Men’s basketball and football are so bad right now. Two head coaches that are overmatched and ran their programs into the ground and then set it on fire.
Cal sports needs to go back to the drawing board. Very sad. The Play statue is the highlight of the Cal sports year. Would a Joe Starkey statue be the highlight of next year?
Mark Fox should be forced to do the walk of shame Cersei did in Game of Thrones, just has to wear some shorts but otherwise that should be how he gets fired
This one is the nail in the coffin. Night before Big Game…this effort. Team noticeably quit on the Coach.
The only question now is how bad Knowlton will also look in firing him. The longer he is here, the weaker Jim looks…
Depending on how the wind is blowing with donors, and what happens tomorrow, Knowlton may find himself out of a job…less likely of course, but Christ can only sit by and watch so long. The entire department is a laughingstock.
It’s all good, Bob, you can disagree with me all you want…my feelings are not hurt. To each their own, my man.
As to point 1, while I’d love to think Wilcox had the foresight to make a change at OC/OL with the transfer portal in mind, it’s highly doubtful. More likely is that he’s been feeling pressure from donors all season and finally had to accede once Cal was eliminated from bowl eligibility “officially.” I think chances are better than average JW would’ve ridden Musgrave through the finish before letting him go. New coaches for those positions hopefully will be in place ASAP, but Cal figures to lose the transfer portal war this year, perhaps in devastating fashion.
As for points 2 and 3, there is absolutely nothing that can be said to excuse away these first 2 weeks of Cal basketball. Nothing…what Fox has accomplished is unprecedented for a Power 5 institution. And while I do like Celestine as a piece, your reliance on the excuse that Cal is missing two key players is just that - an excuse. It would be different if those players were Jason Kidd and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, but Jalen and Clayton are at best solid, unspectacular rotation players. Mark Fox’s culture, leadership and scheme are the root problems, and adding a couple of non-elite ballplayers to a 9-man rotation doesn’t change that, IMHO.
As for 4., we really have no idea. Knowlton is actually a big part of the problem, as he is in way over his head at a school like Cal. He is a career military guy with short stints as an AD at RPI and a service academy….he literally has no idea what to do in a job as challenging as Cal’s, in a conference as large as the Pac 12, and it shows. An entire cleanse is most likely needed, as the athletic department is as unhealthy as it has ever been under his stewardship.
Again, I’m totally cool if we disagree…I still respect my Cal brethren…we’re all in this fight with Oski together. Go Bears!
Bob, in all due respect, I completely disagree. We’re in year 5 and year 6 of both coaches tenures and this is where we are. Knowlton, Fox, and Wilcox should all be let go. In that order.
Like I said after the UCSD game, Cal could not beat a decently good high school team. Also, since the recruits mostly have been good players in high school this should not be the case. But the sum total is less than the individual parts, so you could say that Fox is dragging the team down.
Keep hearing different opinions on Wilcox buyout. A twitter post was pretty firm that it’s only a $3.6M buyout this year, as opposed to the massive, $20M-something figure some people have thrown out.
Without a coaching change, will never recruit effectively into our program. And you would think empty seats and poor ticket sales would motivate change. Hate to be pessimistic, but going to be years until we have a winning season. Perhaps when we are in the Mountain West we will win again.
20-10 Southern at the 9 minute mark of 1H. Cal fans are wondering where Southern is and whether the university has anything to do with Southern Comfort.
this hinges on what happens in the Big Game tomorrow in my opinion. I know it's odd to think a football result predicates basketball job security but I think you know where my thinking is with this theory.
I would never root for Cal to lose a Big Game, but nothing makes the big donors more ornery than a Big Game we could win. Ask Bruce Snyder, who took so much grief about it, he said "later." If we win, we'll get email blasts for days from Knowlton about how rosy athletics is in the same way he painted a rosy picture after that MBB win against Stanford at Haas last year. . . As if it was the pinnacle.
Hard pass, Bob. You can take time…the rest of us have seen enough. And who says you can’t fire a HC midseason?
And while solid, Celestine is a supporting player…he’s not putting a team on his back. And this team is broken because of their inept Coach…they finally quit tonight.
If Knowlton had the stones, Fox would be fired tonight after 3 unprecedentedly awful losses for a P5 program. We’re talking history-making.
