October 25, 2007
Braun better than his detractors think
Ben Braun is a wanted man. His players want him at Berkeley. So does the university, based on a recent contract extension to continue as head coach through 2011 even though there was no annual increase in dollars. Yet some message board posters and letter-to-the-editor writers, plus longtime Bay Area sports columnist Glenn Dickey, want Cal’s coach gone.
Despite negative opinions about Braun’s game day coaching, his record speaks volumes
Not that the latter have any say, let alone effect, but why the divide? Why the raised pitchforks usually reserved for evil-doers of the worst sort? Have the paparazzi photographed Braun kicking puppies, scaring kittens and making babies cry?
Realistically, it’s just part of the job, simply being unable to satisfy all the people all the time. After all, this is a coach who has accomplished taking his teams to more postseason appearances and garnering more postseason victories than any coach in Cal history. There have been five inclusions in the March Madness field of 64--1997, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006. He is a solid 202-138 overall during his tenure at Cal, certainly not shabby numbers at all.
For three long decades, from 1960 to 1990 the basketball Bears went Big Dance-less. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Even San Jose State went a dancin’ once during that time so earning five trips is nothing to dismiss.
Also, remember that Braun’s predecessor, Todd Bozeman, stained the program and college with a major recruiting violation that included a $30,000 financial payoff to a recruit’s family before his improprieties caught up with him and he departed in disgrace. Bozeman posted a 63-35 record in Berkeley, helped out by Jason Kidd’s and Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s brief stays at Cal, but a number of those victories are tainted.
Plus, there was Lou Campanelli before Bozeman. From 1986 to 1993, he posted a 123-108 overall record before his verbal altercation with the players resulted in his removal.
It’s pertinent to note that neither Campanelli nor Bozeman experienced anywhere near the acrimony Braun has endured.
The primary knocks offered against Braun are:
- he can’t recruit
- he can’t develop talent
- he can’t keep talent
- he can’t game day coach
Ben Braun
RECRUITING
As for the initial charge--poor recruiting--one message board post criticized Braun for missing out on Archbishop Mitty’s Drew Gordon, who will sign with UCLA next month. This despite the fact that Gordon was never going to land at Cal, even if John Wooden re-entered the coaching ranks 500 or so miles to the north of where he achieved his greatness, or if the ghost of Todd Bozeman returned to Berkeley with a fully laden treasure chest.
The point that seems difficult for some to accept is that Cal is not one of college basketball’s elite--not a Duke or a North Carolina, nor a Florida or even a Connecticut--and never will be. Very few colleges are, for these are the ones which typically re-load and not re-build by having access to any number of the top 50 or 75 prep stars in the country. It’s an elite fraternity which rarely admits new members. John Calipari at Memphis is the latest knocking on the door but the verdict has yet to be rendered.
Offering names, Leon Powe was certainly a great get for Braun and an underrated catch, despite his being a Parade and McDonald’s All-American. But Cal typically has to pursue next level prospects making the interest and availability of a Top 25 rated player or so prospect the anomaly, not the norm.
Recently graduated point guard Ayinde Ubaka was a consensus top 50 or 75 player on the national scene and securing his commitment was another excellent achievement.
Current center DeVon Hardin is a prime example. He averaged just 12.9 points a game as a senior at Newark Memorial High and was but a two-time first team all-league choice. Braun and his staff obviously saw something even though Hardin’s prep scoring numbers weren’t anywhere near remarkable.
Sophomore Ryan Anderson is a similar case. He wasn’t even close to being a national name coming into his senior high school season in northern California. Can or will anyone argue that landing Anderson was a mistake or that the kid from Sacramento is overrated? Well, maybe anonymously on a message board.
Patrick Christopher, the expected starter at shooting guard this season, was rated the 44th overall recruit nationwide and sixth player in the state of California by Rivals.com as a high school senior--not bad credentials.
Braun and Cal have recruited well, period.
Plus, who has come out of the Bay Area of late at Cal’s stature that the Bears have missed on? From last year, the Richmond High duo of Eli Holman and Wendell McKines would not have been admitted. USF’s Dior Lowhorn, originally a Texas Tech signee, might qualify in this category.
