Well, both of those things are likely true. My "good things are coming" reference needs to be taken in context, PawlOski, as the bar is so much lower than at any time in my fandom, which dates back to Harmon and the mid-80's. We've said a number of times that Mike Williams set this program back a decade with the Wyking Jones hire, and I …
Well, both of those things are likely true. My "good things are coming" reference needs to be taken in context, PawlOski, as the bar is so much lower than at any time in my fandom, which dates back to Harmon and the mid-80's. We've said a number of times that Mike Williams set this program back a decade with the Wyking Jones hire, and I firmly stand by this...incidentally, we promoted Jones on Mar 24, 2017 after we whiffed initially on Musselman, which makes this Wednesday the 4-year anniversary of arguably the worst day in the past 50 years for the MBB program...and that includes the Bozeman/Jelani Gardner scandal. Get excited, Cal fans ;-) !! Questionable at best at the time, it has proven to be devastating.
By all evidence, we're still a good 4-5 years from even competing for an at-large Tournament bid, and Mark Fox is absolutely not the guy that is going to get us there. Fox is the guy that is going to re-build the foundation of the program, basically from scratch, and get them on the path to respectability, and not necessarily on the basketball court. But unlike talented coaches with dynamic offensive &/or defensive styles, Fox doesn't have either the recruiting or player development chops to really get us there any quicker than that. Hopefully Bradley returns next year rather than seeking out greener pastures as a grad transfer...if so, and if Fox can finally get this team to play the defense he wants (paging Lars Thiemann!!), they can start incrementally progressing up the standings, even if slowly.
So, the good things are coming in that Fox will probably eventually get us back to "respectability", and the inevitable being that his ceiling will be just that..respectable, but not NCAA Tournament. Hopefully Knowlton doesn't re-sign him at the end of his 5, tho. Then we're in trouble.
Problem is, respectable is better than good enough for this athletic department. They'd like nothing more than to hand Fox an affordable extension in 1-2 years, which would takes us even further from becoming nationally relevant again. And then they'll wait it out until we're not respectable to be forced to move on, which undermine the purpose of any foundation-building. The only thing that's going fix Cal basketball is being bold, not half measures.
Oh, absolutely true. Hopefully the major hoops donors make enough of a stink that Knowlton will not extend Fox. Get out from having to pay Wyking Jones his buyout $, which I believe lasts another year, take a breath, and then move on from Fox.
The WORST thing possible is for Cal to show JUST enough incremental improvement for Knowlton to extend...
Thiemann is not a Pac-12 caliber player at this point two years into his career. To belabor the obvious, he can't shoot, can't defend, has terrible footwork, and can't score at the basket. In contrast look at Garza of Iowa, a seven footer who can do all of these things.
I agree - I am not expecting anything. Unfortunately, Lars is probably not a Division 1 player, let alone P12. He has absolutely zero basketball skills or instincts...none. It's basically the same as dragging a random 7-footer out of Sproul Plaza and giving him a scholarship. But he's not going anywhere so maybe he can work hard and develop something...anything....
Well, both of those things are likely true. My "good things are coming" reference needs to be taken in context, PawlOski, as the bar is so much lower than at any time in my fandom, which dates back to Harmon and the mid-80's. We've said a number of times that Mike Williams set this program back a decade with the Wyking Jones hire, and I firmly stand by this...incidentally, we promoted Jones on Mar 24, 2017 after we whiffed initially on Musselman, which makes this Wednesday the 4-year anniversary of arguably the worst day in the past 50 years for the MBB program...and that includes the Bozeman/Jelani Gardner scandal. Get excited, Cal fans ;-) !! Questionable at best at the time, it has proven to be devastating.
By all evidence, we're still a good 4-5 years from even competing for an at-large Tournament bid, and Mark Fox is absolutely not the guy that is going to get us there. Fox is the guy that is going to re-build the foundation of the program, basically from scratch, and get them on the path to respectability, and not necessarily on the basketball court. But unlike talented coaches with dynamic offensive &/or defensive styles, Fox doesn't have either the recruiting or player development chops to really get us there any quicker than that. Hopefully Bradley returns next year rather than seeking out greener pastures as a grad transfer...if so, and if Fox can finally get this team to play the defense he wants (paging Lars Thiemann!!), they can start incrementally progressing up the standings, even if slowly.
So, the good things are coming in that Fox will probably eventually get us back to "respectability", and the inevitable being that his ceiling will be just that..respectable, but not NCAA Tournament. Hopefully Knowlton doesn't re-sign him at the end of his 5, tho. Then we're in trouble.
Problem is, respectable is better than good enough for this athletic department. They'd like nothing more than to hand Fox an affordable extension in 1-2 years, which would takes us even further from becoming nationally relevant again. And then they'll wait it out until we're not respectable to be forced to move on, which undermine the purpose of any foundation-building. The only thing that's going fix Cal basketball is being bold, not half measures.
Oh, absolutely true. Hopefully the major hoops donors make enough of a stink that Knowlton will not extend Fox. Get out from having to pay Wyking Jones his buyout $, which I believe lasts another year, take a breath, and then move on from Fox.
The WORST thing possible is for Cal to show JUST enough incremental improvement for Knowlton to extend...
Thiemann is not a Pac-12 caliber player at this point two years into his career. To belabor the obvious, he can't shoot, can't defend, has terrible footwork, and can't score at the basket. In contrast look at Garza of Iowa, a seven footer who can do all of these things.
I agree - I am not expecting anything. Unfortunately, Lars is probably not a Division 1 player, let alone P12. He has absolutely zero basketball skills or instincts...none. It's basically the same as dragging a random 7-footer out of Sproul Plaza and giving him a scholarship. But he's not going anywhere so maybe he can work hard and develop something...anything....