Hold on a second. We've talked about de-emphasizing the final four, but that isn't the same as de-emphasizing the entire NCAA tournament. Grimes has led Cal to three quarterfinals (and all three times was eliminated by an eventual national finalist). Prior to his arrival, the team had never advanced that far, not even once.
If we look at QF appearances, since the start of the century, which also happens to be Grimes first year at Cal so that makes for a convenient starting point, Cal and Grimes stack up pretty well. Only nine programs have reached the QFs more than Cal has in that time and they are in a 7-way tie for eighth. That's the good. The bad is that of the 16 teams that have made the QFs three times this century, only one hasn't advanced to the Final Four at least once. I assume I don't need to point out which program that is. Of the 25 teams that have made multiple tips to the QFs, 20 of them, or 80 percent, have made at least one Final Four. During this time 28 programs have made the Final Four at least once. NINE Maryland – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 EIGHT North Carolina – 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 SEVEN Creighton – 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012 UCLA – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 SIX Connecticut – 2000, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013 Indiana – 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2012 FIVE Virginia – 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013 FOUR Southern Methodist, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010 Wake Forest – 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 THREE Akron – 2005, 2009, 2010 California – 2005, 2010, 2013 Clemson – 2001, 2002, 2005 Louisville – 2010, 2011, 2012 Notre Dame – 2006, 2007, 2013 St. John’s – 2001, 2003, 2008 Stanford – 2000, 2001, 2002 TWO Duke – 2004, 2006 Michigan – 2003, 2010 New Mexico – 2005, 2013 Northwestern – 2006, 2008 Saint Louis – 2001, 2003 Santa Clara – 2003, 2006 South Florida – 2008, 2011 Tulsa – 2004, 2009 UC Santa Barbara – 2004, 2006 ONE Boston College - 2002 Bradley - 2007 Brown - 2000 Charlotte, 2011 Drake - 2009 Fairleigh Dickinson - 2001 Georgetown - 2012 Illinois-Chicago – 2007 Massachusetts - 2007 Michigan State - 2013 Ohio State - 2007 Penn State - 2002 Saint Mary’s - 2011 San Diego - 2012 Virginia Commonwealth - 2004 Virginia Tech - 2007 Washington - 2013 BTW, I find it ironic that many who criticize Jorge Salcedo for underachieving at UCLA when he's done more in a shorter time in terms of QF and FF appearances than Grimes has at Cal and yet Grimes is given a pass. Yes, UCLA has tradition and Salcedo inherited a national power while Grimes built Cal into one - for which I must be clear I give him full credit - but both programs offer great academics, a nice campus, awesome weather and have a great recruiting base with reasonable (in-state) tuition.
Probably because UCLA somehow are believed to be the top team in the region are expected to win year in and year out getting all the top major recruits from around the state and entire country. I mean how many national team players have they had historically? Just off the top of my head... Bocanegra, Caligiuri , Feilhaber, Bornstein, Conrad, Ervine, Freidel, Hejduk, Henderson, Hooker, Jones, Krumpe, Max-Moore, Razov and Vanole......
I see it as a mistake to treat the two as equals. UCLA gets the pick of the litter and probably always will. Cal is a much more modest program, almost entirely in-state kids, and it punches above its weight. Incidentally, UC tuitions are now as high as most top public universities, and residential costs are very high, as well. A friend of mine has one child at Stanford and another at a UC, and she actually pays less for the one at Stanford because of the financial aid they offer. http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2012/07/18/csu-and-uc-tuition-hikes-over-time/
I'm not sure but I think UC schools have some type of stipulation about enrolling out of state students. I remember a friend of mine in the 80's saying something about it when he went to Berkeley. I'm pretty certain student athletes have it a little easier but I heard something similar when it comes to handing out scholarships.