The best matchup in terms of comparison is Stanford, although The Farm has a stricter admittance policy. Trent Johnson has generally landed serviceable players, save for two big exceptions, the Lopez twins, who were Parade and McDonald’s All Americans. Other than these two, Johnson has landed players similar to the talent and potential as that of Cal. Mike Montgomery, Johnson’s predecessor, generally did the same recruiitng-wise.
Ultimately, these are solid examples of Braun bringing in the level of kids Cal can reach. Ding Braun all you want for not landing a Kevin Love or an O.J. Mayo but expecting such is similar to the Average Joe wooing a Hollywood starlet--you can’t have what you can’t access.
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
Using a number of the same players as above, Powe developed into a close to unstoppable inside force during his college days. This despite seemingly insurmountable injuries and departing school after his junior season. It’s an erroneous argument that Powe underperformed or failed to reach his potential.
Ubaka is currently getting looks within the NBA and should be able to make a comfortable living overseas. To lay blame at Braun’s feet for Ubaka’s not tearing it up in The League is unsound. The coaching was provided, the playing time and opportunity available but the necessary skill development and day in-day out production putting Ubaka to the level of a solid NBA talent did not appear. It happens. Ask Coach K about some of his all-star recruits. Roy Williams too, all the way down the line.
Despite inordinately impressive physical skills, Hardin has been like the majority of big men-- he has developed, but in a longer period of time than originally assigned to him by fans. The Cal coaching staff has certainly put in the time and effort, as has Hardin, and he will be a high pick in the next NBA draft. Now some will say that Hardin hasn’t become a 25 points-a-night player, using that as evidence of some sort of Braun ineptitude in developing players but the truth is that Hardin is never going to be a terrific scorer. His defense and rebounding will be what punches his meal ticket for the pros. Hardin is getting more proficient offensively but any expectation of big scoring numbers from him is faulty.
In 2008, Ryan Anderson will have the choice of turning professional or not. Enough said--check that--written.
Patrick Christopher should move into being a dependable double-figure scorer as a sophomore and his development will be watched over the next few seasons by NBA scouts.
Even from a couple of seasons ago, Richard Midgley became a dangerous scorer, one who maximized his ability. He didn’t possess NBA potential but he became a solid offensive threat for the Bears during his stay in Berkeley.
Extrapolating from these examples, the charge of Braun’s players treading water developmentally is but a ruse.
One final name, one that gets attached far too often as a negative for Braun is Marquise Kately. His stay in Berkeley is featured in the transfer segment below but suffice it to say that the Cal coaching staff bears no responsibility in Kately’s freefall.
TRANSFERS
Some of those critical of Braun act as if only Cal is afflicted with players transferring. For the closed-minded, please note that two players left Duke last year, Eric Boateng [to Arizona State] and Jamal Boykin [you guessed it, to Cal]. Applying the same flawed logic as some do to Braun, one can only surmise that Coach K is rapidly losing his touch and should be pushed into the retirement ranks sooner rather than later.
As for transfers from Cal, Dominic McGuire departed for Western Athletic Conference (WAC) member Fresno State - a step down - and left there to enter into the NBA draft after playing his junior season. It’s no knock on McGuire but he has a history of moving on.
Texas native Kevin Langford played his freshman season in Berkeley before heading to TCU. He saw action in 26 games as a freshman for Braun, earning three starts while playing just over 11 minutes a game. Returning home is a not too uncommon theme among transfers.
Going back further, Shantay Legans left Berkeley just before his senior season to play for Ray Lopes at Fresno State. In a sense, Lopes was a father figure for Legans and had just been hired to coach the Bulldogs. Legans played 27 minutes a game, with 26 starts as a junior before departing. Label this a special circumstance.
Remember Nick Vander Laan? He began at Cal before heading east to Virginia when he realized his playing time was going to lessen. Vander Laan also departed from Virginia, ending up at Concordia. His vagabond status is no reflection on Braun.
The most intriguing transfer was that of Kately. A prep star from across the bay in San Francisco, Kately never got untracked at Cal and is now expected to start for Morgan State and Todd Bozeman this season. That’s the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. There’s no good reason to detail the specifics but his departure and his lack of development on the court falls squarely on Kately. One message board post we read put the onus on Braun, with the funky comparison of Kately’s stuck-in-neutral status with the fine play of Chris Hernandez at Stanford. Huh? This epitomizes the silliness of an apples-and-oranges comparison.
