You’re the AD. Your first phone call is to any Cal Basketball related player/coach to ask for advice. Who do you call?

Vincent Shue: Monty.

Alex Ghenis: I’ll echo [Vincent/Vincent’s handle] and say Monty.

thedozen: Leon Powe, because I watched that guy play even during his Oakland Tech days and he always gave everything out on the court.

Reef: Sean Marks and this isn’t close. He has easily the most basketball acumen of anyone alive who has ever been associated with Cal basketball. There isn’t a second place. Call him and then call him again and then keep him on the line for the entire search.

KWBears: Mike Montgomery. In my opinion, he took Cal to the heights that we can realistically hope for our team. Let’s pick his brain on what worked for him, and what didn’t. He’s the last coach to have real success for us. We’re just not going to get the big, splashy recruits. He need the Ryan Anderson types to come in, learn the game, get mentored, and develop over multiple years.

Avinash Kunnath: Agree with Reef. Marks is the first person you call and Cal was foolish to keep him out of the loop during the last coaching search. Would also connect with Shareef Abdur Rahim, the president of the G League--not as accomplished as Marks, but still pretty established in the basketball world. I don’t think Monty would be very useful because he’d just tell them to go after Decuire again, and he’s already on the short list.

Nik Jam: TwistNHook

Joshua.Morgan: I know this is cheating a bit, but I would call everyone that I could. Marks, Abdur Rahim, Monty, Theo Robertson, Jerome Randle... even Justin Wilcox for crying out loud. But my very first call would be to call a team meeting and find out what they players want. They were the main reason Wyking got fired, and that sort of courage in getting their own leader fired means that they are more than deserving in having input for who our next coach will be. Obviously they won’t be the biggest help in naming specific candidates, but they need to tell us exactly where Wyking went wrong and exactly where our next coach can make it right.

atomsareenough: On the one hand, I get why everyone’s instinct is to “call Monty” to pick his brain, and he’s certainly a respected basketball mind who has a history with the program, but don’t we pretty much know what he thinks? He’d almost certainly recommend DeCuire and/or Turner, wouldn’t he? Do you think he’s going to come up with some different approach or set of considerations that we wouldn’t have in mind already? I’m not against talking to him, but I don’t think he should be the first person or main person we should consult in our search. I do think Joshua’s right and we should talk to as many people as we can, and I like the idea of reaching out to guys like Marks and Shareef and Theo, who are working in professional basketball and don’t seem intrinsically affiliated with any particular candidate. Maybe talk to Richard Midgley, isn’t he a scout for the Hawks?

Rob Hwang: You call Sean Marks, Leon Powe and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. All three work in the front office, all three have ties to the school and all three are well respected in their circles. Leon gives you the in on recent players turned coaches, Shareef gives you under the radar coaches and assistants along with AAU connects, Sean gets you everything, since his job is the same as the AD when it comes to finding a HC.