Let's hope that we have a solid core for the future here.

Great news,!

Would it be too much to ask that you be more specific?
Did we get a commitment from someone named Demetrios?

Dimitrios Klonaras is the second foreign-born player to commit to Cal since coach Mark Fox was hired

Dimitrios Klonaras, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Salonika, Greece, announced via Twitter that he has committed to play for Cal next season.
"Excited to be part of the University of California, Berkeley," Klonaras said. "Looking forward to learning from @coachmarkfox and being part of a new era of @CalMBBall. Cal is my family now."

Klonaras, 18, announced his plans to come to Cal just days after 6-9 forward Kuany Kuany, both in South Sudan and raised primarily in Australia, gave new coach Mark Fox a commitment.
Klonaras, who visited the Berkeley campus a week ago, chose Cal over Hawaii and Loyola Marymount, according to Verbal Commits.
He is rated a two-star recruit, but since he is from Greece not much is known about him. Most of the recruiting websites don't include him in their ratings.
Here is a video scouting report assembled in 2018.
In 2017, playing in the FIBA U16 European Championships, Klonaras averaged 13.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.4 steals to help Greece win the B Division title.
In an interview after a game in the FIBA U16 event, Klonaras described himself as "an all-around player . . . I can do many things."
In that same interview, nearly two years ago, Klonaras was asked about his basketball ambitions after high school. "I hope to play in Greece or outside or even in America," he said.
He is a big NBA fan, explaining that he had the NBA League Pass and would often stay up to watch games at 2 or 3 a.m.
Klonaras said his two favorite NBA players are Giannis Antetokounmpo, the greatest player ever to come out Greece, and James Harden.

Cal has four incoming freshman, also including point guard Joel Brown and forward D.J. Thorpe. The Bears now project to have at least 10 scholarship players.

concordtom said:

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Before watching the video I was expecting the worst

But dude has some promise. Could develop into a good player.

Excellent news - good height, well-spoken, versatile skills. It will take hard work on his behalf to break into the lineup. I look forward. . .

Nice late add. Good international experience. Comes from a good club team (PAOK). Can play either 2 or 3. Highlights show a crafty game with a workable shooting stroke.

They still teach basketball fundamentals abroad.

Nice looking player. Welcome! The captions in the highlight video are helpful. Otherwise I wouldn't have known that it takes him but two seconds to cover certain distances because long strides can cover more ground.

In case you were wondering:

https://www.greek-names.info/dimitris/

"Dimitris is a very common Greek male name, deriving from name Dimitrios, the Greek version of the name Demetrius. Dimitrios is a name that comes from the female name Demeter (Goddess Dimitra is the most known since the antiquity). Demeter derives from the Greek words Gi (Gaia) and Mitra (Mother). The name Dimitrios or Dimitris refers to the one born from mother earth."

"Stubborn and quite demanding, Dimitris is not an easy person to live with, because he cannot be easily satisfied. He is a good friend though and loves hanging out with friends, but he can easily be influenced by others."

Perfect. And this Dimitris plays a wicked game of hoops!

concordtom said:

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Dimitrios Klonaras is the second foreign-born player to commit to Cal since coach Mark Fox was hired

Dimitrios Klonaras, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Salonika, Greece, announced via Twitter that he has committed to play for Cal next season.
"Excited to be part of the University of California, Berkeley," Klonaras said. "Looking forward to learning from @coachmarkfox and being part of a new era of @CalMBBall. Cal is my family now."

