Guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. Stands Out in Cal's Intrasquad Scrimmage

Blacksher is healthy now after a knee injury limited him the the past two seasons at Grand Canyon

Jovan Blacksher Jr. while at Grand Canyon. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Cal’s Friday night intrasquad scrimmage showed that Stanford transfer Andrej Stojakovic is a smooth scorer and that freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson might get some meaningful playing time, but the player who stood out most was an Oakland-born 5-foot-11 guy named Jovan Blacksher Jr.

For one thing he’s a point guard, and Cal hasn’t had a point guard who can control play in a long time.  Blacksher is not the second coming of Jason Kidd and it remains to be seen whether he can be effective against ACC talent, but his performance in the scrimmage was promising.

His strengths?

“I would say playmaking and making my guys better,” Blacksher said. “When guys are around me I make guys better.”

Plus he can make open shots and do some damage among the trees in the paint. At least that’s what he did in the scrimmage.

You may not know much about Blacksher.  That’s because the real Jovan Blacksher was not around the past two seasons.

He played 34 minutes a game as a freshman at Grand Canyon, was a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selection the next year in 2022, and entered the 2022-23 season as the preseason WAC player of the year. 

But he suffered a torn ACL in the 12th game that ended his 2022-23 season and left him on the sidelines for the start of the 2023-24 season.

Blacksher returned in the 10th game of last season as a sixth man for a Grand Canyon team that finished 30-5 and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Blacksher had to wait a long time in the offseason to hear whether the NCAA would grant him another year of eligibility based on the time missed because of injury.

“I had no idea if I was going to get the year back,” Blacksher said.

He finally got word that he could play another season and was the last of the nine transfers to commit to Cal this year, declaring in June that he would come to Berkeley.

“When I saw he got his year of eligibility, I was banging down his door,” Cal head coach Mark Madsen said.

Blacksher says he’s completely healthy – he does not even wear a brace on his knee – and Madsen says Blacksher is every bit as good now as he was three years ago at Grand Canyon.

“I think Jovan Blacksher is a better player now even than he was in the WAC,” said Madsen.

Madsen knows because the Utah Valley team Madsen coached in 2021-22 lost twice to the Bradsher-led ‘Lopes, with Blacksher collecting 23 points and six assists in one win and 15 points and five assists in the other.

Madsen’s presence at Cal was one reason Blacksher chose the Bears.  So was the idea of returning to the East Bay.

“Feel like it was a great opportunity to come back home,” said Blacksher, who calls Oakland his hometown but attended high school in Arizona.

So he’s back in the Bay Area, hoping to make an impact in the ACC.

“Jovan Blacksher is a leader, he knows how to run a team, he knows how to take care of the ball, he can make shots,” Madsen said.

That seems to coincide with how Blacksher sees his role.

“Being the floor general, getting guys involved, hitting open shots, controlling the team and winning,” Blacksher said.

One intrasquad scrimmage does not prove a whole lot. But it hinted that Cal may have found the floor leader it needs.

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