State of the program

[vanmeter]

I am sorry, however, I am not seeing a lack of effort.

Bad play and results does not necessarily equate to lack of effort.

[Bay Area UMie]

I like Mark Schmidt to but it is not happening.

I would go get a guy like Gus Argenal at Nevada. He has seen how to win at a place that does not get top kids and has to use the transfer market.

Preacher,

Very insightful post. You obviously are a college hoops aficionado if you know about Art Argenal .

Argenal is highly respected in the Bay Area and is/was a school-boy and college legend in NorCal. The guy played his high school ball (basketball and football) at powerhouse De La Salle, a school with extremely high academics and the top athletic program in the state (football program was consistently rated #1 in the country when Art was at De La Salle and Hoops top 10 nationally, SoCal residents might object but IMO do not even bring up Mater Dei as the best athletic program in California).

Argenal played his college ball at UC Davis as a point guard. I saw him play live 4-5 times against Pac10 competition (Stanford and Cal) and I can tell you never in my 40+ years watching college hoops did I see anyone work harder or play with more passion that this guy. The last time I say him play was 15 years ago at Stanford and I still have images of the guy’s high energy effort-an incredible work horse as a 5’9’’ point guard.

Art has been coaching the last 15 years and you are right he is currently on Musselman’s staff at Nevada where he was instrumental in out recruiting Cal Berkeley for 5-star recruit Jordan Brown from the Sacramento area (more on Cal later) and might get a commitment this year from another 5-star guy Kyree Walker. He has worked as an assistant in the Pac12, at his alma mater UC Davis and was the head coach at D2 Cal State Haywood for 4 years. I heard so much about how extremely hard and fine-tuned his teams played that I went to one of his games 3 years ago. Sure enough his teams pressed all over the floor, played an up-tempo offensive style, were diving for every loose ball and just as importantly played impressively in the half court when situations dictated a half court set-basically the antithesis of the play and results we are currently witnessing at the Mullens this year.

I would love to see Argenal in Amherst. One problem-UC Berkeley is 0-10 this year in PAC12 play and they will very likely fire Pitino protégé Wyking Jones who has only been on the job TWO YEARS. Similar to McCall at UMass, he is overseeing a fast trajectory to the bottom as his team plays a disjointed style of ball with little passion. Why will Cal probably move on from Jones and UMass likely stay with McCall? I say this as a very proud graduate of both great institutions, because Cal demands excellence not only from classroom instructors and the research labs but what happens on the playing field as well. Unfortunately, UMass Athletics is obviously not there yet. Hopefully, as our academic reputation continues to grow we will demand greater accountability from the second highest paid employee on campus. For anybody ready to argue that Cal athletics has the benefit of a $40m annual PAC12 media payment, the facts are Cal’s Athletic department is drowning in red ink because of the incompetence of former AD Sandy Barber and as a result is probably more financially strained and less capable of making a buyout payment than UMass. But Cal very likely will move on from Jones because finishing at the bottom of the PAC12 and lackluster efforts on field are unacceptable at a great institution that stands for excellence and insists on enforcing accountability standards.

Look for Argenal to receive some serious consideration for the soon to be vacant Cal job (probably not enough name cache for the UCLA position) or end up at a Big West or Mountain West school as a HQ.

[NilesGold]

I like Mark Schmidt to but it is not happening.

I would go get a guy like Gus Argenal at Nevada. He has seen how to win at a place that does not get top kids and has to use the transfer market.

Wait, are you claiming that Nevada is winning without top kids?

[PreecherJenkins]

Correct they are not top kids as in getting 12 McDonald All-American kids. The guys they get are retreads.

have you heard of Jazz Johnson at Portland or Thurman when he was at Nebraska Omaha?

They have one McDonalds kid who plays 6 minutes a night and if you read their Matty V, he may transfer.

[dennisdent]

UMass will let coaches go after two years--Ray Wilson and Tom McLaughlin, lasted just two years:

https://www.recorder.com/Keeping-Score-10200168

CM lasted two horrible years as the football coach.

[NilesGold]

Correct they are not top kids as in getting 12 McDonald All-American kids. The guys they get are retreads.

have you heard of Jazz Johnson at Portland or Thurman when he was at Nebraska Omaha?

They have one McDonalds kid who plays 6 minutes a night and if you read their Matty V, he may transfer.

All 9 guys on the team who play are either a McD AA, a former top 100 recruit, or a double-digit scorer with their former team (save for Jordan Caroline who scored 9.2 ppg as a freshman before going to Nevada).

[Jackson96]

I must not be insightful as I have never heard of this Argenal guy before. Based on these posts though, he sounded like a young Pitino minus the baggage, so I looked him up. His record as a head coach was 35-76 at Cal State. Maybe that's a dumpster fire of a job (I have no idea) but 35-76 is a dumpster fire of a record, I don't care how fine-tuned and how hard a team plays. He did get to 13 wins his last year so I guess his teams were getting better, I will say that.

Can't argue with what Musselman is doing at Nevada though and maybe this Argenal guy is a big part of it. But jeesh, you had me thinking Ricky P. without the strippers and extramarital affairs. Maybe Argenal will be if he gets another head coaching gig, I don't know.

