The Sports Bank’s college basketball season previews undergo a facelift this season. Rather than counting down the top 111 teams in 111 days, we will go conference-by-conference, breaking down each team beginning with the Pac-12.
After six solid seasons as head coach, Mike Montgomery retired this off-season. Now the California Golden Bears now turn their program over to former Tennessee head man, Cuonzo Martin who will try to help the team take a step into the upper echelon of the Pac-12.
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS
Last Season: T-3rd, 10-8 in Pac-12, 21-14 overall
Predicted Pac-12 Finish: 5th
Projected Depth Chart
C: David Kravish (Sr)/Kingsley Okoroh (Fr)
PF: Dwight Tarwater (Sr)/Christian Beherns (Jr)/Roger Moute a Bidias (So)
G/F: Tyrone Wallace (Jr)
SG: Jabari Bird (So)/Sam Singer (So)
PG: Jordan Matthews (So)/Brandon Chauca (Fr)
Gone: PG-Justin Cobbs, PF-Richard Solomon, SG-Jeff Powers, SG-Ricky Kreklow (transfer-Creighton)
2014-2015 Outlook:
The strength for Martin is on the wing where Tyrone Wallace, Jabari Bird, and Jordan Matthews all possess plenty of scoring ability. Wallace’s versatility should lead to him replacing Justin Cobbs as the team’s prime ball-handler. He is not a true point guard by any means but is the best option since neither Bird nor Matthews are real distributors and freshman Brandon Chauca isn’t ready to take over that role. Expect Bird and Matthews to both take leaps in their game since they should see increased scoring opportunities.
The graduation of Richard Solomon leaves a hole at power forward with no true answer or capable replacement. Cornell transfer Dwight Tarwater figures to compete for the starting job with seldom used reserves from a year ago, Christian Beherns and Roger Moute a Bidias. None of those guys bring any true scoring ability which could force Martin to use a smaller lineup for stretches of games.
With the uncertainly at power forward, David Kravish will be relied upon as the only established low post presence. He has continued to improve during his three years in Berkeley and needs to take another step forward in his game for Cal to be a tourney team. Kameron Rooks tore his ACL and is expected to miss the entire season so that leaves 7-1 freshman, Kingsley Okoroh as the main backup inside behind Kravish.
Martin also picked up a transfer in former Georgetown wing Stephen Domingo who must sit out this season. He will add even more talent in 2015-16 to Cal’s already talented crop of wing players.
Key Non-Conference Games:
11/20 vs. Syracuse (2K Classic in New York)
11/21 vs. Texas/Iowa (2K Classic in New York)
11/30 at Fresno State
12/7 at Nevada
12/10 vs. Wyoming
12/22 vs. Wisconsin
OTHER PAC-12 PREVIEWS:
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.