Very nice post, with good stats. Agreed that two in the top 100 would be a bit of a stretch to expect, but it should be a goal. Monty actually almost did that a few years ago with Crabbe (#69) and Soloman (#109) in the same year.

I have said I love Monty’s transfers. All three (since Boykin apparently transferred during Braun’s tenure), Cobbs, Kreklow, and the JC transfer who played center a couple of years ago (I forget his name) have been and will be very useful to Cal. Perhaps them having played ball since high school makes Monty get a better sense than high school players that they will be a better fit for Cal.

In any case, I’m not a “fan” of Monty’s recruiting the last few years, but neither am I as critical as some. Cal is just a difficult place to recruit to, or guys would be flooding the program. The program had some players when he arrived, but he focused on turning that Braun team around. The entire perception needed to change, and it just takes time. I think you can argue that Cal is now consistently in the top 4 in the conference and that’s a start, HS players need to see that they compete at the top of the conference every year. I stated a few months back, 2013 is the year he needs to do something, and all he’s done is deliver Bird. Rooks, based on what some say, is a bit of a project, but I like the blood lines and maybe he’ll show up in outstanding shape, ready to go from Day 1.

Bird is a legit, top 25 player, the kind that could easily choose Kansas or Kentucky. Whatever else Monty lands is a bonus, I wouldn’t expect another talent of that caliber in the same year until Cal is a name you see consistently at the top of the NCAA rankings, and with deeper tourney runs. Cal is not (yet) a consistent top 25 program. Just some simple math tells you that if say the top 25-30 programs land even 2 top 100 guys per year, that only leaves about 40 to 50 for the next 50 teams (and Zona, Duke, Kansas and Kentucky suck up 12 to 15 in some years). Reality is that we just aren’t going to compete with Zona and UCLA for some guys, it’s teams like Furd, UW, Oregon, and others that we need to out-recruit on a consistent basis. I also think fit is a big deal to Monty, just look at the list of transfers he’s dealt with that weren’t his recruits. Further, he got burned big time by Franklin. It might be nice to add a JC player next year, given the depth issues, but the class may be full.

Wasn’t precise in my wording above as I should have been. I said that “Both of those guys were four or five star guys” in referring, collectively, to Crabbe and Bird. I think Crabbe was a four star and I knew Bird was a five star. He has to be, as he is ranked #18 in Rivals, which I mentioned in my comment. I did not mean to slight him at all, but I should have been more precise in my comment.

Both Scout and rivals have him as a 5 star. He is one player away from being a 5 star on ESPN.

Calling Jabari a 4 star is a slight to him.

I still hope that Stat Wiz Juancho (that has a certain ring to it) will come up some national rankings for recent year Cal basketball recruits. We already know that Bird is nationally ranked in one service at #18, which may be an all-time high for Cal, with the exception of Jason Kidd. Still, it would be interesting to read the recruiting rankings of past Cal greats, such as Jason Kidd, Lamond Murray, Ed Gray, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Leon Powe, as well as the recruiting ranking of Alan Crabbe (though I just looked at Rivals had him ranked nationally at #69 — see below).

I am really happy to land a good player like Rooks, who has the chance to help us immediately. But if Cal really wants to stand out, at least from a recruiting standpoint, we need to recruit at least two players a year ranked in the top 100 nationally, at least one of which is a big man.

ALLEN CRABBE
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