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I'd say for the most part, Cal basketball fans are pretty happy with Cuonzo Martin. He recruited Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown to Cal. He brought Cal an undefeated season at home. He has Cal on the verge of their best tournament seeding in over a decade, and the future of the Bears looks very bright.
So naturally, he isn't under a signed contract.
Athletic director Mike Williams admitted on Friday (for god knows what reason) that Martin is signed only to an offer sheet. Lord knows why it's taken two years to get an actual contract put together.
"We had a number of changes, right?," Williams said. "We had the period of time where I was interim, then we started working on getting these things done. We just got Sonny's contract signed. We're making progress on these things."
TWO YEARS?
And then Williams said a bunch of other things that he probably shouldn't have said.
"I think it probably goes a little bit with the territory," Williams said. "We love Cuonzo. We want to make sure we put him in a position to succeed at Cal.
"I enjoy working with him. He started two weeks before I did so I can't take credit for the hire. I feel like we've been on this journey every step of the way together.
"I certainly enjoy having him here. And I hope he likes and really appreciates what it is he's doing at Cal."
Sheesh. Just say Cuonzo will be our head coach going forward and move forward. This nonspeak is ridiculous.
I'd expect a few Division 1 schools to throw offers at Martin at the end of the season now, and Cal might have to fight to match and raise Martin's salary. This would be the second big contract situation that Cal would have to endure within the last four months, and this one was probably totally unnecessary.
Martin's initial contract is a five year deal and Jeff Faraudo reports Martin currently earns $1.188 million a year.
Again. Why has this taken two years???