Cal Bears Finally Get Some Good News with Rabb’s Return
After a steady stream of bad news, the Cal Bears finally got some good news with Ivan Rabb returning for his second season.
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For the California Golden Bears’ men’s basketball team, it’s been nothing but a steady stream of bad news for a while now. After finishing the regular season with a 22-9 record, including their first undefeated home schedule in over six decades, the Bears went into the NCAA Tournament as a fourth seed, the highest seed the school had ever earned. But the downfall began on March 14th.
On that date, assistant coach Yann Hufnagel was fired after being accused of sexual harassment. That was the Monday before Cal’s first round matchup with the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, after before that game could tip off on Friday, things kept getting worse. Senior point guard Tyrone Wallace, the team’s leading scorer, broke a bone in his hand and would be forced to miss the Tournament, which ended his college career. On the day of the game, junior guard Jabari Bird, the team’s fifth-leading scorer, was suffering from back spasms and was forced to miss the game as well.
The team then lost super freshman Jaylen Brown to the NBA Draft. With the deadline to declare for the draft looming, the team finally got a little bit of good news. Forward Ivan Rabb, another one of the coveted freshman recruits from the past period, announced that he is staying at Cal for his sophomore year.
The 6’11” Rabb, who mostly played power forward while seven-plus-footers Kingsley Okoroh and Kameron Rooks played in the middle, was one of two Cal players that started all 34 games last season, with the other being Brown. He was Cal’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 12.5 points per contest, and led the team with 8.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. His 290 total rebounds were a school record for a freshman player.
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Had Rabb declared for the draft, he most likely would have been a lottery player. But according to his former high school basketball coach, Lou Richie from Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California, Rabb is aiming higher than just being a lottery pick. Jeff Faraudo talked to Richie last week, and the coach said Rabb would return to school so he “could aspire to be the No. 1 pick in ’17 draft [sic]”.
If Rabb wants to in fact be the number-one overall pick next year, he does have some things to work on. At 220 pounds, Rabb is still very skinny for a player who uses the post as much as he does, but as a 19 year old, Rabb has plenty of time to put on some weight. Even despite a lack in size and experience, Rabb is extremely polished as a post player. Some added size could make him a near unstoppable force down low.
Being in foul trouble was also a big issue for Rabb last season, as it was for most of the Bears’ big men. The freshman fouled out six times last season, and collected four fouls another eight times.
Next: Cal Bears Offseason Checklist
Rabb will again be a staple of the starting lineup next season, and will likely be joined by senior point guard Sam Singer (who has started 19 games in his three years at Cal), senior guards Bird and Jordan Mathews, and a rotation in the middle of Okoroh and Rooks.