB NIL was light.
Isaiah Wilkins may end up being the biggest addition of all. Ratchet up the D and the prognosis looks better.
Absent above-average offensive efficiency and execution, areas where we have been nowhere close to good enough the past 2 years due to turnovers and spotty shooting, you simply can’t consistently win ballgames at this level when the other team can so easily score the ball or get to the line. So that needs to change.
As a fellow LIthuanian-American and graduate of Cal, I too welcome the Lithuanian connection for basketball expertise. Madsen would be wise to look further at prospects from a samll basketball-crazy country that far exceeds what one might expect in terms of excellence. Go Lietuva!
Mysteries abound on this year's roster. Coach them up Mad Dog! Let's Go....Bears!
The latter half of your post is directly on point my friend…Madsen has as much to prove from a coaching aspect as the players do, IMO.
There really hasn’t been much nuance to his schemes, either offensively or defensively, in the first 2 seasons, and it has showed. A lot of freedom, like the NBA…which is great if you have a roster of pro players but not so much when you have unproven guys out of the portal.
I feel like he's shown strong player development each year, X's and O's has been simplistic...but he's had an excuse each year. Almost feels Wilcoxian, haha.
His first year was fresh off Mark Fox, and after losing all our guards to injury we basically had to rely on Tyson for everything. But hey, it got him drafted and us out of the absolute bottom of P5 basketball.
Second year was a slight roster upgrade, but injuries killed us again.
Third year feels like a slight roster upgrade again, but with the downgrade of no known "star" on the team. I'm hoping this actually works out better for us, since it feels like Madsen relies on iso ball as a crutch when the roster's scoring potential isn't coming together. When Stoj was out last hurt last year, our roster seemed to learn how to play together a little better. Same thing with Tyson. Now that we don't have THE GUY like that, maybe they play together the whole year this time?
I think purely healthy, last year's roster has a higher ceiling potentially than this year. But I'm a bit more interested in the chemistry of the roster build this year. We actually haven't had a real guard since Madsen took over and this might be the first year we have somewhat reliable guard play.
Last year we had all of these guys who could create their own shot but they were mostly inefficient shooters that were not good passers (and not great defenders). Bad functional team chemistry to an almost extreme level, so much so that I almost pass it off as a weird outlier.
I think Madsen will show his coaching chops this year but we need way better guard play. If I were gambling with money I would tread with caution, but I'm definitely intrigued (though not "excited").
On paper, sadly, it is tough to be excited. But that’s why they play the games.
The past 2 years, the O has basically been spread it out and let the ball dominant guys with pro futures (be it NBA w/ Tyson or Europe with Andrej/Wilkinson) create their own O. That’s going to need to change this year.
As a fan of Hoosiers ;-), I personally would love to see a structured offense that involves more passing, movement without the ball and picks. We have seemingly better shooters - though a big that can stretch the floor was sorely missing last year. Hopefully Ilic helps here.
Also, it needs a floor general and the staff is counting on Pippen to do so.
We’ll see - he showed so little last year it’s tough to know. If he can play, things could be interesting because Ames, Bell, Camden, Dorsey, Ruff, and Ilic can all shoot it.
It's that still photo that's on line..that basketball in mid air under and between the leg photo...the 6'10 "Pistol Pete" ..and Cal has him.....and by midseason they'll be using "the steal of the recruiting season" cliche for him. Cal is overdo for some good luck.
If Bill Walton was still within the earthly plane, we'd already be making Grateful Dead-style apparel.
I wish these athletes could see that Mark Madsen can get them to the .NBA. Look at what he's done so far and he was playing extremely well by the end of the A.C c basketball season. If the group would have stayed together we would have been formidable this season. But big money rules all and I think they're doing a spectacular job under these circumstances. Oh, Get your North Carolina and Duke tickets very early because they will be gone in an instant.. Remember both duke and north carolina can put five thousand fans buy themselves at cal.
Given the dire straits Cal MBB's NIL finds itself in because of the incompetent Jim Knowlton and his bozo-in-crime Mark Fox, this was probably the best the staff could do at this late a juncture in securing post depth.
