go root for Virginia then.

I personally regard Amoke as a very important player on the Cal squad. If he were able to develop a consistent jumper and slow down on his offensive moves to the post he would be a load, and someone we would really be relying on next year. And if he remains with the squad, I would expect his to develop in those ways nicely during his junior and senior seasons!

But staying with this year, he gives us great rebounding ability, especially on the offensive glass (Omondi’s nickname is O-board.). Maybe on another deep team he wouldn’t be so important, but we are really fairly thin on the blocks – we need all the size we can get.
Being another man down is really going to hurt us in terms of rotation. And, regardless of the minutes he contributes and how he performs, I fear that this just is emotionally deflating for the rest on the team. I hope I’m wrong and that Cal wins, but I DO take it as a serious blow to the team. Amoke is no role player – he’s really important to what we do overall.

As for recruiting:
1) Bak Bak has been really helpful as an ineligible player who didn’t contribute or show much during the 6 weeks he did play.
2) Brandon Smith is doing a stellar job. I think my favorite stat, aside from the severely reduced minutes he’s received as a result of his play, is his free throw shooting percentage, something that should be automatic for an undersized point guard.
3) MSF has barely been able to step into the role we needed of him. Perhaps much of that was his level of conditioning before arriving on campus, which led to back injuries.

Look, you hear all this talk by broadcasters during games of Monty being a hall of fame coach recently? Well, that’s nice, but in my book recruiting is maybe 70% of a coach’s job. Who said, “there have been a lot of coaches who haven’t won with talented players, but not a lot of coaches who have won without them”?

Look how Randy Bennett of WSU/Virginia was able to steal James Johnson of S.D. away from all other west coach schools. Bennett obviously built such a strong relationship while in the Pac10, that he was able to convince Johnson to follow him to UVA when Bennett took a job cross country. That’s a recruiter for you!

Look what Sean Miller has done at Arizona in his first year, actually just a few months on the job. Meanwhile, in his first year, Monty got Gut. Second year he got the above 3. And 3rd year Monty was unable to get the big pivot the team desperately needs. (Richard Solomon is more slender and a face up player, from what I’ve read). Yes, we are excited about Franklin, Crabbe, Rossi, and Solomon. But look at the guys the other Pac10 schools got and we are only appearing to be middle of the Pac. Hall of Fame coaches aren’t middle of the Pac. They are above board.

Now, if Monty finds that big dude (Enes Kanter has opened recruiting following his verbal to UW, for instance) we so need with his (still open) 5th slot for this year, then I’ll shut up. Until then, you are going to see Josh Smith of UCLA drive his mack truck right down Max Zhang’s face next season.

It’s possible that he’ll get that big guy in his 4th season, and that these 4 2010 recruits will prove to be something special. But it is painful to see Cal enter this tournament lacking proper post players, to then watch Amoke be taken away from us as well, and further realizing that the situation only gets worse next year when Boykin (by far our best post) is taken away. You don’t really think Kamp is the equal of Boykin, the one-time California High School Player Of The Year, do you?

And Monty can’t say anything to dismiss my comments. He knows he desperately needs a true pivot. I’m sure he’s working hard on it.

Okay, Okay, I can talk myself into conceding a point – next year we can play the interior by committee:
Kamp, MSF, Max, Bak, Solomon, and maybe even O-board if he’s still with us.
I guess we could get by – but there’s no competing for a Pac10 title with that bunch.

I don’t know what Amoke did, but I’m glad Monty took immediately steps to discipline him. I don’t know if there are any legal implications or not, but his immediate punishment of Amoke sends a message to the younger Bears that such behavior is unacceptable. I think Chip Kelly looked really foolish in the way he waited so long to take action against Masoli and Blount. Not sure if Omondi did anything as bad as these guys, and it’s not my place to speculate, but I trust Monty’s judgment and I laud him for laying down the law.

sad you’re ready to ‘chalk up the loss’ with the loss of Amoke and prepare to make excuses, followed by insulting Cal’s recruiting, which has been consistently good for years.

Although we need him inside, I don’t think he was the difference in too many of our wins or losses.

He fouls immediately when he’s on the court and has played sparingly in several wins.

It’s a tough loss for the team, but not time to throw in the towel.

People need to step up.

Maaaaxxxx!

That’s what the news of Amoke suspension feels like.

Gee, now we’ll have an excuse for EVERY loss of the season.
OSU, Kansas, Syracuse = no Theo
UNM = multiple injuries
UCLA = last second lucky shot
who’d we lose to when = Gutierrez was injured
Louisville = No Amoke

You get the point.

My point is you gotta recruit enough good guys that when 1 or 2 go down, you have people who can fill the void.