With it now being May, it is time for me to provide the latest Cal hoops recruiting breakdown. This should finally be the month Jordan Brown makes a decision. I would expect a decision made within the next couple of weeks.
Given the nature of your questions, my responses should cover a comprehensive picture for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes. So, I'm going to skip the class by class breakdown to avoid redundancy.
"What's being done to facilitate the departure of McCullough and Winston. Given that they need "landing spots" for the roster restructuring to occur in totality?"-moonpod
Excellent question. Cal has contacted multiple D1 programs and gone so far as to create mixtapes for both Deschon Winston and Austin McCullough to help them gain some traction. Cal is doing all they can to find landing spots for them, but it's just a matter of getting some programs to bite. Cal hasn't forced Deschon and Austin to sign their releases or anything of that nature. Laurien Watkins has reportedly been putting that false story out there as well. Cal has simply contacted various D1 programs and alerted Austin and Deschon that they have found programs that will take them provided they ask for their release. Austin has requested his permission to contact while Deschon as of Sunday is yet to do so. For more details on what that means, click here.
"Given that several pieces need to fall into place which makes this difficult to predict, when (timeframe) do you believe Cal's remake of the roster will be complete? Just curious, not going to hold you to it."-petalumabear
I broke the story of Deschon Winston and Austin McCullough's departure way before Cal wanted it out in the open that they weren't coming back. Cal would have preferred Deschon and Austin announce they were transferring or have them as a program make a statement. But instead I caught wind of the information before all the pieces fell into place.
Contrary to what some people want to believe, this is actually fairly commonplace in college hoops. It's just not commonplace for something like this to get leaked before everything gets resolved for all parties involved. What we're getting a glimpse of is what often happens when guys get pushed out of a program because they're not good enough. My guess is had I not broken the story, we would have known in the next couple of weeks that Deschon and Austin were transferring and we would have all been like "Yeah, we know what really happened" without actually "knowing" what happened.
Anyways, I expect all of this to resolve itself within the next couple of weeks. I think Jordan Brown chooses Cal and shortly after that, Cal will add a couple of more pieces. Probably the grad transfer and it sounds like Amir Harris will be the other guy they really zero in on. It's impossible to know when exactly this will all resolve itself, but that would be my guess. By the end of May, I think Cal will have added three more players.
"Assuming everything falls into place and Cal adds Harris, Brown, and the grad transfer, what will the priorities be for the 2019 class from both a position and player perspective? We know Bassey is likely #1 on the list with Smith IV committed. Will that be it? Could ask the same for 2020." -philbert0
Charles Bassey is the top target for 2019. He's the dream get for the program. Charles Smith IV gives Cal an elite wing and Bassey would give them an elite big man. Also, if they get Jordan Brown to stay for two years, Bassey would give them an elite big man to pair with Jordan Brown in the post. As far as other possible targets are concerned, 4-star wing Majok Deng, 4-star point guard Kyle Sturdivant, and 3-star wing Quinn Slazinski (Chris Walker recruit) will likely be the biggest priorities.
Sturdivant just picked up an offer and would give Cal a quality point guard to build around for the future. As for Deng and Slazinski, both of them would give Cal another wing that can play effectively in their system. Deng visited Cal last summer and they seem to think really highly of him. As for Slazinski, he is close with Cal football commit Zach Zimos. That connection could play a huge role in his decision.
There's other guys in 2019 who Cal would love to get like Josh Green and Tyrese Maxey, but those guys both seem to be angling to go to more traditional powerhouse programs. The one wild card in this could be Onyeka Okongwu, who previously scratched Cal off his list. He's a Compton Magic guy so it's theoretically possible that the addition of David Grace will make him reevaluate Cal. If Cal could get back in the mix for Okongwu, that would be huge.
As for 2020, pretty much the entire offers list is still in play. However, there are a few who I feel Cal is going to be strong contenders for. Those guys would be Isaiah Cottrell, Nimari Burnett, Tramon Mark, Ziaire Williams, and the two Compton Magic guys just offered: Jaylen Clark and Dalen Terry.
Tim O'Toole was on Jabri Abdur-Rahim pretty hard and Jabri told me yesterday that he wasn't sure where Cal stood with him going to Pitt. Cal's still on him, but it sounds like they have some work to do to let him know that they still value him. As for Josh Christopher, Cal really likes him. The question there is how much does the whole Theo debacle sour things. Cal certainly is full steam ahead when it comes to recruiting him, so they don't seem to be too worried about that being an obstacle. I think time will heal that wound if it was ever there to begin with. Especially if Cal puts together a quality product on the floor.
As for the 2021 class, only one kid has been offered in Jerrell Colbert. He's one hell of a player though, so it's good Cal got in there early. When those rankings come out, he'll be one of the top players in the class.
