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Cal fans, rest easy. Ivan Rabb is on his way to UC Berkeley (commitment video), signing his letter of intent on Wednesday. The top five national prospect becomes immediately the best player to play for Cal men's hoops since Leon Powe signed over a decade ago.
Let's get to work ! https://t.co/I4ueStZL74
— Ivan Rabb (@YoungIvee) April 16, 2015
Here's Cuonzo Martin chatting about Rabb.
Rabb is joined by Tyson Jolly, as Cal now have the first two members of the 2015 recruiting class. No word yet on Davon Dillard, although it does sound like he has every inclination to sign based on his Twitter feed.
Signing day tomorrow !! Can't wait to seal the deal ..One of the best decisions towards my future I have made thus far #GoBears
— Davon Dillard (@DDillard24) April 15, 2015
Cal has four openings in this 2015 recruiting class, and have at least one slot that is still available based on the open scholarship they had from last year (Cal lost three players already). Jaylen Brown, the nation's top prospect, has Cal in his top 8, and it's likely that slot is either reserved for him.
Below is the official press release from Cal Athletics.
BERKELEY - California head men's basketball coach Cuonzo Martin announced the signing of two heralded scholastic student-athletes to a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday.
The class includes consensus All-American power forward Ivan Rabb from Oakland, Calif., and one of the nation's top shooting guards, Tyson Jolly from Oklahoma City, Okla.
"From day one, Ivan Rabb was a priority for our program," Martin said. "He is important to us not only for our basketball team, but for our program for years to come. When you have a guy of this magnitude and caliber of talent in your backyard, you want to do everything in your power to make it work for him. He made it a priority to give us every opportunity to show him what we are about. It is very important to keep your local guys home. We built a great relationship with Ivan and landed one of the best in the country.
"The thing we saw in Tyson Jolly, he is a great young man who we love to be around," Martin said. "He has great passion and wants to be a part of what we are trying to do. Tyson's athleticism and level of toughness is exactly what we want. He has a will to win basketball games, whether it is blocking a shot, getting a big rebound, scoring a big basket or making a big free throw. He does all those things to help his team win and does it with a tremendous level of passion."
An elite player nationally, Rabb is rated the No. 5 overall prospect in the 2015 class by Scout.com, the No. 6 overall prospect by ESPN's recruiting service and the No. 8 overall prospect by Rivals.com. He is the consensus top prospect in the state of California. Scout.com lists him as the top scholastic power forward in the nation, while ESPN ranks Rabb third at his position nationally. The power forward is a consensus five-star prospect.
Rabb was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American game in Chicago, Ill., the Jordan Brand Classic All-American game in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore. A starter for the West squad in the McDonald's All-American game, Rabb scored 10 points and posted six rebounds in 15 minutes of action. At the Nike Hoop Summit, Rabb played for Team USA, collecting two points and three rebounds in nine minutes of action. The forward will play for the West team in the Jordan Brand Classic All-American game this Friday (April 17).
The consensus scholastic All-American and top-eight rated prospect in the 2015 class averaged 24.5 points, 16.3 rebounds and 4.5 blocks during his senior season for Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, Calif. He guided the Dragons to their first state title since 1981. The 6-11, 217-pound power forward collected 19 points and 20 rebounds, lifting Bishop O'Dowd to a 65-64 victory over four-time defending state champion Mater Dei-Santa Ana in the California state open championship game at Cal's Haas Pavilion on March 28 with a game-winning free throw with eight-tenths of a second remaining. Rabb guided Bishop O'Dowd to a 28-4 overall record and a consensus top-10 ranking in the final scholastic national polls his senior season.
Rabb is a two-time (2014 and 2015) San Francisco Chronicle All-Metro Player of the Year (shared honor with his teammate, Paris Austin, this season) and two-time Bay Area News Group East Bay Boys Basketball Player of the Year. The power forward led Bishop O'Dowd to an 82-13 record over his final three seasons with the Dragons, winning three North Coast Section and two Northern California Championships along with this year's state title.
A standout in USA Basketball as well, Rabb captured Gold with Team USA at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in 2013 in Maldonado, Uruguay and the FIBA U17 World Championship in 2014 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He starred on the AAU circuit with the prestigious Oakland Soldiers, the same AAU team as fellow Golden Bear Jabari Bird.
Jolly, who has starred at Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma City, Okla., averaged 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists as a senior. He guided the Patriots to a 24-3 overall record and a berth in the Class 6A state semifinals this past March. The 6-4, 200-pound shooting guard scored a career-high 41 points to lead No. 2 Putnam City West to a road victory over No. 6 Midwest City in a matchup of two of the top teams in the state during his senior season.
Jolly is a consensus top-five prospect in the state of Oklahoma, ranking second by 247 Sports and third by ESPN's recruiting service. He is rated a three-star prospect by both Scout.com and Rivals.com. The guard was an All-State selection by the Oklahoma Coaches Association. He will play in the Oklahoma scholastic All-Star game on July 30 in Tulsa, Okla. Jolly was named to the Oklahoma Faith 7 Basketball Bowl, matching Oklahoma's top scholastic stars against Texas' top scholastic stars on June 6 in Shawnee, Okla. Jolly was also a pre-season All-State selection this year, and a Big All-City Boys Basketball pick by The Oklahoman during both his sophomore and junior seasons. The publication has not yet announced its postseason honors for the 2014-15 season.
The guard averaged 17.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 2.2 assists as a junior. His junior season ended prematurely and the guard was forced to miss the entire summer with his AAU squad, the Oklahoma Reign, for health reasons.
Both Rabb and Jolly will enroll at the University this summer and compete for the Golden Bears in the 2015-16 season. Cal will begin its second season under Martin in a newly-renovated Walter A. Haas Jr. Pavilion, where construction is underway to enhance the fan experience, including a brand new center-hung video board, upgraded sound and lighting systems, and modernized video production facilities. The project is made possible thanks to a generous $10 million gift from the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.