Cal Men's Basketball Roster Overview

The Madsen era kicks off with a revamped roster

Oct 24, 2023

Jaylon Tyson shows off his skills at the Winter Sports Kickoff Event on 10/19/2023. Photo courtesy of Rob Hwang

As Coach Mark Madsen begins the rebuilding process, he has rebuilt the roster with a heavy focus on spot-up shooting and instant offense. The current roster has twelve scholarship players;

Three Big Men (Fardaws Aimaq, ND Okafor, Devin Curtis)
Three Point Guards (Devin Askew, Jalen Cone, Vladimir Pavlovic)
Six Guard/Forwards (Grant Newell, Jaylon Tyson, Keonte Kennedy, Jalen Celestine, Rodney Brown, Monty Bowser)

This team will be given permission to shoot. The Bears will frequently have four different 40% 3-point shooters on the floor at the same time. They will not have to give up anything on defense, as Grant Newell, Fardaws Aimaq and Keonte Kennedy are all above average defensively. The first few games will provide insight on how the coaching staff will look to maximize the roster. For now, here is how I see the roster utilized at the beginning of the season.

The Probable Starters

F Fardaws Aimaq
(Utah Valley 2021 - 49% FG, 72% FT, 14 rebounds/game, 19 points/game. 1 year of eligibility.)

A Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Second Team selection, Aimaq says he models his game after DeMarcus Cousins. He has shown the ability to play both near and away from the basket. In the Texas Tech highlight reel below, he shows his ability to initiate the action from the 3-point area, and excellent decision-making in how to finish.

In the low post, he combines patience with exceptional footwork. In the clip above at the 40 second mark, he finds the baseline cutter as the defense collapses on him. In the clip below at 1:55, he is patient but not slow, baiting the defense with his first move and then finishing with an easy pivot and layup finish.

Aimaq is also a capable long-range shooter, shooting 27-of-66 (41%) from 3-point range over his college career.

Jaylon Tyson may be the best overall basketball player on the team (more on him below), but Aimaq will be the most impactful. His ability to play inside and outside opens up the rest of the floor for the guard-heavy team allowing motion sets and open shooting opportunities.

F Grant Newell
(Cal 2022 - 40% FG, 64% FT, 8 points/game. 3 years of eligibility.)

Newell returns to Haas and will look to improve on his solid freshman season in which he earned Freshman All-Conference Honorable Mention honors. Newell is a long 6’ 9”, and uses his length as a disruptive force on defense. His decision-making when off the ball impressed me the most last year, reading the situation and getting to the right spot on the floor. See the ‘Freshman of The Week’ highlight clip from last year below for several examples of this.

G Jaylon Tyson
(2022 Texas Tech - 48% FG, 39% 3-Pt, 11 points/game, 6 rebounds/game. 2 years of eligibility. As of 10/20, his waiver claim is under review by the NCAA)

The 6’ 7” guard had offers from Kansas and other top-tier programs before deciding to come to Cal. The Athletic’s scouting report on Tyson says that Tyson is a “…3-and-D wing prototype with his size and jump shot” who “…has a picture-perfect jumper.” On offense, he either finishes at the rim (35% of his attempts) or is constantly in motion looking for catch-and-shoot situations (40% 3-PT for his career). While he can run the point, he excels in off-guard roles.

In addition to being a highly efficient offensive player, he is a ball hawk on defense. His 6 rebounds per game last year ranked him 8th in the Big-12, and he averaged 1.4 steals/game.

G Keonte Kennedy
(2022 Memphis - 46% FG, 38% 3-PT, 9.2 points/game. 1 year of eligibility.)

Like Tyson, Kennedy is a strong finisher at the rim, and excels in catch-and-shoot situations. He works more off-the-ball than Tyson, preferring to spot in the corner or trailing the interior penetration.

He is a pest on defense, and is earning a reputation as the top lockdown defender on the roster.

G Devin Askew
(Cal 2022 - 38% FG, 30% 3-PT, 16 points/game, 1.1 assists-to-turnover ratio. 2 years of eligibility.)

Last year, Askew was asked to carry the team in all facets. He led the team in scoring and was just behind Joel Brown in assists, but had the worst efficiency numbers of his career. This year, I am looking for Askew to settle in as a facilitator and let his teammates carry the scoring burden. At any point in time, he can be on the floor with four 40% 3-point shooters.

The Heavy Rotation Players

G Jalen Cone
(2022 Northern Arizona - 42% FG, 40% 3-Pt, 17.6 points/game, 2.5 assists/game. 1 year of eligibility.)

Cone is an exceptional shooter. Last year, he attempted 240 3-pointers, and 206 2-point shots. Further tape shows he excels with the ball in his hands, and makes great use of screens. Based on this, he may be the starting point guard instead of Askew, or have starter-level minutes. He has averaged nearly the same number of assists as Askew over his career. I think his size (5’ 11”) makes him better suited to be an instant offense player off the bench.

G Jalen Celestine
(2021 California - 42% FG, 34% 3-Pt, 7.5 points/game. 3 years of eligibility)

Celestine missed all of last year due to injury. He has a solid all-around game and plays bigger than his 6’7” frame. I expect him to start the season slowly as he gets back up to game speed. He gives the coaching staff multiple lineup options as he can play off-guard to power forward roles.

The Light Rotation Crew

G/F Monty Bowser (4 points/game. 3 years of eligibility.)
G Rodney Brown (Freshman 3-star recruit.)
F Devin Curtis (Freshman 3-star recruit.)
F ND Okafor (4 point/game. 3 years of eligibility.)
G Vladimir Pavlovic (Averaged 6 points and 4 assists form the Serbian U18 team)

Madsen’s staff will most likely want to settle into a core 7-to-8 player rotation. To that effect, one of this group will need to step up and earn a spot in the group above them. Rodney Brown is drawing positive feedback from the offseason workouts. I think ND Okafor will exceed expectations. Either Okafor or Curtis will be primary big man off the bench. Aimaq is the perfect training partner for Okafor, as they have similar bodies and can develop the same low post skills. Okafor is not as good of a shooter as Aimaq, but he has shown a solid passing touch in Cal Basketball’s social media clips.

The Walk-Ons

G Jack McCloskey
G Wrenn Robinson
G Jayden Karapetian
G Matt Desler
F Adrian Claiborne Jr.
F/C Gus Larson

Robinson performed admirably when he was pressed into playing time last year. Larson is a preferred walk-on from who came over from Penn, and may develop into a solid player over his three remaining years. Desler, Claiborne and Karapetian joined the team last week.

In Nick’s season preview from yesterday, he mentioned two goals of;

Finishing .500 or better

I want to see a couple games in person before making any big projections for how the rest of the season will play out and how the Bears will fare in conference play. The conference has a definite upper class of 5 teams, and definite bottom class of 2 teams. While most projections have Cal in that bottom class, I expect them to be able to move up into the middle class. How far they move up remains to be seen.

Learning to love Cal Basketball again

This is the easy one. Last year, Cal combined being historically bad with being boring and predictable. Every game followed a similar script, every coaching postgame comment was repeating the same thing. This year’s roster is greatly improved, and the roster is full of players who thrive in a pace-and-space strategies. The on-court product will definitely more entertaining. At the Winter Sports Kickoff Event last Thursday, Head Coach Mark Madsen ended his remarks with “This is the Haas of Pain!" Even if the roster does not always make it painful for their opposition, Cal fans will definitely have more fun rooting for this year’s team.