Earlier this week, 12 year Cal women’s basketball assistant and former Stanford women’s basketball standout Charmin Smith was named as the 10th head coach of Cal women’s basketball, replacing Lindsay Gottlieb who left to take an assistant coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers. What’s a bit odd is that when Gottlieb took the Cavaliers job, Smith had just taken a new position with the New York Liberty of the WNBA as an assistant coach. A position that she took in early April. Despite moving all the way across the country for less than three months, Smith took the Cal head coaching job with no hesitation and looks to build on the success that Gottlieb had during her eight seasons as the head coach of Cal.

When looking back on the Gottlieb era, there’s a lot that went right for Cal: Seven NCAA tournament appearances, one Final Four appearance (2013), and an overall record of 179-89 (88-59 in Pac-12 play). During her tenure, Cal women’s basketball found much more success than the men’s basketball team, who during that same span reached the NCAA tournament three times, compiling an overall record of 144-122 (68-74 in the Pac-12). Considering all the success that Gottlieb had, it only makes sense to hire someone that is familiar with the culture that she built at Cal and the long-term vision that she had for the program. That’s why Smith is the best possible hire Athletic Director Jim Knowlton could have made.

With that all said, that doesn’t mean Smith should be a carbon copy of her predecessor. While there’s a lot that Gottlieb accomplished, there’s also a lot more that she could have accomplished. When given the most dominant player in the history of Cal basketball in Kristine Anigwe, Gottlieb couldn’t coach Cal past the second round of the NCAA tournament as they always ran into a #1 or #2 seed in their second round match.

This past season was the most disappointing as Cal got ranked as high as #13 in the country during the non-conference portion of the season before ending the season outside the Top 25. You know it’s a bummer when the high point of your season is a game that you lost (76-66 loss to #1 UConn in Berkeley). Gottlieb hyped up her team so much last season with the addition of grad transfer Receé Caldwell to go along with Anigwe and four-year veteran Asha Thomas. For that team to fail to reach the Sweet Sixteen and end the season with a 102-63 beatdown loss to #1 Baylor is really embarrassing when you consider the expectations that Gottlieb set for her team.

Truth be told, Gottlieb left Cal at the right time. Next season was projected to be a rebuild and Cal was probably at least a couple of years away from returning to the level of an NCAA tournament team that may or may not get out of the first round. It was a good time for Gottlieb to move on from Cal and for Smith to step in.

Now that the program is under her watch, Smith needs to make sure she’s able to build on the good things that Gottlieb did while also not allowing the program to succumb to the same fate of being good enough to make the NCAA tournament, but not good enough to make any noise once they get there. Smith has to find a way to get Cal to perform better during the regular season, get a higher seed in the NCAA tournament, and make more deep runs.

In order to do that, Smith needs to continue to build on the recruiting successes that Gottlieb had while being able to get more out of her teams on the floor. Gottlieb routinely got out-coached and wasn’t able to make the necessary adjustments to counter whatever the opposing coach threw at her. On top of that, her teams often came out flat, having to claw their way back in the second half.

Smith’s teams have to do a better job of making adjustments during the game and coming out with the right level of energy. Rather than overly relying on one thing (e.g. dumping the ball into Anigwe), Smith has to find a way to diversify her game plans more and give opposing teams different looks. If she’s able to do that, odds are good she’ll be able to turn Cal into a consistent presence in the second week of the NCAA tournament, something that Gottlieb failed to do.

Charmin Smith needs to put her own stamp on Cal. If she’s Lindsay Gottlieb 2.0, that won’t be enough. Cal has been a successful program over these past eight years, but there’s so much more that they could have accomplished. With her experience at Cal and knowledge of its unique culture, Smith has everything she needs to take Cal to new heights. It’s just a matter of her finding her own philosophies and implementing them in a positive way.