If andrej and justin both start will that mean for the first time two nba sons will be playing on the same floor together?? 👀👀 Idk wot mark is telling these recruits but seems to be a good offseason so far. 3 times the charm right???
I disagree, jimmy. We have an immediately relevant backcourt with Ames and Pippen, miles ahead offensively and defensively over last year. We've added nice depth pieces at the front. Give me an enforcer center and we're set.
Hard to believe this guy will be better than Wilkenson. And as good as Omot would have been if healthy. I can withhold judgement but am still eager to see higher caliber proven performers come to our Bears.
Different style of player. I think the it’ll be a lot more complimentary. The Andrej/Jeremiah combo was great esp when Andrej was hurt but together it was tough because they both occupy the same space and stylistically both need the ball in their hands
More important than pure star level is that they are power-level sized & athletic, and that they fit into the mold that Madsen needs for his roster and depth. We're in an awkward state where our roster is actually improving year-over-year, but we just can't get the highlight recruits that define a class.
Also, while Wilkinson was a huge loss...I do think transferring is a mistake for him based on his size -- it will be hard for him to consistently keep playing time as these teams recruit bigger, faster guys every year. Part of him popping off was us centering an iso offense around him and Stoj.
Hopefully this is where we start shifting away from our reliance on isolation to create points.
Respectfully BP did you watch any of Pippen? He’s not a Power Conference player right now - nowhere near. Take his name away and he’s a 2-star. Definitely not a P5 caliber guy…yet.
Andrej was pretty disappointing in his first year at LSJU, with people snubbing their nose at his transfer recruitment to Cal. With an extra year of growth and a good (?) developmental coach, he's living up to his original billing. Hopefully something similar happens with Justin Pippin.
And no matter what, it's interesting and positive that NBA families are ready to send their kids to play under Madsen.
Limited minutes, so hard to tell, but stat line was not as promising as Andrej (coming out of StanfUrd), no way. Shooting percentage was baaaaad (but maybe he was not asked to shoot?).
No doubt. But unless Scottie and his family are contributing to CALegends, the name on the back of the jersey means little right now. Marbury being here did absolutely nothing, unfortunately. ;-)
I hear ya on Stoja, but Andrej did flash some talent as a FR, TBH. 8 & 3 a night, and would’ve been more if not for the outlier FT shooting %…that’s solid and with the added volume now as the main man his success tracks. Would love Pippen to live up to his HS hype, but he sure struggled in Ann Arbor…just looked a step slow defensively, a potential problem for a team like Cal that already struggles to play D, and his shot was a work in progress. Now it’s rumored he was banged up, and he’s eligible of course to improve with a scenery-change, but he sort of played himself out of the rotation and looked a ways from being ready to contribute in a league as talented (even in an off-year) as the ACC. Hopefully he settles in tho with the freedom of Madsen’s sets.
Now, I’m looking at all this through the lens of whether we can contend for a Tournament berth. Because that’s what we need to do STAT or the program probably dies sooner rather than later because of the Fox disaster. On its face, I don’t really have an issue adding him as a project, which right now is what he basically is. However, we’ve lost a lot of key pieces off a team that was a titch below-average to begin, and have replaced them with varying degrees of question marks. If a couple of those questions surprise, we could be better, provided our D improves…any type of progress is predicated on better D.
Hopefully this last scholarship goes to a legitimate difference maker because they need it. Ideally some of the returners progress, some of the newcomers hit, and we stay somewhat healthy. And one more guy that can match up with ACC players would really, really help.
I generally have faith because of our core between Stoj and Petraitus. A pure scorer who packs on fouls for the other team in Stoj, and two high level / energy defenders between the two of them. Madsen has not missed once when it comes to the bigs he recruits thus far, and has shown ability to develop them quickly.
It's guard play that I'm concerned with and that will take us to March, but I'm just crossing my fingers that it's a recruiting issue from the Fox years and not a Madsen issue.
Petraitus is rumored to have played hurt last year and it affected his shot - the drastic drop off in his FG and 3P%’s hopefully were the result of injury because a return to his AFA form would be huge.
I think we’re going to like Ames and he’ll fill the Wilkinson hole just fine. Unfortunately the rest of our guards have not shown they are ACC-caliber players, which is a monumental issue when trying to project improvement in the win column and thus place a defined ceiling on this roster in its current form.
I would say more like plan B than C. He was a 4 star HS player, who was a late bloomer. Getting playing time at Michigan is a lot more difficult than it will be at Cal. At 6'3" he is a good size for a PG. Let's see if his shooting improves.As Cal is not getting the top players seems a good risk/reward. Having his dad show up to a few games and maybe speak to the team is a plus. Or his older brother, who is the NBA. Although I agree with your overall assessment that with the talent we have now, we are again a 500 team. Desperate for a big! Keeping the young talent and not needing to rebuild each year from the portal will be a key to our longer-term success.
Super stoked by this add. He seems really talented and I like this sons of players thing we're building. My one concern is with Wing depth. By my count, we are out of scholarships and have 4 PGs, 4 SGs (Counting Adrej and Ruff as SGs), 1 SF, 2 PF, and 2 Cs. I really don't want to go into this season a Rytis or Ilic injury away from having to play Spencer Mahoney or some collection of small ball for 25+ minutes a game.
Hope he's able to take a step forward at Cal.
Side note: I know I saw something on the WFC front page about Sammie Yeanay committing to Cal?
He did.
Maybe they can get Ashton hardaway from Saint Mary's and they can have another NBA legend son. 😂
Do we get points for progeny of legends?! 😂
If andrej and justin both start will that mean for the first time two nba sons will be playing on the same floor together?? 👀👀 Idk wot mark is telling these recruits but seems to be a good offseason so far. 3 times the charm right???