From the limited video, Mantas has some size and can move his feet a little, though he does not appear to be a plus athlete yet; showed good fundamentals/technique on the boards and outlet, though his hands do not appear to be incredibly soft as he struggled to catch the ball cleanly. Got lost on D but if the staff can coach him up, maybe he can develop into a banger that can at least give you some fouls in the post. He received limited minutes in blow outs against Coastal College of GA and a Larry Bird-less Indiana State team before being injured, so it is really tough from that video to see if he is ready to contribute this year as a backup to Dort. Probably needs a couple of years which, in today's college sports, you do not have. v
Unfortunately on paper, a whole helluva lot probably needs to break right this year if this team is going to come close to matching the 13-14 wins they've paired up in Madsen's first 2 seasons.
It's going to start on defense. If that improves, at least they'll have a chance against mid-majors and the comparable rosters.
I mean, lots of question marks but seems as if we should have improved 3-point shooting and better defense. Not sure where exactly the points will come from and whether we can play better team basketball on offense and defense.
And, this is year 3, can we blame it all on Knowlton and Fox? I know we are behind on facilities and such. Did the NIL freeze affect MBB?
Yes, unfortunately it's been made clear on the socials that Cal is still feeling the effects of the Mark Fox era because of Jim Knowlton, so while our football NIL is competitive, our MBB is nowhere near so.
As for the roster...
Dai Dai, Chris Bell, and Rytis have shown they can hang at the ACC level. So there's 3 proven guys that hopefully will stay healthy and command a majority of minutes as your nucleus. If Rytis can return to the shooting form he showed at Air Force, all the better.
Camden showed some development was needed previously at Memphis/Va Tech BUT hopefully the confidence he gained playing big minutes last year for the Blue Hens will allow him to show a little something more now - even if he doesn't pour in 17 ppg, he can certainly shoot it and in this O, if we get competent PG play, there will be open shots. When AS or JW actually did pass the ball, the shots were there….we didn't hit them, but maybe this year they will.
Milos Ilic is a wild card - can he play at this level? If so, that will help. He can pass a little, shoot a little, bang a little, board a little. Definitely a skill set they did not have last year, but will Loyola MD form translate? If so, he can certainly contribute.
Lee Dort needs to stay out of foul trouble and take a step forward. The analytics say he was real solid in his minutes last year - the eye test less so because he struggled to defend without fouling. If he develops this offseason, it'll go a long way.
Justin Pippen, Nolan Dorsey, Sammy Yeanay, and DJ Campbell need to show they belong, because the jury is out based on what we saw last year. The staff is high on Pippen and hopefully the
Ruff and Carr are FR and as such, total wildcards but Ruff is a player who suffered the Cal Downgrade as a recruit.
Agreed, there are a ton of question marks, but IF they defend better, then a path to at least being competitive vs comparable rosters/programs is possible.
If they defend as poorly as they have in the first 2 seasons for this staff, then it won’t matter and we may win fewer games than the football team.
All of the emphasis is on football right now, which frankly is where it should be. Unless Madsen can get a team to perform better than the sum of its parts and get a little frisky, it going to be really hard to advocate for the resources he needs. It's unfortunate.
Agreed - football drives the entire department. But even before the House settlement, MBB NIL was light.
Isaiah Wilkins may end up being the biggest addition of all. Ratchet up the D and the prognosis looks better.
Absent above-average offensive efficiency and execution, areas where we have been nowhere close to good enough the past 2 years due to turnovers and spotty shooting, you simply can’t consistently win ballgames at this level when the other team can so easily score the ball or get to the line. So that needs to change.
As a fellow LIthuanian-American and graduate of Cal, I too welcome the Lithuanian connection for basketball expertise. Madsen would be wise to look further at prospects from a samll basketball-crazy country that far exceeds what one might expect in terms of excellence. Go Lietuva!
We shall call him “the Vilnius Schoolmaster”, an homage to Marko Ramius from Hunt For Red October!
And the injury was...? And his recovery is...?