Khalil Johnson, Price Forward, Commits To Cal

Cal basketball has landed their third commitment of the 2012 recruiting class, this one from the late signing period. It's also their third recruit from Price High in Los Angeles in the past three seasons in Khalil Johnson. Johnson picked Cal over Arizona State after visits to both schools the past week or two, and also entertained offers from schools like Utah and Duquesne.

Johnson was a late bloomer on the circuit and isn't really rated by most of the recruiting services, but he did perform well by scoring 26 points to lead Price in an upset over Gardena Serra in the Division IV Regional Final before falling to Jabari Bird, Freddie Tagaloa and Salesian in the Division IV Championship. Johnson is the teammate of talented center Skylar Spencer (off to San Diego State) and really helped give some scoring punch when teams converged on the big man. He also gets offensive boards, something Cal has struggled with as of late.

The 6-foot-7 senior gives Price a second dimension inside to complement the dynamic Spencer. Johnson is particularly active on the offensive glass. While Spencer faces up and takes defenders off the dribble on forays at the rim, Johnson is often left alone to roam the weakside, where he'll crash the offensive boards for easy rebounds and putbacks.

Sounds like he has the potential to be an Amoke-type player with an outside shooting presence. Sign me up.

Johnson's position at the next level isn't quite certain, although you could venture a guess that he's likely to stay on the outside. He's classified as a power forward, but unless he experiences a little growth spurt, it's more likely his designation will be small forward or a stretch power forward, where he'll probably come off the bench and spell one of the regular starters.

Cal should still have some room left over with Murray and Rossi leaving the program to check and see if they can get one or two big men, or maybe another combo guard/slasher. Who that would be, I'm not quite sure.