From: kbowers@esrc1.berkeley.edu (Ken Bowers)
Subject: Cal Woes (long)
Reply-To: kbowers@esrc1.berkeley.edu (Ken Bowers)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:44:18 GMT

Cal basketball is in bad shape after losses last week to James
Madison and Cornell.  Yesterday's uninspired 84-69 win over 
Texas Southern was more holding action than anything else. The
Bears open Pac-10 play later this week hosting Oregon and OSU in
what looks to be a pivotal part of the season.  If Cal can work
themselves back into the form that gave them a 5-0 start, then
continued improvement and a bid for the conference title is still
a reasonable goal.  If they continue to sputter, things could get
ugly on the court, and calls for Campanelli's resignation will start. 

After the likes of Dick Kutchen, Cal Basketball fans were delighted
to get Campanelli, who produced some semblance of an offensive
scheme, and winning seasons.  Coach Lou has certainly taken Cal up
a notch; in 7 years, he has gone to 1 NCAA tournament and 3 NITs,
and posted a 113-101 mark, but coming into this season, a lot of
folks in Berkeley felt he had underachieved.  Perhaps the most 
consistent knock has been that his players don't develop, and that 
some of them seem to flame out in their junior or senior years.
Part of this rep comes from the shadow cast by Kevin Johnson's
showing in the pros, where he has been more effective than at 
Cal. In my opinion, Johnson learned a number of things in his
two years under Campanelli that have served him well in the NBA; 
had Campanelli let him run wild in college, Cal might have
won a few more games but Johnson would have needed much more time
to become a starter in the pros, and Cal would have had no system
to fall back on when he left. 

Still, the list of players who have gone backwards at the end of
their careers at Berkeley is disturbingly long. Starting with
his dealings with Johnson, Campanelli has shown a need to show his
players who is boss and a tendency to blow up on the sidelines. 
This, combined with former player comments that Campanelli doesn't
show confidence in his players has lead some to question as to
whether he can take a team to the big time.  After the Cornell
debacle, SF Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins recommended "A hard
look at the Cal basketball program.  If the team falls apart, you 
don't want the coach falling apart right along with it." 

An argument can be made that Campanelli's successes have been due to 
others; he inhereted Johnson and other good players from Kutchen.
His NCAA team was made up mostly of players he had recruited but
the offense was designed and coached by Gary Colson, who spent
several years as a Cal assistant between head coaching jobs. Since
Colson left, half-court offense has been a consistent weakness for
Cal.  Current assistant Jeff Wulbrun is the star recuriter who
got most of the currrent team's talent on board, and lured Grigsby
and Kidd away from traditional basketball powers.  One wonders how
long Wulbrun will be content to be part of the parade of suits on
Cal's bench. 

At the moment, Cal has the look of a team that could go into a deep
hole if more things go wrong.  Brian Hendrick is out again so his
knee can heal properly.  An eight month rehab didn't do the job, so
he can't be counted on to return at full strength any time soon.
Jason Kidd has a bruised back, and looked out of sync yesterday,
telegraphing a lot of passes.  Lamond Murray, the team's best and
most consistent performer this year, got limited playing time 
yesterday as punishment for trying and missing a reverse slam at
the end of the Cornell game when the Bears were being routed. 
Murray made one spectacular block yesterday but otherwise showed
signs of impatience and frustration.  Given that Murray was the 
only Bear who showed up to play against the Big Red, it seems like
a fit of pique by Campanelli, who didn't exactly handle the New 
Jersey experience well himself.  After the JMU game he reportedly
yelled for an hour and kicked lunch boxes over in the locker room.
He was too upset to say more than a few words to the team after 
Cornell and refused to talk to the press.

After the victory over Texas Southern, coach and players were
talking a good game.  "A step in the right direction," Campanelli
called it.  Murray said he thought his benching was too severe
but Campanelli "probably thought it was too much showboating 
and that's the way it is."  He said he would live with it and
try to earn his staring job back.  Kidd said "you can't let two
games decide a season" and Grigsby called the losses "a little
funk that all teams go through."   Cal opens conference play
with three straight home games (Oregon, OSU and Stanford).  These
are three teams they can beat, although Oregon is hot and 
Oregon State has a lot of talent.  Two or three losses would be
hard to recover from, while three wins would rebuild a lot of 
lost confidence.  At this point, neither result would be a
big surprise.

Ken Bowers