Before this year, the University of California-Berkeley hadn’t exactly been the first school that came to mind when conjuring one-and-done players and NBA prospects.
But that all changed when 6-foot-10 forward Ivan Rabb chose Cal over Kentucky, Kansas and UCLA in April, and then 6-7 wing Jaylen Brown picked the Bears over Michigan, Kentucky and North Carolina in May.
It was a stunning turn of events in the recruiting world. Not one, but two, NBA prospects picked Cal over traditional college powerhouses and NBA factories — most notably Kentucky.
Now, with the 2015-16 college basketball season about to tip off in a few weeks, NBA scouts have made California a regular stop.
“I would imagine we’ve probably had every [NBA] team in which is a great gesture for our guys and our program,” Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin told SNY.tv by phone.
“That’s exciting for a young kid, from 18 to 22 years old to have that opportunity, but they’ve done a tremendous job of staying locked in on the task at hand.”
According to the authoritative DraftExpress.com, Brown is projected as the No. 4 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft behind Kentucky’s Skal Labissiere, LSU’s Ben Simmons and Duke’s Brandon Ingram.
Tyrone Wallace, a 6-6 senior point guard from Cal, is projected as the No. 35 pick this year, while Rabb is projected at No. 23 in the 2017 Draft.
“It’s good for our guys to have that exposure,” Martin said. “Now on the flip side of it, there’s really no days off because you have to work on a high level. When [NBA scouts] come and watch you play and take notes, it’s almost like when we go out scouting [high school recruits] in July, we’re taking notes and evaluating on what best fits our program, so that’s the same thing with these NBA scouts. They’re evaluating on good days, bad days. Whatever happens in the classroom you have to be ready to compete and work hard. It’s not so much how many shots you make and you miss, it’s how you compete and practice.”
The 6-7 Brown has the highest upside of the Cal trio.
Fran Frachilla of ESPN told me Brown would have been a Top-15 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft had there been no one-and-done rule.
“In Jaylen’s case, you have a guy that’s 6-7 1/2, 225 pounds with the ability to make plays on both ends of the floor,” Martin said. “Obviously, he’s shooting the ball well, he’s making plays, he’s athletic, he’s passing the ball.”
Rabb was projected as the No. 7 pick in 2016 when he first committed to Cal, but has since been moved to the 2017 Draft by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com.
“In Ivan’s case, he’s almost 6-11, really shooting the ball well from the perimeter,” Martin said. “Really making plays, a really good rebounder for his age in my opinion. The way he gets rebounds and keeps balls alive. He’s very active. One of the biggest attributes for both those guys is the level of humility and awareness to learn and continue to get better, as talented as they are. They’re on pace to do some amazing things if they continue to stay healthy and continue to grow, but just in practice [they have] the awareness to get better and learn. It’s not just coming from coach but they are led by Tyrone Wallace. If they hear the information from one of our walk-ons, they gather the information and run with it. It’s not a case of I was projected to be better than you. I was this, I was that, and the pro scouts. they don’t carry themselves like that.”
While Brown and Rabb don’t figure to stay at Cal long, Wallace is back for his senior season after opting not to enter the draft last year.
Wallace was a first-team All-Pac-12 pick last season when he averaged 17.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He was the only player to rank in the top five in the conference in all three categories
He made the Bob Cousy Award watch list entering this season.
“I two things that I wanted to see was he’s doing a great job of leading our team and the other thing is what we call having eyes in the back of our head, making good decisions with the basketball,” Martin said. “He’s doing a really good job. He did that in Australia also, so he’s been doing that. But the one thing I wanted to see was him take more of a leadership role because he always had his hard hat on, competing and working hard and doing his job. But now he’s holding other guys accountable because he understands the importance of everybody being successful and everybody doing it at a high level.”
With all this NBA talent Martin said he wouldn’t be opposed to running an NBA Combine the way Kentucky, LSU and UNLV have.
“You would always consider it,” he said. “I would never rule it out by any stretch because for our guys that have the aspirations of being in the NBA you owe it to them to put them in the best position possible to try to get the maximum amount of exposure possible.”
With this much talent, Cal figures to get continued exposure throughout the college season.
Photos: Cal Athletics
