As previously reported on this site, Mark Fox has officially completed his initial coaching staff for the 2019-20 season. Fox brought Andrew Francis from Iowa and Chris Harriman from New Mexico, while retaining assistant Marty Wilson. Trent Johnson will serve as an 'analyst in a special assistant role, per the Cal release.
Quotes from Fox on Each of the Coaches
On Francis
"Andrew has worked side-by-side with an outstanding coach in Fran McCaffery for more than a decade," Fox said. "His contacts across the entire country will be a tremendous benefit to our program. I have admired his ability and his impact on young people for many years."
On Harriman
"Chris brings a wealth of experience and contacts in basketball from across the globe," Fox said. "He trained under the great Rick Majerus and has been an exceptional recruiter. I am excited to add someone with great international experience and basketball expertise to our Cal basketball family."
On Wilson
"I have known Marty for more than a quarter of a century and his knowledge of the West Coast, the Pac-12 and of our current situation will be of great value as we begin to rebuild this program," Fox said. "He has already been extremely helpful in the transition and I know he will continue to serve this program at a high level."
On Johnson
"Trent Johnson has been a part of my family for nearly three decades. His commitment to developing young people is second to none," Fox said. "As a coach he led the league at Nevada, Stanford and LSU, and his expertise and experience will be a valuable part of our program."
Notes, Thoughts, and the Road Ahead
- Fox now has two coaches on staff with head coaching experience in Wilson and Johnson. This has to be the first time in recent memory Cal has had an analyst on their basketball staff, though that has become a common practice in football. The release says on his role
In his analyst role for the Bears, Johnson will support day-to-day student-athlete development and mentorship off the court, plus serve as an assistant to Fox. His head coaching experience will help guide the Bears in game planning and scouting, plus opponent analysis.
- The release also says a couple things about Harriman as a recruiter:
"Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander named Harriman one of the "Top 5 Up-and-Coming Division I Assistants" on CBS Sports, with Norlander writing, "Few guys have the international networking and contacts like Harriman. He's the long-term valuable hire, the guy who finds the gem buried under 20 feet of mud." Additionally, national basketball insider Jeff Goodman named Harriman one of the top three international recruiters in Division I college basketball."
- The timing of getting this done lines up with important dates in recruiting. The weekend of April 26th marks the first evaluation period where coaches can travel out to AAU tournaments to watch prospects in the 2020 class.
- Cal's situation now is to do a handful of things. First is to retain the guys they have. Darius McNeill is gone to SMU, Justice Sueing is probably gone, Roman Davis will grad transfer and both Connor Vanover and Juhwan Harris-Dyson are in the transfer portal. parents of both Vanover and Harris-Dyson have said nothing has been decided yet. There needs to be a concerted effort to keep what they can, along with keeping the other five scholarship players on board
- The next is to keep the recruits. SG Charles Smith IV asked out of his NLI earlier today, but Fox and company will have to keep Joel Brown and DJ Thorpe in the mix
- The third part is to bring in transfers, grad or otherwise. There's a big gap to fill there, and the Bears have contacted a couple guys like Max Hazzard from UC Irvine and Jordan Brown from Nevada. Eric Musselman showed how the transfer market could be utilized, and while it has to be different at Cal due to differing academic standards, the transfer market as a whole is becoming pivotal to college basketball at this time. The Cal roster in 2019-20 will look a whole lot different from the year prior. The only question is how different.