Klonaras, 18, announced his plans to come to Cal just days after 6-9 forward Kuany Kuany, both in South Sudan and raised primarily in Australia, gave new coach Mark Fox a commitment.
Klonaras, who visited the Berkeley campus a week ago, chose Cal over Hawaii and Loyola Marymount, according to Verbal Commits.
He is rated a two-star recruit, but since he is from Greece not much is known about him. Most of the recruiting websites don't include him in their ratings.
Here is a video scouting report assembled in 2018.
In 2017, playing in the FIBA U16 European Championships, Klonaras averaged 13.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.4 steals to help Greece win the B Division title.
In an interview after a game in the FIBA U16 event, Klonaras described himself as "an all-around player . . . I can do many things."
In that same interview, nearly two years ago, Klonaras was asked about his basketball ambitions after high school. "I hope to play in Greece or outside or even in America," he said.
He is a big NBA fan, explaining that he had the NBA League Pass and would often stay up to watch games at 2 or 3 a.m.
Klonaras said his two favorite NBA players are Giannis Antetokounmpo, the greatest player ever to come out Greece, and James Harden.

Cal has four incoming freshman, also including point guard Joel Brown and forward D.J. Thorpe. The Bears now project to have at least 10 scholarship players.

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Thanks for all the info. The video shows pretty good fundamentals in most areas. He does not seem to have a right hand, other than using it for a couple of shovel passes. He needs to work on his handle, his right hand, and he looks at the ball too often when he is dribbling, especially in that last dribble before he shoots. He needs to learn to finish with his right hand as well. These things are probably all fixable. He looks like an actual combo guard, with good court vision and passing skill, plus he looks good shooting the ball. He will be the latest in a line of left handers, following McNeil and Sueing.

Looks like he can play
Athletic, good shooting form with a high arc
Great size for a 2 and maybe can play some 3
Certainly good for depth and may surprise as a freshman

I expect him to be a solid player by his sophomore or junior year, hopefully earlier

I'm assuming this will be a trend in Cal recruiting as well as for many other colleges.

Finally.

wifeisafurd said:

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I'm assuming this will be a trend in Cal recruiting as well as for many other colleges.

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I think several programs already recruit internationally, most notably Gonzaga. Just because we landed a guy doesn't mean this type of recruiting has not been done yet. Recruiting internationally is harder without the proper connections, though. Harriman being on staff probably helps.

wifeisafurd said:

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I'm assuming this will be a trend in Cal recruiting as well as for many other colleges.

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I love it. Cal should be a great destination for international players and it's about time we're on it. FWIW our women's team has had international players through the years and a few, most notably Milica Vukadinovic, have been stars.

Hope he is better than Kenesivich

Why were he and Kuany unsigned so late in the recruiting process? I mean HS seniors are graduating this month.

What do you think?

GBear4Life said:

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Why were he and Kuany unsigned so late in the recruiting process? I mean HS seniors are graduating this month.

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There are probably circumstances unique to them that made them sign late. Both of them are international prospects, who usually tend to sign later than American prospects.

Kuany played his junior year at a prep school in Florida and got offers in the Spring of 2018 from schools like Florida State, Georgia, Kansas State, among others and it seems like he kind of fell off the radar after that and then resurfaced at Prolific Prep in Napa for his senior year.

With Klonaras, I'm not sure. My guess is that he decided somewhat recently that he wanted to give NCAA hoops a try instead of turning professional. He had been playing for PAOK's (well-known club team in Greece) developmental amateur teams for a few years. Klonaras visited UNLV, Hawaii (John Monty is an assistant there) and some other schools along with Cal.

Klonaras appears to be a decent player. He's a 6-5 or 6-6 southpaw shooting guard. He possesses good range on his three point shots. Only question might be his foot speed for Div I college ball. Can he play defense in the Pac 12? GO BEARS!

These late additions for 2019 are a nice surprise and give me a *little* more optimism re. Fox. He seems to be hitting the ground running.

Anyone else a possibility or is this our 2019-20 Cal MBB team?

I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

parentswerebears said:

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I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

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He can still do that with a grad transfer. I hope we can still get one that is a good fit for us.

In terms of the quality of recruits landed by a coach in his first recruiting class, and excluding the recruits who were already committed to the previous coach, Fox is doing pretty well, if the video clips can be believed at all. Both Demetrios and Kuany look like basketball players, at least. Jones landed McNeill, Winston, and McCullough on his own in year one. Cuonzo signed Okoroh and Chauca. Montgomery signed Jorge. Braun got no one in his first year that I remember, as he had no scholarships available, I believe. He did bring in some transfers to sit out that first year, as I remember.

