Sancomb sees “great opportunity” at Cal
Celeste Van Kirk
California University men’s basketball coach Danny Sancomb has an 11-player recruiting class.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
California University new men’s basketball coach Danny Sancomb Thursday
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
California University president Geraldine Jones poses with new men’s basketball coach Danny Sancomb Thursday.
CALIFORNIA – It is rare that a school in search of a college basketball coach only five months before the start of the season can have the good fortune of finding the previous season’s regional coach of the year suddenly unemployed and only about 50 miles away.
So it seems that California University and Danny Sancomb are a perfect match.
Sancomb, though hired last week, was introduced as the new head men’s basketball coach at California during a news conference Thursday at the Convocation Center.
Sancomb replaces Kent McBride, who abruptly resigned less than a month ago after only two seasons.
Sancomb comes to California after 11 highly successful seasons at Wheeling Jesuit, where he was surprisingly fired last month. Sancomb compiled a 216-115 record at Wheeling Jesuit, including four straight 20-win seasons, a No. 1 ranking in the country at the NCAA Division II level and a berth in the Atlantic Regional final last season, when the Cardinals went 26-6 and he was named the regional and Mountain East Conference coach of the year.
“I see a great opportunity for California basketball,” Sancomb said. “I’ve been on the regional rankings committee and felt like this was a program that was headed in the right direction.”
Sancomb’s departure from Wheeling Jesuit was one that upset and puzzled many of its alumni and fans. All that has been said about the coach’s dismissal is that the school contacted the Mountain East Conference and the NCAA to report that information had come to its attention indicating violations of NCAA and conference rules.
Sancomb did have the support of his players at Wheeling Jesuit. Two of them attended the news conference.
California president Geraldine Jones said the school’s search committee did its job in checking Sancomb’s background and hired the right person for the job. In other words, Wheeling Jesuit’s loss is California’s gain.
“Our search committee conducted a wide-ranging search and believe it has found someone to head our men’s basketball program to a bright future,” she said. “He interviewed very well. We checked his references and everyone involved in the process is sure we hired a man of high integrity.”
California athletic director Karen Hjerpe, who was on the search committee, did not attend the news conference. In a press release, Hjerpe said, “Danny has a tremendous history of coaching success and we are fortunate to be able to have him lead our men’s basketball program. He brings incredible knowledge in fundamentals, strategy and recruiting.”
Under McBride, Cal went from 10-18 in his first season to 11-17 last year. The Vulcans had seven seniors last season. Cal transitioned to a more up-tempo offensive system that stressed three-point shooting. The Vulcans averaged 79.5 points per game.
Sancomb said he has not decided if the Vulcans will continue that style of play or switch to a grind-it-out system that Cal played under longtime coach Bill Brown.
“At Wheeling Jesuit, we won games by scoring in the 90s and we won games by scoring in the 50s,” Sancomb pointed out. “I don’t know what kind of style we’re going to play. What I know is we’re going to get better. I can’t look at a crystal ball right now and see how many wins we’re going to have. The next eight weeks are going to be important because the guys need to get to know me and I have to get to know them.”
Sancomb did make one prediction.
“We will play hard every single night,” he said firmly. “I know we can have success in the PSAC and can have success regionally. We want to have success nationally.”