Nice piece. With regard to my NIL comment a couple of days ago I was speaking in generalities. The Cal alumni and fanbase, given the success of recent fundraising activities for the university in general, should be able to put together highly competitive packages. I also think that Madsen is a guy who, facing a complete reset, can probably pull a rabbit out of his hat. The question is whether philosophically Cal wants to play the game as a public Ivy.
This gross new reality of every new season of football and basketball requiring a charity drive to buy players is going to get old very quick. The system is so broken and such a farce now.
The NIL market will eventually equilibrate and we'll see a LOT of players end up with downgrades. Risk of transferring in a year may negatively affect perceived value to a team, especially with no multi-year contracts available. The NCAA tournament seems more unpredictable than ever so raw talent just can't win the day. And it's definitely harder to stash talent on the bench.
Unfortunately, regardless of the reasons, the perception of having to replace your entire roster is simply not a positive one, especially as you embark on a new path in the most challenging MBB conference in the country.
While I have confidence in Coach Madsen and his staff to eventually right the ship, it’s nonetheless really tough to see a path to contention, at least next season. We’re gonna take some lumps.
It is not ideal but it's s going to become more common as we see more staffs turnover. Stanford is in a similar bucket with a far more talented group departing.
Stanford was expected given the fire/hire of their coach. I'm not sure what you can attribute Cal's massive exodus to. I think it has to do with NIL or playing time. Celestine, Brown & ND hurt the most/big surprises.. Were they offered any NIL & maybe feel they're worth more? ND was injured most of year and we would have won more games with him healthy. He also would provide more depth at the 5. But, maybe he thinks he can start elsewhere. This ALL SUCKS!
Culture Reset....OK, but the generalization that the majority of outgoing players saw a dramatic reduction in playing time is hard to draw. This only really makes sense for Bowser and Newell (Okafor, Askew, and Celestine had injuries that confound such a comparison...and Brown was a freshman.
I didn't explain it well, but I guess I'm projecting that based on last year, many players did not think they would be guaranteed starting spots if they returned, particularly based on the nil offers they were given.
I hope it wasn't the case that any of the players actually expected to be guaranteed to start, as opposed to earning their minutes. If the issue was just that they expect to be able to play more somewhere else, that's different.
Sort of curious to see what Celestine chooses. Will he go somewhere where he can be "the man" or is he channeling his inner Jordan Mathews and thus looking for a winner where he can be a role player. Or is it only the cash that matters? I would think that Celestine would have been offered a decent NIL package to stay...but sort of depends on what role (above) Madsen envisioned and what Celestine wanted. Guess we will find out, eventually.
Thank you for this commentary. We can only hope that some of the players testing the portal will return. It remains a sad situation that loyalty to programs and schools seems a relic of the past unless the teams have been very successful and are poised to have similar success next season.
Not so sure of "unless...very successful and...poised to have similar success next season". Look at UConn. Reigning National Champs and potential (even likely) to repeat, yet at his presser last week, Coach Hurley discussed the very real prospect of several current players entering the portal. Seems it's more about perceived playing time and money rather than the success of the program.
Nice piece. With regard to my NIL comment a couple of days ago I was speaking in generalities. The Cal alumni and fanbase, given the success of recent fundraising activities for the university in general, should be able to put together highly competitive packages. I also think that Madsen is a guy who, facing a complete reset, can probably pull a rabbit out of his hat. The question is whether philosophically Cal wants to play the game as a public Ivy.
This gross new reality of every new season of football and basketball requiring a charity drive to buy players is going to get old very quick. The system is so broken and such a farce now.
While I get this is frustrating, the old system was far worse.
The NIL market will eventually equilibrate and we'll see a LOT of players end up with downgrades. Risk of transferring in a year may negatively affect perceived value to a team, especially with no multi-year contracts available. The NCAA tournament seems more unpredictable than ever so raw talent just can't win the day. And it's definitely harder to stash talent on the bench.
Thanks for the article. Captures the challenges and opportunities well.
Nice article, Avi.
Unfortunately, regardless of the reasons, the perception of having to replace your entire roster is simply not a positive one, especially as you embark on a new path in the most challenging MBB conference in the country.
While I have confidence in Coach Madsen and his staff to eventually right the ship, it’s nonetheless really tough to see a path to contention, at least next season. We’re gonna take some lumps.
It is not ideal but it's s going to become more common as we see more staffs turnover. Stanford is in a similar bucket with a far more talented group departing.
Stanford was expected given the fire/hire of their coach. I'm not sure what you can attribute Cal's massive exodus to. I think it has to do with NIL or playing time. Celestine, Brown & ND hurt the most/big surprises.. Were they offered any NIL & maybe feel they're worth more? ND was injured most of year and we would have won more games with him healthy. He also would provide more depth at the 5. But, maybe he thinks he can start elsewhere. This ALL SUCKS!
Culture Reset....OK, but the generalization that the majority of outgoing players saw a dramatic reduction in playing time is hard to draw. This only really makes sense for Bowser and Newell (Okafor, Askew, and Celestine had injuries that confound such a comparison...and Brown was a freshman.
I didn't explain it well, but I guess I'm projecting that based on last year, many players did not think they would be guaranteed starting spots if they returned, particularly based on the nil offers they were given.
I hope it wasn't the case that any of the players actually expected to be guaranteed to start, as opposed to earning their minutes. If the issue was just that they expect to be able to play more somewhere else, that's different.
Fair enough. Thank you Avi.
Sort of curious to see what Celestine chooses. Will he go somewhere where he can be "the man" or is he channeling his inner Jordan Mathews and thus looking for a winner where he can be a role player. Or is it only the cash that matters? I would think that Celestine would have been offered a decent NIL package to stay...but sort of depends on what role (above) Madsen envisioned and what Celestine wanted. Guess we will find out, eventually.
This BBall situation makes me appreciate Jadyn Ott even more for sticking with the Bears. Seems he could make a lot of dough in other places…
I dunno. Seems like he got plenty of NIL money to remain in Berkeley, even considering cost of living in the Bay Area.
He got 750,000 to stay at Cal. USC and a few other schools offered him a little over a million and he turned it down
Thank you for this commentary. We can only hope that some of the players testing the portal will return. It remains a sad situation that loyalty to programs and schools seems a relic of the past unless the teams have been very successful and are poised to have similar success next season.
Not so sure of "unless...very successful and...poised to have similar success next season". Look at UConn. Reigning National Champs and potential (even likely) to repeat, yet at his presser last week, Coach Hurley discussed the very real prospect of several current players entering the portal. Seems it's more about perceived playing time and money rather than the success of the program.
Yes, playing time and money are real considerations.
And a program poised to pay cash for the continued services of its players.
Yes. The structure of college athletics brought this upon itself by continuing to reap large financial rewards for everyone but the student athletes.
Wonderful article.