Also, re: Wyking Jones, you neglected to mention that he took over a program that was coming off a pair of 20-win seasons (one NCAA, one NIT) and top 5 finishes in the PAC-12 and has proceeded to go 13-34. Cal's last sub .500 record was in 2007. McCall certainly hasn't covered himself in glory so far and things are trending the wrong way at the moment, but he also took over a program coming off 3 straight losing seasons and has still won 8 more games than Jones has at Cal. My vision hasn't been great in years, but I can see a bit of a difference there.

As a program we need to take long hard look at ourself in many aspects, I'm just not sure saying "WHAT THE FUCK IS OUR PROBLEM, LOOK AT CAL THEY ARE FIRING THEIR GUY AND IT'S HIS SECOND YEAR BECAUSE CAL IS BIG LEAGUE AND THAT'S WHAT BIG LEAGUE TEAMS DO!" is the way to go about it.

If you do, well, that's fine too.

[McKinney]

I didn't know anything about this Argenal guy either, but Nevada is a great example of what UMass' identity should aspire to be. They have under the radar guys, guys who have a chip on their shoulder. Their players were rated as two 4 stars recruits, one 3 star, and a 2 star. I think you can be a 5 star recruit and still have a chip on your shoulder, but you know... for the argument's sake.

Gonzaga's another one: two 4 stars, three 3 stars, and one two star. That's crazy for a team that's in the top 5. In comparison, Duke has five 5 stars, three 4 stars, and four 3 stars.

[69MG]

^ If you listened to the full post-game it should be obvious, he's trying to find a way to get through to the players and motivate them. My guess is that it won't work, as seems to be the case with most of the things he's tried to do in this regard. Like I said in a previous post, McCall and most of the players seem to be on completely different wave-lengths. When you have someone, like McCall, who's extremely energetic, passionate, and prideful about basketball, I think it's virtually impossible for him to connect with players who don't have half of the same energy/passion/pride. I don't think McCall can succeed as a coach until he has a team nearly full of players who come close to sharing his level of every/passion/pride.

I did listen to it and I understand what he's trying to do but this sounds like a punishment you give to a 5 year old. I will give him credit, however, for following through on his statement. See Walfish's post:

@JoshWalfishDHG
1h1 hour ago
More Josh Walfish Retweeted Josh Walfish
#UMass practiced at Mullins today and will head over to the Cage tomorrow until they've "earned" the right to step foot in Champions again. McCall said they are barred from the facility and he would move the coaches' offices out if he could.

[NilesGold]

^ I'm not convinced it's the right move either... I think McCall is trying anything he can think of because nothing has worked thus far.

[PreecherJenkins]

^ I'm not convinced it's the right move either... I think McCall is trying anything he can think of because nothing has worked thus far.

cannot believe I am agreeing with Niles,

how is practicing at Mullins a bad thing? Make these losers practice at Boyden while McKinney and his engineers are playing pickup, that is the situation they deserve.

[Jackson96]

I hear ya McKinney but Nevada is built on transfers. It works for them no doubt just not sure it’s a blueprint to be followed nor do I know how sustainable it is over the long run.

Gonzaga has been Gonzaga for a long time. Not sure how crazy it is they are in the top 5 - I bet Tennessee and Virginia have comparable rosters in terms what players were rated prior to college (probably a little better but not much) I think what’s more important than how many stars a kids is recognizing talent and then how that talent fits what you want to do. There are plenty of lower ranked kids that are better than higher ranked kids. Just like there are plenty of less talented kids who just might fit your program better. The best programs outside of the blue bloods recognize these things extremely well I think.

I also would bet Gonzaga and (maybe) Nevada have bigger budgets than we do. Probably considerably more in the case of Gonzaga.

I hope this doesn’t come off as dinkish. I know my last post did but I was trying to on that one.

[Almontis]

^ I'm not convinced it's the right move either... I think McCall is trying anything he can think of because nothing has worked thus far.

cannot believe I am agreeing with Niles,

how is practicing at Mullins a bad thing? Make these losers practice at Boyden while McKinney and his engineers are playing pickup, that is the situation they deserve.

C'mon guys. This is typical coach stuff. He's doing everything but making them use the women's locker room.


I'm curious how McCall and Bamford will publicly assess what's happened here when the season wraps up.

[69MG]

^ I'm not convinced it's the right move either... I think McCall is trying anything he can think of because nothing has worked thus far.

cannot believe I am agreeing with Niles,

how is practicing at Mullins a bad thing? Make these losers practice at Boyden while McKinney and his engineers are playing pickup, that is the situation they deserve.

Maybe practicing at Mullins will improve their shooting so some good will actually come out of this.

[78]

I didn't know anything about this Argenal guy either, but Nevada is a great example of what UMass' identity should aspire to be. They have under the radar guys, guys who have a chip on their shoulder. Their players were rated as two 4 stars recruits, one 3 star, and a 2 star. I think you can be a 5 star recruit and still have a chip on your shoulder, but you know... for the argument's sake.

Gonzaga's another one: two 4 stars, three 3 stars, and one two star. That's crazy for a team that's in the top 5. In comparison, Duke has five 5 stars, three 4 stars, and four 3 stars.

Coaching, coaching, coaching...