Overall, Monty has done a very good job and the future looks a lot brighter, especially if Crabbe stays and we essentially go to a three guard offense. It would be totally foolish to let Monty go. Cal probably is at least in the top three or four in the conference in terms of its overall record versus others during the time Monty has been here (Juancho, it would be great if you filled in here with some stats). You don’t fire a coach like that. Especially with such a great recruiting class coming in next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqhYQpalEAg

Maybe you could tell us who was in the freshman recruiting class with Leon Powe and that of Jason Kidd. If Lamond Murray and Monte Buckley (or even without Buckley) were in Kidd’s class, Kidd’s class wins hands down.

Cal’s recruiting class with Patrick Christopher was also very good, maybe comparable, overall, with next year’s class.

BUT

This is the first year under Monty that the team is playing below pre-season expectations. Monty coached us to the first conference championship since the 50s. Chill

Major items I am encouraged about Monty and a bit discouraged about with him:

1. Encouraged — seems to bringing in one of the best freshman classes next year, maybe the best since the Kidd days. We’re even bringing in, heaven forbid, a decent and legitimate big man (see my comment above about this subject).

2. Discouraged — I don’t think he disciplines his players enough when they don’t play the way he wants them to. They should know, from his prior actions, that if they don’t do what he says he doesn’t want, they will be immediately benched. Perfect examples of when players should be pulled is when Soloman shoots a three pointer or when Cobbs dribbles the ball around, for a long time, contrary to Monty’s claim that he wants ball movement.

I’m all for letting Monty go for all the reasons mentioned above but since it took a few years or so for SB to finally fire Tedford, I’m also not expecting it any time soon. Especially w/ Bird coming next year.

Thanks for the list. I forgot about Devon Hardin, who was the only person from your list who was a good big guy who played primarily inside and played fairly recently. As long as you mention them, I should comment on the rest of your list.

1. Shareef — played ages ago and did not rely that much on an inside game. Not sure he was 6’9″ or taller but he could have been.
2. Soloman Hughes — a decent player inside, though his game was defense (i.e. blocked shots). Amazingly, since I think he rarely started for Cal, he had a long NBA career.
3. Jamaal Sampson — highly touted since, I believe, he was closely related to Ralph Sampson, but I think he only played a year for Cal and did not live up to his reputation.
4. Amit Tamir — definitely 6’9″ but did not seem to want to play inside and was accused by some, because of it, for playing “soft.” But he could be my favorite Cal payer, perhaps after Jackie Ridgle. When Tamir hit a three, which he did quite often, it was exciting.
5. David Paris — I think he was the son of Bubba. He wasn’t very good and I doubt he was 6’9″ or taller
6. Sean Marks — I think he was 6’9″ and his game was inside Not a star player at Cal, but a good one. Had an amazingly long NBA career, like Hughes, considering he was not a star at Cal.
7. Michael Stewart — very good player, who was probably 6’9″, but played so long ago I don’t remember what type of game he had.

If this is the entire list of Cal big men who were 6’9″ and relied upon an inside game, it is extremely weak. Of course, we could also add Darrell Imhoff to the list, but he played so long ago you have to be either old to remember him or just know a lot about Cal basketball.

Stanford fans (they beat Oregon last night) are laughing their ass off at us for taking this washed up coach and bragging about it.