Its very Important -

Cal needs to eliminatie the talent discrepancy that exists compared to the Pac 12's top tier.

Keeping pace is not going to provide Cuonzo and staff satisfaction or job security.

With only a couple of months remaining prior to the early signing period the following top 100 2015 preps have already committed to Cal's Pac 12 rivals. These schools will add more top ranked talent over the next couple of months.

The Cal staff has their work cut out for them.

Arizona

Alonzo Trier 6'5" Shooting Guard Overall Rank # 22 4.7 stars
Justin Simon 6'5" Combo Guard Overall Rank #25 4.7 stars
Ray Smith 6'8 Small Forward Overall Rank # 32 4.7 stars

UCLA

Aaron Holiday 6'2" Point Guard Overall Rank #40 4 stars
Prince Ali 6'4" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #81 4 stars

USC

Chiemezie Metu 6'9" Small Forward Overall Ranke #51 4 stars
Bennie Boatwright 6'9" Power Forward Overall Rank #57 4 stars

Stanford

Cameron Walker 6'7" Small Forward Overall Rank 72 3.7 stars
Marcus Sheffield 6'5" Small Forward Overall Rank 83 4 stars

Washington

David Crisp 6'1" Point Guard Overall Rank NR 3.5 stars
Dejounte Murray 6'5" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #64 4 stars
Marquess Chriss 6'9" Power Forward Overall Rank #75 4 stars

Oregon

Kendal Small 6'0" Point Guard Overall Rank 73 4 stars

Oregon State
probable - coach's sons

Stephen Thompson Jr 6'4" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #67 4 stars
Tres Tinkle 6'7" Small Forward Overall Rank 126 3.7 stars

We must remind ourselves that the early signing period has yet to arrive, we are still on the lists of some very good players, and that our main target isn't planning on signing until the spring. We could very well be right there when it comes to a list of 4 and 5 star players in the conference.

I know I am probably one of the most bipolar fans on this site about our recruiting prospects, but today I am hopefully optimistic. I am however ridiculously optimistic about 2016.

Vineyardview;842343721 said:

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Its very Important -

Cal needs to eliminatie the talent discrepancy that exists compared to the Pac 12's top tier.

Keeping pace is not going to provide Cuonzo and staff satisfaction or job security.

With only a couple of months remaining prior to the early signing period the following top 100 2015 preps have already committed to Cal's Pac 12 rivals. These schools will add more top ranked talent over the next couple of months.

The Cal staff has their work cut out for them.

Arizona

Alonzo Trier 6'5" Shooting Guard Overall Rank # 22 4.7 stars
Justin Simon 6'5" Combo Guard Overall Rank #25 4.7 stars
Ray Smith 6'8 Small Forward Overall Rank # 32 4.7 stars

UCLA

Aaron Holiday 6'2" Point Guard Overall Rank #40 4 stars
Prince Ali 6'4" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #81 4 stars

USC

Chiemezie Metu 6'9" Small Forward Overall Ranke #51 4 stars
Bennie Boatwright 6'9" Power Forward Overall Rank #57 4 stars

Stanford

Cameron Walker 6'7" Small Forward Overall Rank 72 3.7 stars
Marcus Sheffield 6'5" Small Forward Overall Rank 83 4 stars

Washington

David Crisp 6'1" Point Guard Overall Rank NR 3.5 stars
Dejounte Murray 6'5" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #64 4 stars
Marquess Chriss 6'9" Power Forward Overall Rank #75 4 stars

Oregon

Kendal Small 6'0" Point Guard Overall Rank 73 4 stars

Oregon State
probable - coach's sons

Stephen Thompson Jr 6'4" Shooting Guard Overall Rank #67 4 stars
Tres Tinkle 6'7" Small Forward Overall Rank 126 3.7 stars

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Oregon just added 4 star Dillon Brooks who is reclassifying to 2014.

Our problem in recruiting, as it has been for 10+ years, has been landing highly rated bigs. The last one was Leon Powe in 2003.

According to your list, the other schools in the PAC12 have not been very successful at landing highly rated bigs for 2015 either. Out of the 15 recruits you listed, no school landed a center, and only two, USC with Bennie Boatright, and Washington with Marquess Chriss have landed a power forward.

Hot shot high school guards and wings are a dime a dozen. It is good BIGS which are the foundation for long term success in college basketball.

SFCityBear;842343883 said:

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Our problem in recruiting, as it has been for 10+ years, has been landing highly rated bigs. The last one was Leon Powe in 2003.

