Comments on: Basketball: Gutierrez, Montgomery earn spots in 10th annual Pac-10 Writers Survey

By: Uclol

Uclol — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:34:09 +0000

Interesting stuff. I have to agree that Monty is not only the COY (Cal finishing 4th in conference?), but also with Williams is POY.

As far as how to decorate the new Pauley, well since Ucla has already stolen the colors, song, and mascot from Cal, why not just make the appropriation complete and decorate the court with the Campanile & Sather Gate as well?

By: Uh Huh!

Uh Huh! — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 06:13:18 +0000

Joe:
Sure – people like to mix these things up. Rotate the awards around some. That may be odd, but it happens all the time.
Many thought Monty’s job this year was better than last, take heart in that, at least.
Perhaps Cal got the POY vote for Randle over Landry Fields in a close vote last year b/c Cal won the title. So, it fits that the COY award goes to the Champ in a tight vote as well. I don’t necessarily agree with biasing the vote toward the champ all the time, but that’s often the way voting goes.
Can’t have it both ways for Cal year after year.

Landry Fields supporters are having their last laugh now as they see him do very well for the Knicks, while Randle is off in Turkey somewhere.

By: Esquire Joe

Esquire Joe — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:56:00 +0000

Wait, I’m confused. So Arizona was the conference champion because Williams, the best player in the conference (by far), willed them to it, but Sean Miller was the coach of the year because he won with nothing?

It’s not that Miller’s not a very good coach, apparently on his way to being a great coach. It’s just that he has a hell of a lot more to work with than Monty does. Yes, he won a championship with that lot more, and they won the games they were supposed to win. But UCLA and UW also did them a few favors down the stretch. I think there might have been a little bias against Monty because he won it last year.

By: Uh Huh!

Uh Huh! — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:41:46 +0000

I’m bummed that there was no mention of either MSF or Kamp. Both of them exceeded my expectations by a pretty good margin and were VITAL to Cal’s success this season. Not enough can be said about how they manned an undermanned front line all season long!
Brandon Smith had tremendous improvement, and I already am on record saying Gutierrez could be considered most improved. He’s not the best outside shooter, but he stepped up to hit some key 3 ptrs during the season.

I think you could arguably give most improved to all FOUR players. Just a tremendous job!

By: Uh Huh!

Uh Huh! — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:31:25 +0000

To be fair, the Cal staff has nonetheless been able to finish 1st and 4th the past 2 seasons, so something’s working! Who knows? Maybe some of those asst’s not only do a good job of bringing in the right mentality, but also do a lot of stuff in practice or scouting on tape that has helped the team win. In other words, it isn’t necessarily as easy as the quote would indicate.

By: Uh Huh!

Uh Huh! — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:18:14 +0000

JF: This was an excellent post! Lots of great stuff here. However, this was my favorite:

RE Monty: “He’s a coach competing with a bunch of recruiters. Now, if he’d replace a couple of those assistants with good recruiters … look out.”

That got me laughing.

By: milo

milo — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:03:52 +0000

Viva Jorge!

By: Yoda

Yoda — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:07:41 +0000

Cal will surprise in 2011-12 and be right in the mix for the championship.

Some of those comments on Pauley are priceless. You writers are a cynical bunch.