In reply to Oakbear Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

In reply to ManBearLion123

ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

In reply to HKBear97!

HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

In reply to 91Cal

91Cal said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

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Not achieving a winning record with all the accolades of incoming transfers was disappointing. If that happens again this year then we have a coach who can recruit but cant coach. I am optimistic that this wont happen but it is a concern.

In reply to oskidunker

oskidunker said:

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91Cal said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

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Not achieving a winning record with all the accolades of incoming transfers was disappointing. If that happens again this year then we have a coach who can recruit but cant coach. I am optimistic that this wont happen but it is a concern.

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You really thought we would win 17+ games after a 3-29 season? Tough room.

"I'd say the cupboard was even more bare this year."

In Berkeley the cupboard always seems "bear"

In reply to Oakbear

Oakbear said:

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"I'd say the cupboard was even more bare this year."

In Berkeley the cupboard always seems "bear"

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If Cone had played better, it would have helped. He had about three good games. Not a great percentage from three (31.9%) .285 in conference His shots were all high difficulty. If we had set more screens, he might have gotten some open looks. Also a caseof someone coming from a lower division not able to adapt to the higher level of play, which is always a risk.

In reply to oskidunker

oskidunker said:

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Oakbear said:

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"I'd say the cupboard was even more bare this year."

In Berkeley the cupboard always seems "bear"

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If Cone had played better, it would have helped. He had about three good games. Not a great percentage from three (31.9%)His shots were all high difficulty. If we had set more screens, he might have gotten some open looks. Also a caseof someone coming from a lower division not able to adapt to the higher level of play, which is always a risk.

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Last season we had 4 new players (3 pretty specialized), not much returning talent, and apparent chemistry issues. Maybe Cone didn't get the teamwork he needed to thrive.

Now we have 9 new players (and counting) who all seem to have sufficiently well-rounded skill sets to help each other.

Don't want to be misunderstood here - I am hopeful that Cal wins every game they play. But this next team is going to be playing in the ACC and will be comprised of 13 players that have never played together. For this specific season, anything .500 or better featuring a competitive team has to be considered an accomplishment

In reply to Eastern Oregon Bear

Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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oskidunker said:

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91Cal said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

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Not achieving a winning record with all the accolades of incoming transfers was disappointing. If that happens again this year then we have a coach who can recruit but cant coach. I am optimistic that this wont happen but it is a concern.

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You really thought we would win 17+ games after a 3-29 season? Tough room.

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Apart from Celestine, we had an entirely new team with a new coach. The prior year really was irrelevant except for the fans. Same will be true this year. The players and coach can be evaluated on an absolute basis. The coach can be evaluated on HIS progress year over year in assembling and coaching a team to wins.

Madsen has proven he is better than Fox, really low bar. I think Madsen's positivism will be a winner in todays free agent all the time world. His "NBA style" of allowing players freedom to create (not that different than Wyking Jones) will be attractive to players with NBA aspirations, if we win. Jury is still out but I like the approach.

Just like with Jones and Coleman, Madsen had an issue with Cone: they needed to be reigned in because there were better percentage options on the team that were not getting enough shots. I think Madsen is solving that problem by avoiding it through recruiting.

In reply to RedlessWardrobe

RedlessWardrobe said:

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Don't want to be misunderstood here - I am hopeful that Cal wins every game they play. But this next team is going to be playing in the ACC and will be comprised of 13 players that have never played together. For this specific season, anything .500 or better featuring a competitive team has to be considered an accomplishment

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And I think this is why Madsen concentrated this time on guys that had more than one year left. Pretty hard to win when there's so much turnover.

In reply to 91Cal

91Cal said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

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Didn't realize a sub-.500 record in a terrible Pac-12 conference - losing the first conference tournament game to a lower seed no less - was considered "miraculous". This is college basketball where remaking a roster is easier than in football, particularly with the new transfer rules. The bar for Cal sports has always been fairly low, but apparently the Wyking/Fox years simply made the bar nonexistent.

In reply to HKBear97!

HKBear97! said:

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91Cal said:

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HKBear97! said:

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Oakbear said:

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ManBearLion123 said:

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Wilcox has a fringe top 10 portal class coming in, what are you talking about lol

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if he gets them and the team performs really well, I might just lift my expectations, but for now I remain a doubting Oakbear

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I'm with you, Oakbear. The transfer rankings are pretty meaningless. Madsen had a top-8 portal class last year and that didn't amount to anything. Besides, so much depends on how quickly the staff can get a team to gel and play within a scheme which is even more difficult in football. In college, there is so little mandated practice time it's not an easy proposition.

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LOL..."didn't amount to anything"

*** are you talking about? Did you not watch Cal basketball the previous 6 years??? The cupboard was absolutely bare. After early season stumbles, particularly painful stumbles, they gelled for most of the conference season and resembled an actual team, albeit one with no depth. All in all, pretty miraculous.

