First reported by ESPN, Cal men’s basketball has landed another addition to the 2019 class in 6’11”, 230 pound German center Lars Thiemann, who visited Cal on June 6th and 7th. Thiemann announced his commitment to the Golden Bears on Instagram today. Thiemann becomes the 12th scholarship player on the 2019-20 Golden Bears roster, giving them much needed depth in the front court after the departure of Connor Vanover.

This past season, Thiemann played for Bayer Giants Leverkusen, who won the German Pro B League title. Despite averaging just 3.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.1 minutes of action per game, Thiemann was able to gain valuable experience playing for a really competitive team. He shot 50.9% from the field and 74.2% from the foul line, demonstrating a solid shooting touch. Having watched some tape on Thiemann, he moves well for his size and appears to be fairly skilled around the basket. He’s definitely a lot more promising than his stats indicate. He also averaged averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes per game for Leverkusen in their U19 league last season.

As far as what he’ll bring to the table, Thiemann should get a fair amount of minutes right away as the biggest player on the roster. The other front court players (D.J. Thorpe, Andre Kelly, and Grant Anticevich) are much better suited for the power forward spot, so it’s conceivable that Thiemann could be the starting center depending on how things shake out in training camp.

While growing pains are to be expected like all big men, Thiemann is an intriguing addition to this Cal team. He’s got the physical frame to be an impact player at the D-1 level and with proper coaching could evolve into one of the better big men in the Pac-12. We look forward to catching up with Thiemann to learn more about why he chose Cal and what he hopes to bring to the program.