Given the nature of your questions, my responses should cover a comprehensive picture for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes. So, I'm going to skip the class by class breakdown to avoid redundancy.
"What's being done to facilitate the departure of McCullough and Winston. Given that they need "landing spots" for the roster restructuring to occur in totality?"-moonpod
Excellent question. Cal has contacted multiple D1 programs and gone so far as to create mixtapes for both Deschon Winston and Austin McCullough to help them gain some traction. Cal is doing all they can to find landing spots for them, but it's just a matter of getting some programs to bite. Cal hasn't forced Deschon and Austin to sign their releases or anything of that nature. Laurien Watkins has reportedly been putting that false story out there as well. Cal has simply contacted various D1 programs and alerted Austin and Deschon that they have found programs that will take them provided they ask for their release. Austin has requested his permission to contact while Deschon as of Sunday is yet to do so. For more details on what that means, click here.
"Given that several pieces need to fall into place which makes this difficult to predict, when (timeframe) do you believe Cal's remake of the roster will be complete? Just curious, not going to hold you to it."-petalumabear
I broke the story of Deschon Winston and Austin McCullough's departure way before Cal wanted it out in the open that they weren't coming back. Cal would have preferred Deschon and Austin announce they were transferring or have them as a program make a statement. But instead I caught wind of the information before all the pieces fell into place.
Contrary to what some people want to believe, this is actually fairly commonplace in college hoops. It's just not commonplace for something like this to get leaked before everything gets resolved for all parties involved. What we're getting a glimpse of is what often happens when guys get pushed out of a program because they're not good enough. My guess is had I not broken the story, we would have known in the next couple of weeks that Deschon and Austin were transferring and we would have all been like "Yeah, we know what really happened" without actually "knowing" what happened.
Anyways, I expect all of this to resolve itself within the next couple of weeks. I think Jordan Brown chooses Cal and shortly after that, Cal will add a couple of more pieces. Probably the grad transfer and it sounds like Amir Harris will be the other guy they really zero in on. It's impossible to know when exactly this will all resolve itself, but that would be my guess. By the end of May, I think Cal will have added three more players.
"Assuming everything falls into place and Cal adds Harris, Brown, and the grad transfer, what will the priorities be for the 2019 class from both a position and player perspective? We know Bassey is likely #1 on the list with Smith IV committed. Will that be it? Could ask the same for 2020." -philbert0
Charles Bassey is the top target for 2019. He's the dream get for the program. Charles Smith IV gives Cal an elite wing and Bassey would give them an elite big man. Also, if they get Jordan Brown to stay for two years, Bassey would give them an elite big man to pair with Jordan Brown in the post. As far as other possible targets are concerned, 4-star wing Majok Deng, 4-star point guard Kyle Sturdivant, and 3-star wing Quinn Slazinski (Chris Walker recruit) will likely be the biggest priorities.
Sturdivant just picked up an offer and would give Cal a quality point guard to build around for the future. As for Deng and Slazinski, both of them would give Cal another wing that can play effectively in their system. Deng visited Cal last summer and they seem to think really highly of him. As for Slazinski, he is close with Cal football commit Zach Zimos. That connection could play a huge role in his decision.
There's other guys in 2019 who Cal would love to get like Josh Green and Tyrese Maxey, but those guys both seem to be angling to go to more traditional powerhouse programs. The one wild card in this could be Onyeka Okongwu, who previously scratched Cal off his list. He's a Compton Magic guy so it's theoretically possible that the addition of David Grace will make him reevaluate Cal. If Cal could get back in the mix for Okongwu, that would be huge.
As for 2020, pretty much the entire offers list is still in play. However, there are a few who I feel Cal is going to be strong contenders for. Those guys would be Isaiah Cottrell, Nimari Burnett, Tramon Mark, Ziaire Williams, and the two Compton Magic guys just offered: Jaylen Clark and Dalen Terry.
Tim O'Toole was on Jabri Abdur-Rahim pretty hard and Jabri told me yesterday that he wasn't sure where Cal stood with him going to Pitt. Cal's still on him, but it sounds like they have some work to do to let him know that they still value him. As for Josh Christopher, Cal really likes him. The question there is how much does the whole Theo debacle sour things. Cal certainly is full steam ahead when it comes to recruiting him, so they don't seem to be too worried about that being an obstacle. I think time will heal that wound if it was ever there to begin with. Especially if Cal puts together a quality product on the floor.
As for the 2021 class, only one kid has been offered in Jerrell Colbert. He's one hell of a player though, so it's good Cal got in there early. When those rankings come out, he'll be one of the top players in the class.