Transfers happen, usually for a myriad of reasons. The reality is that there is no greater number of student-athletes leaving Cal than at most other schools and pinpointing Braun as the fulcrum for these departures is naive, reckless and incorrect.
COACHING
This is the most difficult category to judge, having no background in coaching or playing at any level. It would be akin to me critiquing a plumber or an electrician at work. Providing specifics without appropriate credentials and minus viewing game tape and possessing an awareness of circumstances is essentially worthless. Yet such commentary proliferates elsewhere.
One point that can be made is that Braun won at Eastern Michigan, his previous stop. He wasn’t blessed with an abundance of talent while at Ypsilanti, yet he won. Within two years of becoming head coach there, he led his squad into the NCAA tournament, a first for Eastern Michigan. Overall, Braun and the Eagles earned three NCAA appearances in 11 seasons and he was recognized as the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year three times.
As has been detailed, he has also won in Berkeley.
Using these as measurements, inferior or incompetent game coaching simply doesn’t produce such won-loss results.
IN SUMMARY
Another quirky message board post stated in part: "I think at best we can hope for a run to the Sweet 16 someday." Planet Earth to Cal fan, counting all your fingers and then taking off your shoes and adding your toes doesn’t come close to the number of teams and coaches who would love making a run to the Sweet 16 and consider such a grand feat.
It appears some want and expect Cal basketball to be a UCLA basketball of the north, which, at the risk of being repetitive, isn’t going to happen.
Specifically looking at the numbers, here is Ben Braun’s record at Cal:
| Year | Record | League Record | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-07 | 16-17 | 6-12/8th | |
| 2005-06 | 20-11 | 12-6/3rd | NCAA 1st Round |
| 2004-05 | 13-16 | 6-12/T8th | |
| 2003-04 | 13-15 | 9-9/T4th | |
| 2002-03 | 22-9 | 13-5/3rd | NCAA 2nd Round |
| 2001-02 | 23-9 | 12-6/T2nd | NCAA 2nd Round |
| 2000-01 | 20-11 | 11-7/T4th | NCAA 1st Round |
| 1999-00 | 18-15 | 7-11/7th | NIT Quarterfinals |
| 1998-99 | 22-11 | 8-10/T5th | NIT Champions |
| 1997-98 | 12-15 | 8-10/T5th | |
| 1996-97 | 23-9 | 12-6/T2nd | NCAA Sweet 16/ PAC-10 Coach of the Year |
Now what some fail to realize or acknowledge is just how good the PAC-10 conference is in men’s basketball. UCLA, USC, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, now Washington State, Stanford at times and a resurgent Arizona State are making the league a basketball version of pick your poison.
The reality is that the PAC-10 is a national basketball powerhouse, the best conference in the nation in the upcoming season. Fully expect multiple NCAA Big Dance bids to be extended out west, even to teams with .500 or so conference records.
In fact, a recent Gary Parrish/CBS Sports column indicated that with the right circumstances and certain player development, the PAC-10 could set easily a record with 14 possible first round selections in the next NBA draft: O.J. Mayo, Taj Gibson and Devon Jefferson of USC, Arizona’s Chase Budinger, Stanford’s Brook Lopez, Arizona State’s Jeff Pendergraph, UCLA’s Darren Collison, Kevin Love and possibly Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Cal’s DeVon Hardin and possibly Ryan Anderson, Bryce Taylor of Oregon, Washington State’s Kyle Weaver and Oregon’s Maarty Leunen.
Could a different coach take Cal to the next level in recruiting and thus theoretically to a higher basketball program status? Anything is possible. But those wishing for such should be careful with their requests. Residing in beautiful northern California and having a basketball rich state, plus elsewhere, to seek recruits are seemingly tempting lures to some in the coaching aristocracy.
But California is never going to compensate a head basketball coach at the similar level of a Kentucky or a Florida and the like, so there’s the rub. Considering such into the equation, why would an athletics director put his or her job on the line by having to gamble on the hiring of an assistant coach, however promising, from a national power? Better yet, why even think of a change in the first place?
Having detailed the lack of validity surrounding the ‘reasons’ offered by his critics, the reality is that Braun isn’t going anywhere. It’s a moot point and past time to move on.