Cal Basketball: Lou Richie on Marsalis Roberson - `He Wants to Be Great'
Bishop O’Dowd High senior shooting guard Marsalis Roberson took an unusual tact during his college recruiting process. Lou Richie, in his eighth year as head coach of the Oakland prep powerhouse, said he’s never seen anything quite like it.
“When he was on the phone with coaches or on Zooms, he didn’t want to hear what he did well. He wanted to know what he could do better,” Richie said. “That’s a rare quality at his age or at ours.”
Roberson, 6-foot-5 and still growing, chose Cal on Wednesday, giving coach Mark Fox the first commitment to his 2021 recruiting class.
Asked to identify those areas where Roberson must progress before becoming an impact college player, Richie pointed to three things.
“He’s got to get bigger, stronger. He’s got to be a grown man. His right hand needs to be as good as his left hand,” he said. “And he needs to be a consistent knock-down shooter. I think all of those three things he can accomplish, without a doubt.”
It was a big week for Richie, who as a senior point guard at Clemson in 1993-94 led the ACC with 182 assists. Richie married his girlfriend of 10 years on Wednesday — the anniversary of their first date — then watched Roberson announce his college choice a day later.
“His father three years ago was murdered on October 8. That was the reason he wanted to announce on that date,” Richie said of Jason Roberson, murdered during a robbery attempt. “A lot of the things he does, he does in the memory of his father.”
After games sometimes Richie would notice Roberson off to himself while teammates were celebrating.
“Initially, you think maybe he’s upset about something that happened during the game. Why aren’t you sharing in the enthusiasm with your teammates? Is there something going on individually that’s bigger than the group?” Richie wondered. “And he said, `Coach Lou, I’m just thinking about my dad.’ “
His mother, Brenaia Roberson, is a counselor at Cal and is no doubt pleased by her son’s college choice.
“She’s very passionate about her son. She’s very passionate about his education,” Richie said. “So trying to balance her goals and dreams and aspirations for Marsalis with his athletic goals and dreams, it seems it was merged in the best place at UC Berkeley, the No. 1 public institution in the country.”
Richie calls Roberson an “incredible young man, incredible talent,” and praises his work ethic and ability to take coaching.
“He wants to be great. He wants to win,” Richie said. “But for him to be passionate and humble and a kind young man is really how I would describe Marsalis.”
In our conversation you can hear on the video above, I also asked Richie about Monty Bowser, who graduated from O’Dowd last spring an is a freshman forward this season at Cal, and about rising star Jalen Lewis, a 6-foot-9 prospect who is rated among the elite few nationally in the class of 2023.
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
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