Golden Nuggets: Recapping Signing Day

Football

• SF Gate’s recap of Cal’s signees from yesterday with quotes from the above video.

“We knew what we were looking for, not only in terms of the positions of need, but also the type of people we wanted in our program,” Wilcox said.

“We feel really good about the guys who have signed with us and are going to help us moving forward.”

Chris Fatilua, Joseph Ogunbanjo and Monroe Young signed Wednesday, giving the recruiting class nine offensive players, nine defensive players, two two-way athletes and a specialist.

After losing Adrian Martinez of Clovis West-Fresno, who de-committed from Cal in favor of Nebraska in April, and JT Shrout, who opted for Tennessee in December, the Bears did not sign a quarterback.

“We didn’t want to reach on a quarterback, especially this year,” said Wilcox, who will open the quarterback competition between incumbent starter Ross Bowers (3,039 yards passing in 2017), redshirt freshman Chase Garbers and South Carolina transfer Brandon McIlwain. “We’ll be targeting a quarterback next year, but we’re comfortable not taking a quarterback in this class because of our current situation.”

• Former CGBers Nam and Trace had live updates as signing day went on, with analysis. You can check it out here.
• Jasper Friis grew up in Germany. So how did he get into American Football? Find out how the offensive lineman (who just started his Cal career last month) came to Berkeley here.

Men’s Basketball

• Prior to the Colorado game, SF Gate talked about the improvements of Kingsley Okoroh in this, his final season.

On Saturday [against OSU], fans learned how good the Bears can be when Kingsley Okoroh plays with passion, and on Tuesday, Jones said he hopes the senior center will learn how to bring that type of energy on a consistent basis.

“Kingsley Okoroh has always been the guy that I’ve challenged the most,” Jones said before the team began a trip to the mountain schools. “He’s a veteran. He’s been in these games and played in this conference. He knows most of the personnel and how most of these teams are going to play. For him to step up in the last game and play how he did, I’m very happy. But I’m still on him.

“‘OK, what you showed us against Oregon State, I need to you to continue to give us that night in and night out for the remainder of the season.’ He’s a big X-factor for us.”

• Kingsley was also named Student Athlete of the Week after his first career double-double against OSU.

Baseball

• Bay Area College Baseball Media Day was last Tuesday at the Farm. Mike Neu and Matt Ladrech spoke for a few minutes about the team. Video courtesy of Ryan Gorcey.
• Jared Horn, Joey Matulovich and Ladrech will be the weekend starters this season with Aaron Shortridge the weekday starter. Neu also talks about incoming freshmen Darren Baker and the impact his father Dusty has had on the team (Bob Melvin, too!).

Misc.

• AD: Jon Wilner namedrops some candidates he (and “sources”) think could be viable candidates for the next Cal AD, but he does not know who the school is actually considering. Notable names include Cal alum Amy Trask, Cal Tennis coach Peter Wright, and UC Irvine AD Mike Izzi.
• LAX: The women’s lacrosse team has a “new” conference (MPSF became the Pac-12 as there are enough participants from the league now) and looks to have an improved season despite the tougher schedule.
• WGYM: A reminder that the women’s gymnastic team will take on one of the best teams of the country in UCLA at Haas on Saturday. Its a matchup you won’t wanna miss as both teams will give out autographs after the game!
• WSWIM: Despite enrolling at Cal intending to be in neuroscience, find out why Maija Roses fell in love with media studies, and will graduate with a degree in that major this semester.

Beat the Buffs in women’s basketball!