A Monday morning in Haas Pavilion saw the introduction of new men's basketball coach Mark Fox, as the Cal band played, and athletic director Jim Knowlton welcomed Fox and his family to Berkeley.

Along with a number of Cal donors and administrators, other Cal coaches, including Justin Wilcox and Lindsay Gotlieb, made it into Haas for the press conference, in which Fox spoke of wanting to build a defensive mentality, to play 'as fast as we can play well,' and 'not tear down young people, but maybe take down bad habits.' It's a long way until Fox's first practice of the 2019-20 season, so he'll have plenty of time to figure things out, as he gets to know his team.

Notes and Quotes from Fox

- Fox noted that he hadn't met the players on the team in person, but had spoken to them all in some shape or form. A team meeting was planned for after the press conference. Jules Erving and Jacob Orender were in attendance for the presser. Fox also said that he'd spoken to Cal's three signees from the 2019 class (G Joel Brown, SG Charles Smith IV, and F DJ Thorpe), noting that he'll see them when they can go visit during the recruiting periods.

- Fox also reached out to Darius McNeill, who announced his intent to transfer previously

- Former Nevada, Stanford, LSU, and TCU head coach Trent Johnson was in attendance, and Fox noted that he's going to try to convince Johnson to be a part of his staff. Our Ben Parker previously reported that Johnson will be a part of his staff.

"He's here as a member of my family today," Fox said, "we're gonna have some conversations later and we'll see exactly where that ends up."

- Fox spent last year in a couple different places, going through the Spurs training camp and working with Gregg Popovich, and working with Jeff Van Gundy for Team USA as they went through World Cup qualifiers. He also thanked Roy Williams, Mike Kryzewski, Matt Painter, Ed Cooley, Geno Auriemma, Brad Stevens, and Mike Budenholzer as guys who he had spent the previous year around. On his experience at team USA:

"The international game is played with the NBA shot clock at 24 seconds, but with the college defensive rules, and so that really has been a tremendous exercise, because there are some phenomenal international coaches. We're blessed in the United States to have the greatest coaches leading USA basketball. To be able to go to training camp with the Spurs and spend time with coach Popovich, to be with Jeff Van Gundy, he's extremely entertaining on air, he's got a big basketball brain, and he's a brilliant man. To be able to spend that time with him, to strategize, and to attack some of these international schemes has been invaluable in my development as a coach."

- Fox also thanked former Cal head coaches Ben Braun and Mike Montgomery, as the former was in attendance

- Fox noted that he'd gotten about 1200 texts last Friday, and he's been able to work through them all by now.

- Fox echoed something Justin Wilcox said in his initial press conference, that it doesn't matter what Fox's reputation had been, they've got to figure out ways for this roster to win.

"I'm interested in finding a way for this team to win, and whatever that formula is, we have to identify it and give these young people their best chance to win."

Notable Points from Knowlton's Speech/Afterward Media Scrum:

- They started with over 40 candidates, Knowlton spoke to four of them as the search committee helped pare things down

"I was in three airports on Monday, I had my bags packed, and I was not coming back until I found the next coach for us," Knowlton said, "and it had to be the right coach. We started with over 40 (candidates), and we began to pare it down. One candidate quickly emerged as the absolute exceptional selection for Cal. He proved, in his interview, and I put him through a couple hours' worth, that this place called Cal, where student-athletes are first, where academics are premium, fit who he was all about to a T."

- Knowlton noted that Fox's record of coaching previously, his player development record, from both an athletic and academic standpoint, were part of the reason for bringing him on board

- Knowlton also noted that the documents for the capital campaign have been released by Carol Christ, including part for the planned basketball practice facility

"She just published the comprehensive campaign documents, and one of the three facilities in those documents is the indoor practice facility. So now we're working on a location, we'll begin the design process, and we're gonna have to do some fundraising. That is one of my top priorities, and that will help us in a lot of ways, because it'll be more than just an indoor practice facility

- Knowlton also made note in the aftermath to talk about how he came to making the decision to move on from Wyking Jones

"At the halfway mark of the season, I was very open with the Chronicle that I evaluate every sport at the end of their season, this is what I'm going to do with the basketball program. As you can imagine, to make a leadership change after two years, those are hard decisions, because it takes three years to really get something built. What I was really evaluating was where are we now, after two years, and how much can we move the needle in another year. By the end of the season and with a couple days of evaluating, it just became obvious that we wouldn't be able to move the needle enough, and that's when I had to make a leadership change."

- Knowlton reiterated that he'd never told Jones he'd be back for year three

"He was never told he'd be back. What I told Wyking, the last day was that we're gonna start planning for the future right now. That's what I told him, but I also told him I'm going to continue to evaluate the program."

One Final Thought

During the post-press conference scrum, Fox did make a note of being in Haas before, when it was Harmon Gym while he was an assistant at Washington. While my recorder died on me for this part, Fox said that they came into the building that day and saw that it'd be tough to win there. That atmosphere, he said, is what he wants to build. Time will tell if he can build it, and this next month is going to be very important to see what the roster will look like going into Fox's inaugural season.