This is bad. DeJuan Clayton isn’t saving this team. Jalen Celestine isn’t saving this team. It’s done.
Final score: Southern 74 Cal 66. Cal did not lead at any point in the game
lol Mark Fox rage timeout. the powerhouse known as Southern up 9-1 four minutes in
Southern has some shooters. Confidence is palpable.
They’re a better team than Cal. They’ve faced St Mary’s and Arizona…they were licking their chops to face Cal.
Go Bears! Beat the history books.
The History books have a better offense.
If I was the AD, I'd get creative as hell as to how I fired Mark Fox. Like...I'd swoop in the locker room and stop Fox in mid rant and go...
"Thy presence offends me. Take leave with great haste. You have no more business among these men."
Cal legitimately has the worst athletic department in P5.
Men’s basketball and football are so bad right now. Two head coaches that are overmatched and ran their programs into the ground and then set it on fire.
Straight into the ground.
Cal sports needs to go back to the drawing board. Very sad. The Play statue is the highlight of the Cal sports year. Would a Joe Starkey statue be the highlight of next year?
Highlight of Cal football this season:
Beating Arizona
Wearing Joe Roth uniforms on the road
Firing Angus and Musgrave
Our uniforms for Big Game
If Cal loses to Southern, Fox should be fired at Big Game.
Make an announcement on the jumbotron! Imagine the publicity!
We have to have more class than that. Fox needs to be let go immediately but he doesn't need to be publicly pilloried.
Mark Fox should be forced to do the walk of shame Cersei did in Game of Thrones, just has to wear some shorts but otherwise that should be how he gets fired
With Hannah Waddingham walking behind saying:
SHAME
SHAME
SHAME
Fox has publicly embarrassed the MBB program for years now, he doesn’t deserve to get fired with class.
We need less class and more wins.
I wonder how available Knowlton will make himself tomorrow.
Powerhouse totally not swac midpack Southern 38, Cal 26 at halftime
TCU is going to be interesting
Do the Bears break 50?
Kuany Kuany starts and gets the hook within less than 2 minutes. lol.
This might be the best news possible. A loss so bad, that you have to fire the coach
exactly my thinking after the UCSD game
This one is the nail in the coffin. Night before Big Game…this effort. Team noticeably quit on the Coach.
The only question now is how bad Knowlton will also look in firing him. The longer he is here, the weaker Jim looks…
Depending on how the wind is blowing with donors, and what happens tomorrow, Knowlton may find himself out of a job…less likely of course, but Christ can only sit by and watch so long. The entire department is a laughingstock.
This is starting to look horrible on Christ for keeping Knowlton around.
It’s all good, Bob, you can disagree with me all you want…my feelings are not hurt. To each their own, my man.
As to point 1, while I’d love to think Wilcox had the foresight to make a change at OC/OL with the transfer portal in mind, it’s highly doubtful. More likely is that he’s been feeling pressure from donors all season and finally had to accede once Cal was eliminated from bowl eligibility “officially.” I think chances are better than average JW would’ve ridden Musgrave through the finish before letting him go. New coaches for those positions hopefully will be in place ASAP, but Cal figures to lose the transfer portal war this year, perhaps in devastating fashion.
As for points 2 and 3, there is absolutely nothing that can be said to excuse away these first 2 weeks of Cal basketball. Nothing…what Fox has accomplished is unprecedented for a Power 5 institution. And while I do like Celestine as a piece, your reliance on the excuse that Cal is missing two key players is just that - an excuse. It would be different if those players were Jason Kidd and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, but Jalen and Clayton are at best solid, unspectacular rotation players. Mark Fox’s culture, leadership and scheme are the root problems, and adding a couple of non-elite ballplayers to a 9-man rotation doesn’t change that, IMHO.
As for 4., we really have no idea. Knowlton is actually a big part of the problem, as he is in way over his head at a school like Cal. He is a career military guy with short stints as an AD at RPI and a service academy….he literally has no idea what to do in a job as challenging as Cal’s, in a conference as large as the Pac 12, and it shows. An entire cleanse is most likely needed, as the athletic department is as unhealthy as it has ever been under his stewardship.
Again, I’m totally cool if we disagree…I still respect my Cal brethren…we’re all in this fight with Oski together. Go Bears!
