Cal basketball on probation

The headline is a shocker, and it definitely sounds worse than it really is. Cal basketball on probation? What has been Mike Montgomery done with our basketball program? Calm down, it’s not a big deal.

I don’t like to delve into stuff I don’t know, but the violations in themselves are not a big deal. Probation is not bad unless your program is actively cheating, and that’s when you’re really in trouble. As long as you are playing by the rules, probation shouldn’t affect recruiting. The reduced visits are a potential problem, but so are making too many phone calls. Even inadvertently breaking the rules deserves some form of punishment, and getting out of it with just probation and reduced visits isn’t so bad.

As for the violations and if our coaches are cheaters or not, I’m not too concerned. As far as I can tell, its two coaches that had been out of the recruiting business for a while using rules that weren’t quite up to date. They self reported the violations, which is the big thing for me. If they were trying to cover things up, that’d be a problem. But making an honest mistake and reporting it to the NCAA is not a huge problem.

Overall, this news shouldn’t put a damper on the season the Bears are having. Is it bad news? Yes. But it shouldn’t affect the basketball program’s current standing, and as long as Montgomery, the coaches, and the players aren’t cheating then this whole situation shouldn’t turn out to be much of a problem. Don’t freak out Cal fans; it’ll be okay.