Cal Basketball: O'Dowd's Marsalis Roberson Gives Bears Their First 2021 Commit

Roberson will join ex-HS teammate Monty Bower at Cal a year from now

Cal got its first basketball commitment in the class of 2021 on Thursday when shooting guard Marsalis Roberson of Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High announced his decision on social media.

“100% committed and ready to work,” Roberson wrote on Twitter.

Roberson is listed as a four-star prospect by 247Sports, although he is not rated at all by either 247Sports composite or Rivals.

Roberson told 247Sports that he chose Cal over Stanford, Cincinnati and UC Santa Barbara.

"I chose Cal because I have a really good relationship with the coaching staff and I like their play-style and also they were recruiting me the hardest," said Roberson, according to 247Sports. "Coach (Mark) Fox called my grandpa, my mom, my uncle, basically my whole family and no other coaching staff did that so that was cool.”

Roberson said Cal pitched the idea he’d have a chance to play early.

According to the recruiting websites, Cal was the only Pac-12 Conference school to offer Roberson a scholarship. Roberson, who is 6-foot-5 and may not be done growing, also reportedly had offers from Nebraska, Rice, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly, among others.

Roberson’s mother works as an academic advisor at Cal and his father was murdered in a suspected robbery three years ago, according to O’Dowd coach Lou Richie.

Jason Roberson continues to be a motivating force for his son.

"He pushed me to be the best I can be, and now I push forward to honor him," Richie said in an interview this year with Mitch Stephens of MaxPreps.

Fox, beginning his second season as coach, is trying to rebuild a program that won just eight games in each of two seasons under former coach Wyking Jones. The Bears improved to 14-18 in Fox's debut season last winter and beat Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament before the season was shut down by the budding COVID-19 pandemic.

Roberson will become the second O’Dowd player on the Cal roster, joining freshman forward Monty Bowser. Paris Austin, the Bears’ point guard the past two seasons, also came from O’Dowd, as did Ivan Rabb, who played at Cal in 2015-16 and ’16-17 before leaving for the NBA.

Fox and his staff also are pursuing another prominent O’Dowd player. Jalen Lewis is a 6-foot-9, 215-pound five-star prospect in the class of 2023, who is just beginning his sophomore year in high school but already has offers from Kansas, Stanford and USC.

Richie compared with one of the best players he’s coached.

“I never would have said somebody has a chance to be better than Ivan,” Richie said, referring to Rabb, in an interview with Cal Sports Report in late June. “But he’s bigger, faster, stronger. And he just turned 15 two weeks ago.”

Cal also is pursuing power forward DaRon Holmes, a composite four-star prospect from Montverde Academy in Florida. Holmes recently said he has narrowed his list of schools to Cal, Arizona, Dayton and Marquette.

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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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