Free falling in the post-Anigwe, post-Gottlieb world
What happened last year?
The final year of Kristine Anigwe’s college career was a decent one for the Golden Bears. They finished 20-13 against a tough schedule. They were 9-9 in a top conference. They went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And they got to watch perhaps the greatest player in Cal history set one record after another.
Key losses
Unfortunately for the Bears, those days are over. Everyone knew Anigwe, fellow senior Asha Thomas, and grad transfer Receé Caldwell were playing their last season. What wasn’t expected was the mass exodus out of Berkeley that has occurred since the end of the season.
Cal has lost five of their top six scorers, four of their top six rebounders, four of their five starters, and their head coach since we last saw them losing to Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Former head coach Lindsay Gottlieb was hired as an assistant coach by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Anigwe was drafted by the Connecticut Sun before being traded to the Dallas Wings. Caldwell spent training camp with the Seattle Storm. Thomas has graduated.
But that wasn’t what really left the cupboards bare for new coach Charmin Smith. She also lost two former McDonald’s All-Americans. Kianna Smith, who started all 33 of the team’s games as a sophomore, transferred to Louisville. McKenzie Forbes, who averaged 17.0 minutes per game as a freshman, has gone to Harvard.
What does this mean? Well, Anigwe was responsible for 31 percent of Cal’s scoring and 41.5 percent of the team’s rebounding. That loss is tough enough to withstand on its own. With all of the personnel losses, though, the Golden Bears have lost 81 percent of last year’s scoring and 67.5 percent of last year’s rebounding.
Key returners
Jaelyn Brown is the only returning starter for the Golden Bears. The senior started 32 of 33 games last season, and she ranked fifth on the team with 7.9 ppg. Brown also accounted for 4.1 rpg, which was second on the team behind Anigwe’s 16.2 rpg.
The team also returns senior center CJ West, who appeared in 29 games for Cal last year including one start. West was third on the team with 3.5 rpg and seventh in scoring with 4.3 ppg.
Key additions
The bleeding didn’t stop with the loss of existing personnel. In November of 2018, Cal signed two players for the 2019 class, Cailyn Crocker and Lauren Fields. Fields would eventually decommit after Gottlieb left, ending up at Oklahoma State in her home state.
Smith and her staff were able to recover, adding three more players to the class late in the game. Crocker joins Leilani McIntosh, Jazlen Green, and Evelien Lutje Schipholt. While the class consists primarily of solid three-star talent, they are unlikely to dramatically change Cal’s fortunes for the better considering the level of competition they are about to face.
Outlook for 2019-20
There’s no way to sugarcoat the situation at California. The program has lost a generational talent, almost all of the roleplayers, and all of the high-level underclassmen who were in the program. They were not able to bring in similar talent through recruiting. How long it takes this program to recover will depend almost entirely on how well the staff recruits going forward.
Smith’s former head coach, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, has confidence in her, but knows it will be daunting.
“You know, when I think about being the head coach for the first time at Cal, to me that’s very intimidating,” VanDerveer said. “I mean, I was a head coach at Idaho, but she’s right in that spotlight, and I hope that she knows that I’ll always be a mentor for her, and as long as they come
in second, I’m cheering for them. But she’ll do a great job, and I’m really excited for her.”
This season, Smith and her team will be trying to hold off last place…