Bob, in all due respect, I completely disagree. We’re in year 5 and year 6 of both coaches tenures and this is where we are. Knowlton, Fox, and Wilcox should all be let go. In that order.
Classic Fox opening. Should've been tarmac'd two years ago.
Instead he got an extension.
Hmm, sounds familiar.
Anyone else simply numb?
This is a high school team in a college uniform.
Like I said after the UCSD game, Cal could not beat a decently good high school team. Also, since the recruits mostly have been good players in high school this should not be the case. But the sum total is less than the individual parts, so you could say that Fox is dragging the team down.
Still think this team should be playing faster, NOT slower.
How many games does Cal win this year? And why is the correct answer zero
4. EWU, UT-Arlington, Colorado because they lose to bad teams, and one other one.
7…tho I couldn’t tell you which ones.
That win total is too high. Take whatever you think we will win and divide by 2 to get closer to the correct answer.
I agree…I was trying to be optimistic, but there’s really no reason.
Both revenue coaches are embattled…excellent work by Knowlton.
Both deserve to be fired tomorrow.
Wilcox is obviously coming back, even though he shouldn’t.
Fox should be fired tonight but probably won’t be fired until the end of the season.
Fox should be proof to Knowlton in regards to Wilcox that you don’t bring back a losing coach and expect them to change.
Keep hearing different opinions on Wilcox buyout. A twitter post was pretty firm that it’s only a $3.6M buyout this year, as opposed to the massive, $20M-something figure some people have thrown out.
If we lose Big Game tomorrow we should fire Knowlton, Fox and Wilcox all at once.
Without a coaching change, will never recruit effectively into our program. And you would think empty seats and poor ticket sales would motivate change. Hate to be pessimistic, but going to be years until we have a winning season. Perhaps when we are in the Mountain West we will win again.
I actually started laughing at this last end of game set.
Mark "Mediocre is my Bar" Fox at work.
He just needs time.
he just needs his recruits
Year five is when the rebuild starts. Just wait. This is pre-rebuild.
He really misses 7th yr SR Dejuan Clayton.
We just give him a 4 year extension.
My HBCU friends are never gonna let me live this down. LOL
And they shouldn’t.
Jags showed more tonight offensively than Cal has in 6 seasons.
Lars is basically an extra defender that Cal’s O needs to face because he clogs the lane.
What gets Fox fired if not this start to the season?
Cal MBB season ticket holders should start a class action lawsuit against Fox at this point to get their money back.
Rumor has it that the Berkeley Jr. High 2nd & 3rd string players would play this Cal team. Cal would go into the game as 7 point underdogs however.
Vegas has been slow to react to Cal’s ineptitude…could see the Bears being 3.5 point favorites.
POUND TF outta the ‘Jackets, B19…Martin Luther.
Nobody on this team can shoot. Everything hits the rim
20-10 Southern at the 9 minute mark of 1H. Cal fans are wondering where Southern is and whether the university has anything to do with Southern Comfort.
Is Wyking still the worst coach in Cal basketball history? IMO Fox is really trying hard to win the title
The debate is over, it is Fox.
Fox could get fired tonight. This team has quit.
this hinges on what happens in the Big Game tomorrow in my opinion. I know it's odd to think a football result predicates basketball job security but I think you know where my thinking is with this theory.
I would never root for Cal to lose a Big Game, but nothing makes the big donors more ornery than a Big Game we could win. Ask Bruce Snyder, who took so much grief about it, he said "later." If we win, we'll get email blasts for days from Knowlton about how rosy athletics is in the same way he painted a rosy picture after that MBB win against Stanford at Haas last year. . . As if it was the pinnacle.
If we lose, we should fire Wilfox together from the cannon.
Even Braun/Monty’s/Cuonzo’s worst teams would be at worst 2-1 right now.
And Wyking wins at least one of these games.
Fox is done. Just a matter of time.
Hard pass, Bob. You can take time…the rest of us have seen enough. And who says you can’t fire a HC midseason?
And while solid, Celestine is a supporting player…he’s not putting a team on his back. And this team is broken because of their inept Coach…they finally quit tonight.
If Knowlton had the stones, Fox would be fired tonight after 3 unprecedentedly awful losses for a P5 program. We’re talking history-making.
This is bad. DeJuan Clayton isn’t saving this team. Jalen Celestine isn’t saving this team. It’s done.