Culture isn’t something you can just put on a t-shirt; it’s what happens every single day in the practice facility. Since taking over the head coaching role for the California Golden Bears, my primary focus has been establishing a foundation built on trust, relentless effort, and mutual respect.
In our program, we define success not just by the scoreboard, but by how we respond to adversity. I’m incredibly proud of the young men in our locker room who have bought into this vision, sacrificing individual accolades for the betterment of the team.
The transition into the new alignment of college basketball has brought unprecedented challenges. Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal have changed the landscape. But the core tenets of building a program remain exactly the same. You still have to look a young man in the eye and tell him the truth. You still have to demand defensive intensity.
At Cal, we rely heavily on our veteran leadership to set the tone during film sessions and weight room hours. When a freshman walks onto campus in Berkeley, he isn’t looking at me to figure out how to act—he’s looking at our seniors. The culture lives and breathes through the players, not the coaching staff. Our job is simply to provide the guardrails and the vision.
