Greetings from Haas Pavilion –

I would like to begin this month's newsletter by addressing the status of our men's basketball program. As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, I made the difficult decision last week to part ways with head coach Mark Fox. This was not a decision I took lightly – I have the utmost respect for Mark as a coach and person, and I wish him and his family the best of luck in the future. We are always evaluating all of our teams and every facet of our department, and after deliberately and thoroughly examining our men's basketball program, I felt it was necessary to make a change.

We have begun the process of searching for a new coach, and I am excited to see where this next chapter takes us. I have been soliciting input from a variety of our stakeholders to help us pinpoint exactly what we are looking for in the next leader of our men's basketball program, and I am confident we will find a new coach with the qualities to bring our team back where it belongs – consistently contending for postseason appearances while excelling in the classroom and engaging with our community. This will be a new day for Cal men's basketball!

Last week in Las Vegas, I had the thrill of attending a 30-year reunion of our 1992-93 men's basketball team that advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, including its iconic upset of Duke in the second round. It was such a treat to engage with so many of our basketball legends – Lamond Murray, Monty Buckley, Al Grigsby, and so many more – to celebrate the occasion and discuss the future of our program. I look forward to continuing to get input and feedback from a variety of people that have made an impact on our men's basketball program as we build toward the future!

It was exciting to see our football team begin spring practice last week. Spring is the time that our coaches really get to focus on what they do best – teaching. The team will have a total of 15 spring sessions, culminating with our Spring Showcase on April 15. Coach Wilcox has put together a superb team of coaches to support our student-athletes, and we are all excited to see our Bears continue their prep for next fall. Stay tuned for information about all of the special festivities we will have surrounding the Spring Showcase, which will also be televised by the Pac-12 Network.

I want to offer hearty congratulations to Dr. Luella Lilly, the former women's athletic director at Cal who was inducted into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor earlier this month during the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas. Dr. Lilly was Cal's women's athletic director from 1976-1992 before the men's and women's departments merged, and worked tirelessly to secure resources for our female student-athletes. The Pac-12 ushered in a strictly female class for the Hall of Honor this year in recognition of the 50^th anniversary of Title IX.

We continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX ourselves on campus. Recently, our men's basketball program recognized the anniversary by honoring track and field star Camryn Rogers before a home game against Washington while the rugby program recognized members of our lacrosse program before a game against Utah.

We continue to hone in on a new media rights deal for the Pac-12. Chancellor Christ and the other Pac-12 CEOs are carefully evaluating options and we should have an important deal soon that will allow the Pac-12 the ability to continue to thrive.

Our women's basketball team's season came to a close at the Pac-12 Tournament with a tough loss to Washington State. Before that game, sophomore Jayda Curry extended her streak of consecutive regular-season games with at least one 3-pointer to 51. That's the longest streak in the Pac-12 dating back to at least the 1999-00 season (no statistical data is available before that). Coach Smith's program continues to make strides, and we continue to support the program on its upward trajectory.

What a weekend that just passed for our women's gymnastics team. Not only did we clinch a share of the Pac-12 championship for the second consecutive season, we broke several records in the process! On Friday against Stanford, Ohio State and Utah State, we set a program scoring record with a 198.100, only to break the record again on Sunday against Arizona, Sac State and UC Davis with a 198.275! We also set a team record on the balance beam in both meets, and sophomore Mya Lauzon recorded the first perfect 10 on the beam in school history! That followed up the first perfect 10 ever at Cal in the floor exercise by freshman eMjae Frazier earlier in the month!

Our women's swimming & diving team competes at the NCAA Championships this week in Knoxville, Tenn., and the following week our men's team will do the same in Minneapolis. The women's squad finished third at the recent Pac-12 Championships and the men placed second. Between the two teams, our Bears captured 11 Pac-12 individual or relay titles!

I want to take a moment to share my sincere gratitude to all those who supported our 850+ student-athletes by making a gift during this year's Big Give. Together we were able to raise more than $2.5 million dollars from more than 900 donors, marking one of our most successful Big Gives to date. It is amazing what can happen when the Cal community comes together in support of our programs. Congratulations to men's rowing, women's rowing, and lacrosse for having the highest total Big Give participation numbers. Thank you!

I also want to give a BIG thank you to our generous supporters Gary and Donna Freedman, Cyrus and Michele Hadidi, Joshua Landau, Brandon McCormick, The Cusano Family, and others who provided matching gifts to help ensure Big Give was a success. Philanthropic support is critical to our mission, and we could not have reached this milestone without their generosity. If you missed Big Give, but would still like to make a gift, you can do so here. 

We all know that NIL is creating a rapidly evolving landscape within college athletics. We are about two years into this new era, where student-athletes can be compensated for their name, image, and likeness. We are very appreciative of a group of loyal alums who, in partnership with Beast Mode, created the California Legends Collective - an organization dedicated to providing all 850 Cal student-athletes with NIL opportunities. You can learn more about making an impact by clicking here. No matter how you choose to support Cal Athletics, it is meaningful and incredibly impactful and I am inspired by the generosity of our Cal family every day. 

Thank you again for all you do. There are lots of exciting sporting events over the next three months - come out and cheer on our Bears! We currently have eight of our teams ranked nationally in the top-10, and many trending toward postseason berths. It should be an exciting spring! 

All the best. Go Bears!



Jim