The California Men's Basketball team got absolutely flogged by Arizona State and #6 Arizona last week at home. The Arizona State game ended in an embarrassing 79-44 final score and the Arizona game ended almost as badly 73-50. Tonight Cal faces off against Washington State on the road at 8:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks and on Sunday, Cal will face Washington on the road at 12:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks. Rather than breaking down what went wrong in their last two games and give my usual "here's what Cal needs to fix" routine, I will instead address the hot seat that head coach Cuonzo Martin should be sitting on.
At the moment, Cal is 11-9 overall and an abysmal 1-6 in the Pac-12. What's worse is that on average, in Pac-12 play, Cal loses by the score of 72.7-58.7, which is a point differential of -14 on average. In addition, Cal has lost each of their last five games by at least 10 points. What do these numbers show? These numbers show that Cal has not even remotely been competitive in any of their recent games.
If Cal was losing these games by five points or fewer, or even by single digits, one could try to put some lipstick on the pig and say that Cal is at least competitive and that they just need to finish games. But with all of these losses being by double digits, there is no way that any sort of positive spin can be attributed to them.
Cal at the moment is playing terrible basketball and at some point their head coach Cuonzo Martin has to start taking some responsibility. I've so far been a fan of Cuonzo Martin. He says all the right things in his press conferences, he seems aware of a lot of the same concerns that I have as a fan/analyst, and yet his "wisdom" isn't translating into wins. As a matter of fact, the team has regressed over the course of the season with each game being more and more unbearable to watch. This regression has to make one question whether or not Cuonzo Martin is the right man for the job.
I do have specific reasons for why I question Cuonzo Martin's coaching in addition to the fact that the team is getting their clocks cleaned every night. These reasons have to do with things I've heard from people close to the team as well as my own personal observations.
The first reason I question Cuonzo Martin's coaching has to do with conditioning. I've heard from two sources close to the team that the team really stepped it up in terms of the amount of conditioning that they were doing during the offseason. One of these sources even told me that a player was crying after the intense workouts that Cuonzo Martin had put them through.
If Cal was winning more ball games this year, I could easily justify Cuonzo Martin ramping up the intensity of their workouts. But so long as the team struggles, I have to wonder whether or not this team is getting overworked and is reaching a point of burnout. Looking at the Arizona State game as an example, the team looked absolutely tired the whole game and they hadn't played in over a week! It's certainly possible that Cuonzo Martin is overworking his players, which would explain their poor play on both ends of the floor.
The second reason I question Cuonzo Martin's coaching is that the team is having a difficult time scoring the basketball and getting into an offensive rhythm. The type of offensive system that a coach implements is huge to the success of his team and when a team can't score, one has to question the system. Especially when the coach has quality players.
I notice a lot of the time that Cal doesn't score early on in the shot clock and that they slow the tempo down, which in my opinion doesn't really suit the player personnel too well. This team needs to be running up and down the floor like they were against Syracuse instead of slowing the game down and waiting to shoot until the shot clock is in single digits. Cuonzo Martin appears to perhaps be guilty of trying to make the players fit his system instead of creating a system that fits his players.
Third, there is no real rhyme or reason to the adjustments that Cuonzo Martin makes to the rotation. I was all in favor of his decision to start Kingsley Okoroh at center since this team has struggled to match up with teams in the post, but then he relegated Okoroh to an off the bench role and went with Dwight Tarwater at the power forward position who is very undersized for the position.
In addition, freshman point guard Brandon Chauca appears to be in Cuonzo Martin's doghouse, hardly seeing the floor during the last five games. Given that Chauca can score the basketball and knock down some outside shots, one has to question why he isn't getting more minutes when scoring is one of this team's biggest issues.
Lastly, this team is very schizophrenic. Some nights they really bring it and other nights they don't. Such inconsistencies in their effort and play has to make one question the pre-game preparation that Cuonzo Martin does. Especially since this team routinely finds themselves getting whipped like a chow in the first half.
How hot should the seat be for Cuonzo Martin? I think that the seat he sits on should be very hot. Cuonzo Martin is getting paid a lot of money to coach at Cal, which is the #1 public university in the world and traditionally one of the better basketball programs in the Pac-12. Cal doesn't expect to compete for national championships, but they do expect to be a top four team in the Pac-12 and make the NCAA tournament on a regular basis. So far this team is not even close to living up to those expectations and Cuonzo Martin has to be the one accountable for it.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
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