The Cal 100: No. 81 -- Jerome Randle

Fiery point guard led the Bears to their first conference championship in 50 years in 2010.

No. 81: Jerome Randle

Cal Sports Connection: Over a 4-year career climaxing in 2009-10, Randle became Cal's career leader in points, 3-point baskets and free-throw accuracy. 

Claim to Fame: As a senior, Randle won Pac-10 Player of the Year honors, leading the Bears to their first conference championship in 50 years. He then played successfully overseas for a decade.

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Plenty of others doubted Jerome Randle, but he never did.

“Once I got to college and I saw success coming, I knew in my mind the NBA was going to be it,” said Randle, who checks in at No. 81 in The Cal 100. “Even being smaller, that was the confidence I had.”

Through his first two seasons at Cal — 2007-07 and 2007-08 — Randle put up some numbers but not all of them were good. He shot just 41 percent from the field, 29 percent from the 3-point arc and the Bears compiled a two-year record of 33-33, including 12-24 in Pac-10 Conference play.

Then Mike Montgomery arrived as the Bears’ coach just as Randle’s game began to mature. Probably not entirely coincidental timing.

His final two seasons — 2008-09 and 2009-10 — Randle averaged over 18 points per game each year and the other numbers improved, too. He shot 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from deep, leading the Bears to a two-year record of 46-22, including 24-12 in conference games.

Jerome Randle works against a Duke defender in the 2010 NCAA tournament / Photo y Kim Klement, USA Today

As a senior, he piloted the Bears to their first conference championship in 50 years and a spot in a second straight NCAA tournament. At 5-foot-9, Randle was named Pac-10 Player of the Year — he is still at least equal to the shortest player to be honored in the award’s 48-year history.

He had 33 games of at least 20 points as a junior or a senior, with a career-best 39 vs. Washington State as a senior and 31 in a rare road win vs. Arizona the year before.

Randle finished his Cal days with program records of 1,835 points, 252 3-pointers and .881 free-throw accuracy. In 2017 he was named to the Pac-12 Hall of Honor and just this week Cal voted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

As far as that dream of the NBA, it never happened for Randle. He had a couple summer-league stints but never stuck on a roster for the regular season.

That’s not to say he didn’t fashion quite a professional career. Randle has played internationally in 10 different countries — Australia, China, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belgium, France, Germany and Russia — and has exceled in most of them.

He was particularly big Down Under, where he was first-team All-NBL in Australia’s top pro league, averaging 23.0 points with a 41-point game for the Adelaide 36ers in 2015-16. He was the league’s MVP a year later and in 2017-18 led the NBL in scoring and assists for the Sydney Kings.

In the offseason from playing in Australia, Randle typically found a European team, and in 2015-16 he was Finals MVP for Zalgiris Kaunus of the LKL, Lithuania’s top professional league.

An ACL injury in February 2020 and creeping age — Randle turns 36 on Sunday — signal the end to a long and productive career, even if it didn’t include the NBA.

Asked if his basketball life unfolded the way he expected, Randle said, “Not even close, obviously. I’m not bitter. Being older, you understand that things are not always going to happen the way you want them to happen.

“I never thought I would play in Europe or all these other places. I’m very blessed to be able to travel the world and play basketball.”

-- No. 82: Dr. Glenn Seaborg

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Cover photo of Jerome Randle in the 2010 NCAA tournament by Kim Klement, USA Today

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