According to your list, the other schools in the PAC12 have not been very successful at landing highly rated bigs for 2015 either. Out of the 15 recruits you listed, no school landed a center, and only two, USC with Bennie Boatright, and Washington with Marquess Chriss have landed a power forward.

Hot shot high school guards and wings are a dime a dozen. It is good BIGS which are the foundation for long term success in college basketball.

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Good point. There was a statistic on this board that really opened my eyes to the importance of height. IIRC it showed something like 17% of 7 footers in college played on the basekeball team whereas around 1% of 6 footers played on the team. And most of the 7 footers were not that skilled or coordinated. So a skilled big is a rarity and a highly prized commodity.

Who knows ? It could be our 7'1" freshman may be the most important big man recruit since Solomon. Also, with Rooks returning and Rabb very interested in Cal, that we may be just fine in there post. Also, in truth, UA's best recruit is an NBA ready wing named Stanley. All that said, I expect Martin to bring in more quality big men than Monty's staff did. I wish our prospects in FB looked nearly as bright as BB. Does anyone doubt that we will see the elite 8 or the Final 4 long before we participate in a any FB play-off ? Go Bears !!

cmfan64;842343906 said:

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Who knows ? It could be our 7'1" freshman may be the most important big man recruit since Solomon. Also, with Rooks returning and Rabb very interested in Cal, that we may be just fine in there post. Also, in truth, UA's best recruit is an NBA ready wing named Stanley. All that said, I expect Martin to bring in more quality big men than Monty's staff did. I wish our prospects in FB looked nearly as bright as BB. Does anyone doubt that we will see the elite 8 or the Final 4 long before we participate in a any FB play-off ? Go Bears !!

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Guys sorry to downplay one of our own, but I just don't see Rooks as more than serviceable at this point. I'm just trying to be objective. Yes he would have really helped this year, but I think everyone seems to project him for greater things. He may and I would be glad to eat crow. But I'm not seeing it this point. I have more hope in Behrens making an impact right now. For our sake, he has to this season.

The thing about bigs is that very often, they take time to develop, so you don’t have to bring in “marquee” big men out of high school. The classic example of this was Bill Russell, and the best example of this at Cal was Darrall Imhoff. Both did nothing in high school to indicate they could ever play D1 basketball. Cal has had three big men who did not have particularly distinguished careers at Cal, but did most of their developing after graduation, and went on to have long NBA careers: Francisco Elson, Sean Marks, and Yogi Stewart. To my knowledge, none were highly ranked recruits out of high school. Cal has had other big men who were not highly rated out of high school, such as Dick Doughty, Bill McClintock, Don McIntosh, and Duane Asplund, all of whom became stars at Cal. Without them, Pete Newell would not have made all those long runs in the NCAA tournament. And Bob Presley, Cal’s greatest rebounder and shot-blocker, was not a highly rated recruit to my knowledge. Richard Solomon, a 3-star recruit, took three full years to develop and then gave us one good year.

So I don’t mean to sell our group of Kravish, Behrens, Rooks, and Okoroh short. Look how much the two-star recruit, Kravish, has developed under Montgomery. It is quite possible we may see similar development from Behrens and Rooks. Maybe Okoroh is a stud already, and if not, maybe he can develop.

So I am concerned that we are “all in” for Ivan Rabb, the highly rated local recruit. There is nothing wrong with pursuing him to the max, but the highly rated bigs either turn pro after high school or after a year or two in college anyway, so why put all our eggs in that basket? I think, given the fact that Behrens and Rooks are question marks now with their injuries, it would behoove us to troll the waters for that big recruit who is lowly ranked or unranked who might be able to be developed. Ivan Rabb is one injury away from becoming a question mark himself. So take a chance on another big unranked or lowly ranked kid. Maybe he turns out to be Geoffrey Frid or maybe he turns out to be Darrall Imhoff. At least take a chance. If Kravish goes down this season, we could end up with nothing, and next season, if we don’t land Rabb, it could be the same story.

GATC;842343886 said:

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Good point. There was a statistic on this board that really opened my eyes to the importance of height. IIRC it showed something like 17% of 7 footers in college played on the basekeball team whereas around 1% of 6 footers played on the team. And most of the 7 footers were not that skilled or coordinated. So a skilled big is a rarity and a highly prized commodity.

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I'm surprised it's not higher actually. I listened to a Ted Talk recently in which they quoted a statistic that shocked me: 18% of men who are 7'0" or taller between the ages of 20 and 40 were in the NBA. Ted Talks are always 100% accurate, just like the internet, right?