Cal Basketball: AD Jim Knowlton Says NCAA Tourney `Is Where We Want to be Playing'

Knowlton is not working on a contract extension for Mark Fox, as was reported.

In the wake of Cal’ basketball’s fifth straight losing season — the fourth during that stretch with at least 20 defeats — we talked with athletic director Jim Knowlton about the status of coach Mark Fox and his program.

The Bears are coming off a 12-20 campaign that included a 5-15 record and 10th-place finish in the Pac-12. Fox’s 35-58 record works out to a winning percentage of .376 that is the second-worst by a Cal coach in his first three seasons, above only Dick Kuchen (.333 on 27-54 from 1978-79 through ’80-81).

Here are key points from our conversation:

— Knowlton said COVID-19 has contributed significantly to the challenges the basketball program has faced, but it doesn’t change the bottom line. “Are we disappointed with where we finished? Yeah, you bet,” Knowlton said Thursday just as NCAA tournament play was beginning. “This is where we want to be playing.”

— The key to improving its standing as the fourth-worst winning percentage of any Power 5 program the past three years begins with recruiting better talent.

— The athletic department is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated practice facility, but the timetable for that project depends on the success of raising money to fund the building.

— Every Cal head coach was given an extra year on his or her contract because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Knowlton is not otherwise working on a contract extension with Fox.

This last point contradicts what was suggested recently in a story about the Bears that appeared in a Bay Area newspaper. Knowlton confirmed that one additional year was added to Fox’s original five-year deal, extending the coach’s contract through the 2024-25 season.

“We’re not talking about a new contract right now,” Knowlton said. “I think someone reported I was working on an extension — it was that I gave every coach an extra year.”

Knowlton explained he felt “it was unreasonable to expect the same level” of performance from any of Cal’s 30 teams while dealing with the restrictions of the pandemic.

“I also told every one of them . . . we’re still pushing,” he said. “Our expectation is to be exceptional. Do I think the timetable that we wanted (for men’s basketball) is not exactly on track? Yes. We thought we’d be at a better spot right now.

“But that doesn’t mitigate that we have got to continue to get better, and it starts with the better recruits. And that’s really what Mark’s working on high now.”

In the video below, Knowlton discusses Fox's contract and talks about plans to construct a practice facility:

Fox’s recruiting has been ordinary. He is yet to sign a player rated as a four-star or top-100 prospect, according to any of the recruiting services.

Knowlton said improving the roster’s talent level is “No. 1 on his list,” adding that the Bears must also utilize the transfer portal.

Our conversation about the basketball program began with Knowlton acknowledging that no one is happy about the state of things.

“Obviously, I’m very cognizant of fans wanting to see better,” he said. “The thing that fans have got to remember is when Mark Fox took over we had just completed the two worst years in our history from a men’s basketball perspective.”

The Bears went 16-47 in former coach Wyking Jones’ two seasons, and Knowlton said he painted a clear picture to Fox and others he talked with about the assignment.

“When I interviewed him I told him this was going to be a heavy lift. It’s going to be a challenge,” Fox said. “And it was going to be a challenge not just because of (the win-loss record). It was also some of the things that we weren’t doing to support the program, and things that had to change. To be exceptional, we had to fix a few things.”

Specifically, Knowlton said Fox’s mandate is to repair the basketball program while also upgrading the academic performance of the players who represent the university.

“Eight or nine years ago we had a 30 percent graduation success rate for basketball. That’s just not acceptable,” Knowlton said. “So it wasn’t just you’re going to come in and all you have to do is win some basketball games and everything’s going to be solved.

“You’ve got to win in the graduation success rates, in the academics. You’ve got to get the right student-athletes here, and you’ve got to get all of those things working together so we can have an exceptional program.”

Knowlton is encouraged by the current team’s performance in the classroom. Now Fox has to merge that with wins.

COVID-19 posed greater obstacles for Fox and the Bears than most basketball programs around the country, Knowlton said. Cal had no access to its locker room or its usual weight room for the entirety of the 2020-21 season and restrictions imposed by Berkeley health officials had the team practicing on an outdoor tennis court without a basketball in the months leading up that season.

"He’s worked through that and we’ve come out still standing,” Knowlton said. “Was the season what he wanted? No. But he’s working to build depth, to recruit the right kids and to really retool after two years against teams that never left their gyms, never left their locker rooms, never saw the kind of challenges that we saw.”

Cal is the only basketball program in the Pac-12 without a practice facility, but Knowlton is confident the athletic department is moving toward changing that scenario.

The project is part of the department’s master plan and has been moved through various committees. Next is finding an architect to develop a design so that costs can be determined and funds raised. A lot of steps still ahead, and no clear timetable yet.

Knowlton said the facility would be located north of Haas Pavilion where an outdoor parking lot currently resides. The new building would be attached to Haas, and would provide practice space for Cal’s basketball teams and gymnastics teams.

.

THE WORST IN POWER 5 OVER 3 SEASONS

.353: Boston College (30-55)

.370: Kansas State (34-58)

.372: Northwestern (32-54)

.376: Cal (35-58)

.386: Iowa State (34-54)

Cover photo of Cal coach Mark Fox by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo