Photo by Junfu Han, USA Today
Cal Basketball: Is There An Emoni Bates in the Bears' Future, Maybe 2023?
Big news on the basketball recruiting front this week when Emoni Bates, the top-ranked prospect in the high school class of 2022, committed to Michigan State.
Bates, called by some the best prospect since LeBron James, still has two more years at Lincoln High in Ypsilanti, Michigan, before he is scheduled to graduate. By then, the NBA may have eliminated its one-and-one rule, which would allow Bates to glide directly into the NBA.
Here is a closer look at Bates’ potential, courtesy of Hondo Carpenter, who writes for SI.com's Spartan Nation:
Cal fans know what it’s like to get recruiting news this exciting.
It happened back in the early 1990s when Jason Kidd decided to stay home and play for the Bears.
It happened again several years later when Cal landed Shareef Abdur-Rahim, also a consensus top-5 prospect.
And it happened more recently when former coach Cuonzo Martin signed elite high school stars Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown before the 2015-16 college season.
The Bears haven’t signed a player of that ilk since then, but a huge opportunity awaits.
Coach Mark Fox and his staff have their eyes on Jalen Lewis, a 6-foot-9 forward from Bishop O’Dowd High in Oakland, the same school that produced Rabb and also the recent alma mater of incoming Cal freshman forward Monty Bowser.
The college basketball world will have to be a little patient while waiting for Lewis. He just completed his freshman season at O’Dowd and isn’t scheduled to graduate until the spring go 2023 — a year after Emoni Bates.
But Lewis will be worth the wait.
According to a story on MaxPreps, Lewis is rated by one recruiting service as the No. 2 prospect in the Class of '23. O’Dowd coach Lou Richie, who also mentored Rabb, says Lewis can be special.
“I never would have said somebody has a chance to be better than Ivan,” Richie says. “But he’s bigger, faster, stronger. And he just turned 15 two weeks ago.”
Lewis wears a size 17 shoe, already checks in at close to 230 pounds (more than Rabb ever weighed at Cal) and is projected to perhaps grow two more inches.
“He can handle the ball, can shoot it,” Richie says. “He can’t rebound like Ivan, can’t block shots like Ivan. But his work habits are elite. His coach- ability is elite.”
As a freshman on the O’Dowd varsity this past season, Lewis reportedly averaged 10 points during the regular season, then bumped that up to 15 points in the postseason. The Dragons began the season 5-7 against a rugged schedule the won 18 straight games heading into the CIF Northern California championship game against defending champ Sheldon of Sacramento before the COVID-19 virus shut things down.
Cal already has offered a scholarship to Lewis, as have Kansas, USC and UC Davis. But the list is certain to grow longer in the coming months and year . . . much longer
The Bears also are pursuing Marsalis Roberson, Lewis’ teammate at O’Dowd. Roberson, a 6-5 left-handed guard, will be a senior beginning this fall. Besides Cal, he has offers from an assortment of Big West Conference schools along with Nebraska and Rice.
Here’s a terrific story by Mitch Stephens of MaxPreps that provides background on both Lewis and Roberson.
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
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