CAL Sports Info Ben Braun, right, has
renewed the Cal program plagued by the previous coach’s
scandal.
By Will Whitehorn
Daily Bruin Reporter
Rebuilding is a term often reserved for professional sports
franchises, invoking references to salary cap issues, player trades
and retirement. Far more infrequently is the term connoted with
college athletics.
Enter the Cal men’s basketball program.
It has been six years since the Golden Bear basketball program
made national headlines when head coach Todd Bozeman was forced to
resign amidst a flurry of improprieties. Among the charges that
provoked Bozeman’s departure were accusations of recruiting
violations and player bribes.
The embarrassment left a glaring scar on one of the most
prestigious universities in the country, for both academics and
athletics. The subsequent sanctioning of the basketball program,
which included a ban from the 1998 NCAA Tournament, two lost
scholarships over two years, and three years of probation,
stigmatized the university. Blue-chip recruits were reluctant to
sign with a school unable to compete for the championship right
away.
A great deal of credit for the Bears’ resurrection belongs
to head coach Ben Braun, who had Cal winning in spite of a glaring
recruitment barrier.
“It was difficult to get into homes, to line up visits for
recruits,” said Braun, who succeeded Bozeman in 1996.
“But that’s changed.”
Indeed it has. Perennial UCLA headache Cal enters
tonight’s game against the Bruins legitimately vying for the
Pac-10 title, just seasons removed from having the
university’s most important asset ““ its reputation
““ nearly destroyed.
“We were able to convince recruits of the benefits of
playing in a place like Cal despite the sanctions,” Braun
said. “It took a while to get over that hump.”
Braun has compiled a 112-66 record since assuming the helm,
including four postseason cameos. In 1999, one of the years in
which the Bears skipped the dance, he won the NIT.
Braun also has his players excelling off court. Braun has
graduated six recruits in his tenure at Berkeley and is second in
the Pac-10, during that period, to Stanford, who graduates a gaudy
100 percent.
According to Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery, it’s as
much the kids as it is the coach.
“You get what you recruit,” Montgomery said.
“Athletes who see academics as a priority will make it one.
The athletes here get all their work done, and do what
they’re supposed to do.”
Last year, three Bears earned Pac-10 All-Academic First-Team
honors.
But at least some credit Cal’s resurgence to the man at
the top.
“I think he’s a very stabilizing influence,”
said Jim Muldoon, assistant commissioner of public relations for
the Pac-10 of Braun. “(Cal’s turnaround) is a
combination of good coaching, patience, and time. He’s
created a very solid team, and now they have as good a chance as
six other teams at winning the title this year.”