SFCityBear said:

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In terms of the quality of recruits landed by a coach in his first recruiting class, and excluding the recruits who were already committed to the previous coach, Fox is doing pretty well, if the video clips can be believed at all. Both Demetrios and Kuany look like basketball players, at least. Jones landed McNeill, Winston, and McCullough on his own in year one. Cuonzo signed Okoroh and Chauca. Montgomery signed Jorge. Braun got no one in his first year that I remember, as he had no scholarships available, I believe. He did bring in some transfers to sit out that first year, as I remember.

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Maybe things are moving in the right direction. According to this post, Coach Fox is doing better in the first year recruiting than Coaches Jones, Martin, Montgomery and Braun. Let us hope.

Go Bears!

parentswerebears said:

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I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

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If possible, we should fill all the remaining scholarship slots with grad transfers unless a Pac-12 quality Freshman or transfer (e.g. J. Brown from Nevada) comes our way. Grad transfers are low risk and better than keeping an scholarship open because they will be gone and scholarship will be available for the 2020 recruiting class.

Go Bears!

parentswerebears said:

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I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

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I'm sure part of that strategy is also due to the fact that the uncommitted pool left is very small and low on talent, whereas next year, with a full recruiting season and one year of results in the books, Fox will get better players with them.

calbear80 said:

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parentswerebears said:

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I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

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If possible, we should fill all the remaining scholarship slots with grad transfers unless a Pac-12 quality Freshman or transfer (e.g. J. Brown from Nevada) comes our way. Grad transfers are low risk and better than keeping an scholarship open because they will be gone and scholarship will be available for the 2020 recruiting class.

Go Bears!

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I have a hard time believing he hasn't explored the grad transfer market thoroughly.

calbear80 said:

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SFCityBear said:

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In terms of the quality of recruits landed by a coach in his first recruiting class, and excluding the recruits who were already committed to the previous coach, Fox is doing pretty well, if the video clips can be believed at all. Both Demetrios and Kuany look like basketball players, at least. Jones landed McNeill, Winston, and McCullough on his own in year one. Cuonzo signed Okoroh and Chauca. Montgomery signed Jorge. Braun got no one in his first year that I remember, as he had no scholarships available, I believe. He did bring in some transfers to sit out that first year, as I remember.

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Maybe things are moving in the right direction. According to this post, Coach Fox is doing better in the first year recruiting than Coaches Jones, Martin, Montgomery and Braun. Let us hope.

Go Bears!

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We really don't have any idea whether Kuany and Demetrios are better than the players which Jones, Martin, Montgomery, and Braun signed in their first years as Cal coaches. I wrote that they "look like basketball players." They look promising, and that is all I will say about them. If either one does as well at Cal as Okoroh or McNeill, that would be acceptable. If either one does half as well at Cal as Jorge did, then I will be very happy with them and Fox for signing them. Let's wait and see how they do over the next few years.

GBear4Life said:

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calbear80 said:

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parentswerebears said:

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I don't know much, but I know that Fox said something about reserving scholarships for 20 in order to balance classes.

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If possible, we should fill all the remaining scholarship slots with grad transfers unless a Pac-12 quality Freshman or transfer (e.g. J. Brown from Nevada) comes our way. Grad transfers are low risk and better than keeping an scholarship open because they will be gone and scholarship will be available for the 2020 recruiting class.

Go Bears!

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I have a hard time believing he hasn't explored the grad transfer market thoroughly.

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There's no way we could fill the remaining slots with grad transfers. We'll be lucky to find one who is good enough, can get into a program, and wants to.

That said, there is this.

Kareem Smith Potential GT

Intuit said:

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Kareem Smith Potential GT

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A. What Grad program?
B. This was the first of three visits.
C. Seriously, what grad program and could he even get admitted?

Why is he transfering?