This past week or so has been a nightmare for the California Golden Bears basketball program. First they had to fire an assistant coach after an alleged sexual assault, and then they had to play in their first-round game of the NCAA tournament without two of their starters. Cal ended up losing that game to Hawaii, and now they will look forward.
Unfortunately for head coach Cuonzo Martin and the Golden Bears, this disastrous past week plus may have an effect on that future. Cal only had two commitments in the 2016 recruiting class as of this week, which barely ranked them in the top 100, and that ranking is about to get even worse.
Four-star guard Tyson Jolly, who had committed to Cal in April, has decided to reopen his recruitment for next year. Jolly cited the uncertainty surrounding the program as his main reason for backing out of his commitment and added that it "was not an easy decision, but the right [one]".
This decision by Jolly leaves Cal in a bad way heading into next season, as he was its best recruit coming in for next year, and the Golden Bears are expected to lose a lot of talent from this year's team. Tyrone Wallace will graduate while freshmen Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb are projected to be lottery picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. Brown and Rabb have not announced their decisions yet, but they are both expected to declare for the draft.
As for Jolly, he says that he is at peace with his decision to de-commit from Cal, and he has several schools calling already. Among those schools calling are Texas, Florida, Ohio State and Xavier. Jolly is from Oklahoma, but he played for a post-graduate year in Florida and he plans to choose a school closer to home this time, saying he will look in the Big 12 area.
Jolly is a 6-foot-4 shooting guard that is considered a four-star prospect according to most publications. The former Cal commit is ranked as the 112th best player overall in the 2016 class and the 16th best shooting guard. Jolly was not always a highly regarded prospect, but he broke through in his senior year of high school which put his name more on the radar. The shooting guard is considered a physical wing that can do just about everything on the court very well, and it seems like he will only go up from where he is now.