If you are hiring a coach do you consider if they won a championship? Sure? But is that anywhere close to the top of the list, no way. The tournament selection is a joke. Cal got more guys drafted in the first two rounds than many conferences have had in the entire history of the draft. The prior year, the NCAA selection committee didn't deem Cal good enough to make the tournament. Didn't think Stanford was good enough either despite having Adam Jahn being one of the most productive first year players in MLS and Gunn having at least two other MLS players in Kovar and Koval, plus Hunter Gorskie who started for the Cosmos as well as Dersu Abalfethi who was the #1 recruit in the country and is possibly trying to make it somewhere around the globe and whose who else they might have. Yet with all those pros Gunn couldn't even get Stanford into the tournament, let alone the final 4. Meanwhile his successor has made the tournament the past two years. How many professionals has Charlotte sent to MLS? How does that reconcile with your theories? Meanwhile when Gunn and Grimes couldn't even make it into the tournament UNC had to play home games against mighty UMBC and Farleigh Dickenson and then all they had to do is win a home game against the 16th seed to make it into the final four but they choked. Meanwhile Maryland, the other ACC with a shot to make it to the final 4 had to beat the Brown and Coastal Carolina before playing a home game against 10 seeded Louisville. So beating a couple of cupcakes an winning a home game makes you a great coach? Meanwhile really good teams out West can't even get into the tournament and when they do they are matched up against other very good teams. If they manage to survive they get to travel a couple of time zones east which as anyone who has traveled knows is much harder than going west. I completely respect your knowledge about college soccer but you have big time blinders here.
Teams don't have equal chances to make the tournament that is also a fact. You can choose to believe that coaches in the West with all their professional talent is underachieving - and to some extent they might very well be. But the more rational and obvious explanation is that the tournament selection and seeding process is very flawed.
That is because UCLA is completely loaded with talent. Also as the top seed in the West his teams are somewhat buffered by the seeding bias. But in fairness recruiting is part of the coaching definition in college and by that measure Grimes is not very strong. How Salcedo gets all these top players to come to UCLA and rot away on the bench is impressive. While Cal and UCLA are somewhat similar, I'd say you also have to look the athletic dept., facilities and money available, not to mention tradition. It is not like Cal's football or basketball teams are the top of the Pac-12. While Northern California has much nicer weather than most places in the country it doesn't have the beaches that LA does.
Yep. Depending on family financial status now days it can be cheaper for a California kid to go to Stanford or the Ivies than to UC because of financial aid packages.
In state tuition to UCLA is estimated at $32K and out of state is estimated at $55K which is within a few thousand dollars of private schools like Stanford. From everything I've read, California HS students are having a tougher get into UC colleges because they (as are non-California schools) are reserving more and more slots for out of state students that bring in more revenue. So if Cal soccer isn't all that well funded, it could explain why Grimes depends so much in state players.
One thing I see Grimes doing as opposed to Tim Vom Steeg from UCSB, he doesn't get ringers from abroad. Looking at their roster, only GK Justin Taillole is from Arizona, the rest are all from Northern or Southern California. http://www.calbears.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=30100&SPID=126511&SPSID=749414
Nice to see an Italian (Ugo Rebecchini) signing with the Bears.... Bears Announce Seven in 2014 Signing Class
Jurgen Klinsmann's son committed to Cal. Goalkeeper. I can't help but think that reflects positively on the program (although all I know about the kid comes from the top drawer soccer article). http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/jurgen-klinsmanns-son-makes-commitment_aid32510
Henry Foulk, Cal's friar-coiffed GK coach, has filled in as USNT GK coach on occasion so obviously the elder Klinsmann holds him in high regard.
Cal Adds Forward Paul Salcedo to 2014 Class Bears bolster recruiting class with addition of Salcedo, and currently stands at eight
US U20 Trevor Haberkorn must be nearing a decision on where to transfer: Trevor Haberkorn @THaberkorn7 Apr 4 In Cali Time to see what Cal Berkeley is all about Trevor Haberkorn @THaberkorn7 Apr 6 I'll see you later Cal Berkeley. It was super real
After losing Birnbaum and Dean they certainly have an obvious need for a starter at central defense. Would seem like a good fit. Also, I'm guessing if we looked for it we could find a connection between Kevin Grimes, who went to college in Dallas, and Haberkorn's youth coaches in his hometown of... Dallas.
Fwiw, Grimes was also an assistant at SMU for a few years, so you're right that connections are likely to exist. Even so, I don't believe that he's ever had a single Texan at Cal. (His rosters have been almost entirely in-state.)