Who knows why Cal didn’t land all 6. Maybe the kids wanted to get away from home. Maybe they were recruited by better programs. Maybe Monty said F-you we don’t want you (right…).

The lack of top 150 players from the area means Cal gets guys from lots of places. The fact that Monty watching the #1 2015 player who is actually interested in Cal should not spur the Monty hate-fest of posts. I’m sure a rebuilding year will continue to cause panic for the uninformed, but Cal’s program is in fine shape.

Rivals 2012 Top 150
Bay Area Players = 2
Brandon Ashley #23
Langston Morris Walker #139

Rivals 2013 Top 150
Bay Area Players = 4
Aaron Gordon #6
Marcus Lee #18
Jabari Bird #23
Elliot Pitts #120

Rivals 2014 Top 150
Bay Area Players = 0

And not that I’m a huge Brandon Smith fan, but he was a great player in Bay Area high school basketball. His legendary coach called him one of the best players he’s ever coached. I agree he hasn’t been impressive – but his offer sheet is better than Dunn’s, whose lack of recruitment cause some anger on this board.

Brandon Smith offers:

Schools of Interest:
School Interest Level Offer? Visit Date Signed LOI?
California Verbal Yes None
Colorado No Interest Yes None
Pacific (CA) No Interest Yes None
Portland No Interest Yes None
San Diego State No Interest Yes None
San Francisco No Interest Yes None
Santa Barbara No Interest Yes None
St. Mary’s No Interest Yes None
UC Davis No Interest Yes None
Washington State No Interest No None

Sam Singer offer sheet (why Cal went ‘so far’ to Florida)

COLLEGE CHOICES
School Interest Offer Visit Recruited by
California COMMITTED (10/02/2012) Offered 11/03/2012

Auburn None Offered None
Boston Coll. None Offered None
Boston U. None Offered None
Davidson None Offered None
Fla Gulf Coast None Offered None
Florida Intl. None Offered None
Harvard None Offered None
Kansas St. None Offered None Alvin Brooks III
Miami (FL) None Offered None
Nebraska None Offered None
N.C. State None Offered None
Northeastern None Offered None
Oklahoma St. None Offered None
Penn St. None Offered None
Richmond None Offered None
South Carolina None Offered None
South Florida None Offered None
Stanford None Offered None
Texas A&M None Offered None
UCF None Offered None
USC None Offered None
Virginia Tech None Offered None
William & Mary None Offered None

And I don’t know why we are recruiting a 3star PG from FL when there are countless 3star PGs in NorCal too, some of which have connections with other current recruits and recruiting targets. And I got nothing against Singer, he’s prolly a heckuva player, but there are players just as good in Oakland too. And I don’t understand all the recruiting of Missouri/Sudan/Washington/Colo when we’ve got such talent oozing out of the Bay Area. Can anyone shed any light on this? Who was the last Big Bay Area recruit, Powe?

I am not bitching so much as wondering why the Bay Area is an afterthought in Monty’s recruiting. Maybe with Theo on board, a local, things will improve…

So Monty is there to watch a blue chip and you complain that he’s not recruiting Mario Dunn, a small PG with few D1 offers (listed below)?

I guarantee if Dunn was offered you’d be bitching he’s too small and not good enough.

I get it that you guys don’t like Monty, but this is beyond a reach for criticism.

Montana Medium Offered 09/14/2012
Pacific Medium Offered None
San Francisco Medium None
Santa Clara Medium Offered 09/28/2012
UC Davis Medium Offered None
UC Irvine Medium Offered 09/21/2012

If Cal got the top high school recruits from the East Bay alone we’d be a top 16 program.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/preps/article/Salesian-tops-De-La-Salle-in-MLK-Classic-4212334.php#ixzz2IjVHZpnv

So I guess 5-10 Brandon Smith from DLS was big enough for Monty. And I think Jerome Randle was big enough to become ALL TIME LEADING SCORER at Cal!

This type of recruiting just stinks of politics. Why are we going to FLA to get a PG when there is one literally in Cal’s backyard who happens to have a connection to our TOP RECRUIT!?! Nothing against you Sam Singer, but seriously, WTF is going on here? Who does Singer’s family know? I bet they have more “connections” than Dunn does…

With a story like that I expect Monty’s local recruiting to continue to suck.

Sorry for the piss poor attitude this morning guys, its just that as a Giants/Niners fan I am coming to expect greatness, or at least functionality/competitiveness, and that has not been the case for Cal bball since Randle and co. (NOT MONTY RECRUITS) left. Jorge was awesome, Monty got lucky there…

But, on the other hand, Haas has the same atmosphere as Zellerbach on any given night and any recruit visiting would have to think twice about playing there if they’ve just been visiting a school that actually cares about the bball squad.

I miss the old Harmon Gym, that place would rock even against Prairie View A&M. Now we just have 7 thousands empty seats echoing clanked shots…

I guarantee there are 5 guys who will play at the RSF this week who are straight-up BETTER basketball players than BSmith. This is the Bay, we’ve got talent falling from the sky, why are we relying on Kreklow from Missouri? Bak from Sudan? Kravish from Missouri? Rodriguez from Colorado? Berhens from WA? How many of those guys have produced anything meaningful? Only Kravish so far and I don’t have faith in ANY of the rest. Kreklow/Behrens are fragile, apparently. Rodriguez hasn’t played a minute. Bak is Bak. Where are the California recruits? A good team would have 2 Crabbes, 2 Cobbs and 2 Solomon types on the roster. Watch any good NCAA team and you will drool at the depth, I do.

I am sick of reading about stud Bay recruits. They almost NEVER COME TO CAL UNLESS THERE IS A FAMILY CONNECTION!!!! ARRGGGHHH!

This is sad and I am finally angry enough to post some negative basketball comments because I have lost interest in this team cuz we are competing against teams with FULL rosters and you know this team will fade down the stretch, a fading that started in December…

I am willing to wait and see how next year pans out, but if there are still GLARING depth issues then I am ok with Monty leaving and Cal putting a serious recruiter in charge. Too painful to watch a team of 4-5 pac12 players vs a team of 10.

And who will never get us three good classes in a row? We got one in part because the guy was already going to Cal.

Why would a top recruit be interested in a program that is going downhill?

Are the Bears the least deep team in the country? It sure seems like it, and that seems to be the case going back a few years too!

It amazes me that there aren’t 12-15 good players on the roster, pac12 players. And as far as depth goes, I know that there are some damn good guards playing in the RSF today. Guys who could help. Sure, you are not going to find a 6-10 center down there, but there are plenty of 6 foot guards who are at least as good as someone like BSmith – who isn’t even 6 feet tall…grrr…

The bears need 3 classes in a row like next year’s class to get back to “normal” depth-wise imho.