Well, there it is. We’ve reached the end of the Wyking Jones era in Berkeley. Two years to the day of his hiring. 16 total wins. A combined 5-33 record against conference opponents (including conference tournaments). A record 16 game losing streak. Two twenty loss seasons in a row, something Cal basketball had two of in their history. It’s hard to overstate how bad these past two years were inside the confines of Haas Pavilion.
That doesn’t even go in to a whole host of off-court issues, including Theo Robertson’s departure, Austin McCullouch and Deschon Winston getting cut from the team in an all-too-public fashion, Matz Stockman announcing a grad transfer to Cal then staying at Minnesota, and that’s not even scratching the surface.
What went wrong? A 2-3 zone was installed, one that should work in theory, but saw players getting lost time and time again, to the tune of record setting 3-point numbers from guys like Robert Franks and Bennie Boatwright. A team that often came out strong, but couldn’t finish, didn’t adjust well. and a coach who threw players under the bus in post-game press conferences. The Bears didn’t even utilize their 13 scholarships going into 2018-19, with only 10 filled. It was a team that lost to the likes of Chaminade, Central Arkansas, Portland State, and Seattle. In a conference that has taken a nosedive over the past two years, Cal scraped the bottom.
There's talent on this team, something that the next head coach will have to keep in place. Connor Vanover flashed at the end of the conference schedule, and Matt Bradley is a scorer that can carry the load. While Darius McNeill announced his intent to transfer, if the next coach can hold onto guys like Justice Sueing, Andre Kelly and Juhwan-Harris Dyson, there's returning players with ability.
As someone who covers football as well, we’ve seen two divergent coaching approaches. Justin Wilcox had a plan to fit the system to the guys, while recruiting toward what he wanted. Jones tried fitting the guys into the system, while recruiting toward what he wanted. It did not work. There’s guys that can be molded into something. It just takes the right person.
Who is that right person? There’s a few names to look at first that aren’t completely out of the question. Rusell Turner at UC Irvine comes to mind. Travis Decuire, spurned once by Sandy Barbour in favor of Cuonzo Martin, deserves a call and will likely be considered. Even though he’s not going to leave Moraga anytime soon, give Randy Bennett a call for him to say no. If Lebron James decides he’s done listening to Luke Walton, give him a call. There’s plenty of directions this can go. Might as well shoot big. Heck, Jason Kidd is being mentioned as a candidate.
Beyond the coach choice, there’s two things that have to be a focus on for this next search. The first is including the vast alumni network that Cal basketball has produced. Sean Marks and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are in high positions in the NBA framework. Use them. There’s untold numbers of people who can help in the search. Jim Knowlton has been known for going around and listening to his constituents, something that likely led to this decision. He needs to do it again.
The second piece is investment into the program. Signs of this have been seen with the football program, as Carol Christ has had the campus assume the seismic retrofitting portion of the stadium debt, and Justin Wilcox’s new contract included a bigger assistant pool than any the Bears have ever had. Something similar needs to happen for basketball, as a separate practice facility has to be priority number one going forward. It’s on Knowlton’s greaseboard in his office, so it’s a priority.
Those two things present the way back to respectability for a Cal program only three years removed from a four seed in the NCAA tournament. To quote Albus Dumbledore, “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike,” and the path that they were on led toward indifference for a lot of people. The path back isn’t going to be easy, but one correct, albeit tough decision has been made. Those decisions need to keep happening moving forward to restore the prestige of the program.