This was plan B or C. Sigh. Another project for a program that currently has 7-8 of them already.
This is a mid-major roster that is going to struggle to qualify for the ACC Tournament. Rough.
I disagree, jimmy. We have an immediately relevant backcourt with Ames and Pippen, miles ahead offensively and defensively over last year. We've added nice depth pieces at the front. Give me an enforcer center and we're set.
Hard to believe this guy will be better than Wilkenson. And as good as Omot would have been if healthy. I can withhold judgement but am still eager to see higher caliber proven performers come to our Bears.
Different style of player. I think the it’ll be a lot more complimentary. The Andrej/Jeremiah combo was great esp when Andrej was hurt but together it was tough because they both occupy the same space and stylistically both need the ball in their hands
More important than pure star level is that they are power-level sized & athletic, and that they fit into the mold that Madsen needs for his roster and depth. We're in an awkward state where our roster is actually improving year-over-year, but we just can't get the highlight recruits that define a class.
Also, while Wilkinson was a huge loss...I do think transferring is a mistake for him based on his size -- it will be hard for him to consistently keep playing time as these teams recruit bigger, faster guys every year. Part of him popping off was us centering an iso offense around him and Stoj.
Hopefully this is where we start shifting away from our reliance on isolation to create points.
Respectfully BP did you watch any of Pippen? He’s not a Power Conference player right now - nowhere near. Take his name away and he’s a 2-star. Definitely not a P5 caliber guy…yet.
Andrej was pretty disappointing in his first year at LSJU, with people snubbing their nose at his transfer recruitment to Cal. With an extra year of growth and a good (?) developmental coach, he's living up to his original billing. Hopefully something similar happens with Justin Pippin.
And no matter what, it's interesting and positive that NBA families are ready to send their kids to play under Madsen.
Limited minutes, so hard to tell, but stat line was not as promising as Andrej (coming out of StanfUrd), no way. Shooting percentage was baaaaad (but maybe he was not asked to shoot?).
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/5196370/justin-pippen
The guard play at Michigan was pretty bad in general, so it could very much have been poor coaching putting them in bad positions to succeed.
No doubt. But unless Scottie and his family are contributing to CALegends, the name on the back of the jersey means little right now. Marbury being here did absolutely nothing, unfortunately. ;-)
I hear ya on Stoja, but Andrej did flash some talent as a FR, TBH. 8 & 3 a night, and would’ve been more if not for the outlier FT shooting %…that’s solid and with the added volume now as the main man his success tracks. Would love Pippen to live up to his HS hype, but he sure struggled in Ann Arbor…just looked a step slow defensively, a potential problem for a team like Cal that already struggles to play D, and his shot was a work in progress. Now it’s rumored he was banged up, and he’s eligible of course to improve with a scenery-change, but he sort of played himself out of the rotation and looked a ways from being ready to contribute in a league as talented (even in an off-year) as the ACC. Hopefully he settles in tho with the freedom of Madsen’s sets.
Now, I’m looking at all this through the lens of whether we can contend for a Tournament berth. Because that’s what we need to do STAT or the program probably dies sooner rather than later because of the Fox disaster. On its face, I don’t really have an issue adding him as a project, which right now is what he basically is. However, we’ve lost a lot of key pieces off a team that was a titch below-average to begin, and have replaced them with varying degrees of question marks. If a couple of those questions surprise, we could be better, provided our D improves…any type of progress is predicated on better D.
Hopefully this last scholarship goes to a legitimate difference maker because they need it. Ideally some of the returners progress, some of the newcomers hit, and we stay somewhat healthy. And one more guy that can match up with ACC players would really, really help.
Go Bears!!
I generally have faith because of our core between Stoj and Petraitus. A pure scorer who packs on fouls for the other team in Stoj, and two high level / energy defenders between the two of them. Madsen has not missed once when it comes to the bigs he recruits thus far, and has shown ability to develop them quickly.
It's guard play that I'm concerned with and that will take us to March, but I'm just crossing my fingers that it's a recruiting issue from the Fox years and not a Madsen issue.
Petraitus is rumored to have played hurt last year and it affected his shot - the drastic drop off in his FG and 3P%’s hopefully were the result of injury because a return to his AFA form would be huge.
I think we’re going to like Ames and he’ll fill the Wilkinson hole just fine. Unfortunately the rest of our guards have not shown they are ACC-caliber players, which is a monumental issue when trying to project improvement in the win column and thus place a defined ceiling on this roster in its current form.
I would say more like plan B than C. He was a 4 star HS player, who was a late bloomer. Getting playing time at Michigan is a lot more difficult than it will be at Cal. At 6'3" he is a good size for a PG. Let's see if his shooting improves.As Cal is not getting the top players seems a good risk/reward. Having his dad show up to a few games and maybe speak to the team is a plus. Or his older brother, who is the NBA. Although I agree with your overall assessment that with the talent we have now, we are again a 500 team. Desperate for a big! Keeping the young talent and not needing to rebuild each year from the portal will be a key to our longer-term success.
We’ve seen LeBron at Haas. Maybe we’ll see Scottie soon.
He’s got some length, comes from a good HS program and if he’s inherited some good D genes from pops this is good thing.
Super stoked by this add. He seems really talented and I like this sons of players thing we're building. My one concern is with Wing depth. By my count, we are out of scholarships and have 4 PGs, 4 SGs (Counting Adrej and Ruff as SGs), 1 SF, 2 PF, and 2 Cs. I really don't want to go into this season a Rytis or Ilic injury away from having to play Spencer Mahoney or some collection of small ball for 25+ minutes a game.
Unfortunately Starbury's kid is transferring out so we can't have 3 :(
He didn’t play much anyway and not when it mattered.