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Didn't realize a sub-.500 record in a terrible Pac-12 conference - losing the first conference tournament game to a lower seed no less - was considered "miraculous". This is college basketball where remaking a roster is easier than in football, particularly with the new transfer rules. The bar for Cal sports has always been fairly low, but apparently the Wyking/Fox years simply made the bar nonexistent.

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No disrespect to the critical ones here, but I got to go with 91Cal's take. Anybody that's really disappointed with our performance this past season isn't really being realistic. The previous 6 years, especially the last one under Fox was pathetic - the worst I've ever seen. You can't expect after a season that bad for any program to just start regularly winning games above a .500 pace, and move right in to the NCAA tournament. Cmon guys, cut MM a little slack here.

In reply to dha

dha said:

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Do we have a coach who can recruit? Time will tell. We only landed one high school player this year. We don't have one portal transfer player in the top 50. All new team, no star like Tyson, it will be difficult to have a winning record in the ACC.

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Our portal transfer class is rated in the top 10 nationally, 7 I believe. We didn't prioritize high school recruitsso that's intentional. Pretty sure Andrej is top 50. All 9 commitments signed which to some may be expected but it's indicative of a strong recruiting process and relationships. The evidence shows Madsen and Staff can recruit.

In reply to dha

dha said:

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Do we have a coach who can recruit? Time will tell. We only landed one high school player this year. We don't have one portal transfer player in the top 50. All new team, no star like Tyson, it will be difficult to have a winning record in the ACC.

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this is a very odd take after CAL landed one of the top portal classes in the country.
And was Tyson a star when he left Texas Tech? No, he was developed.
I have confidence the staff can develop a few of the new players as well.
Why? because that's far better for my mental health than worrying that CAL is going to suck for no logical reason

In reply to graguna Great point about the development. I feel that the staff will be able to develop Stojakovic into a big time player!

In reply to Johnfox

Johnfox said:

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Great point about the development. I feel that the staff will be able to develop Stojakovic into a big time player!

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If you listen to that interview Stojakovic gave, that's exactly why he came here. Kansas and North Carolina wanted him bad. But he chose Cal.

And as to whether we have a coach who can recruit L to the OL. Madsen looks like the best recruiter Cal has hired in any sport (not just MBB) in a very long time. If anything the question with him is can he coach and bring a disparate team together quickly. I am liking what I am seeing there, but we have a small sample size. On the recruiting though the jury is in. We know the answer.

Cal isn't a top-tier MBB program. We haven't appeared in the NCAA tournament since 2016. We haven't won our conference since 2010. We haven't had a winning record since 2017. Two years ago we were a clown show pretending to be a college basketball program. Our facilities are mediocre, as is our fan support. Despite valiant efforts, I doubt we have an elite NIL budget.

And yet, Madsen has been able to compile a top-8 portal class and convince players to come to Cal over offers from Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Arkansas. What more can he do as a recruiter?

In reply to DaveT

DaveT said:

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Cal isn't a top-tier MBB program. We haven't appeared in the NCAA tournament since 2016. We haven't won our conference since 2010. We haven't had a winning record since 2017. Two years ago we were a clown show pretending to be a college basketball program. Our facilities are mediocre, as is our fan support. Despite valiant efforts, I doubt we have an elite NIL budget.

And yet, Madsen has been able to compile a top-8 portal class and convince players to come to Cal over offers from Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Arkansas. What more can he do as a recruiter?

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What you say is true however it is important to realize tbe following two things.

1. We were a top 20 recruiting class last year and had a losing record. You can talk about injuries, I guess

2. Recruiting class rankings are composed of two things. One is the number of players you get. The other is the stars
Since we always need to replace tbe whole team, the ranking will always be high.

In reply to AZ Bear

AZ Bear said:

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Madsen looks like the best recruiter Cal has hired in any sport (not just MBB) in a very long time.

I agree that Madsen looks like an excellent recruiter. And what he's offering would be very appealing to me were I a player or the parent of a player.

I'll also agree that Madsen looks like one of the best recruiters we've had a Cal in a long time.

I'll disagree with one portion of your overall point: as far as being THE BEST recruiter Cal has had, I'd point out that Cuonzo Martin had phenomenal recruiting results in his short time at Cal. Jaylen Brown, Rabb, and some of the others is hard to top. We don't know how this year's crop of Madsen recruits will turn out yet, but if there's one thing you can say about Cuonzo's time at Cal, it's that the man recruited like a boss!

I'd rather have Madsen as a coach and I think over time Madsen could wrest the title of "best Cal recruiter" from Cuonzo. But I think we gotta give credit where it's due to Cuonzo...

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The Bozoman was a way better recruiter than Guonzo. He just got caught.