Cal Officially Signs Kuany Kuany
Mark Fox has his first signee in Prolific Prep forward Kuany Kuany, as Cal Basketball announced the signing Friday morning.MORE: Kuany on Cal being the place for him
"We're very excited to add such a great young player who will make an immediate impact," Fox said in the Cal release. "He is a high-character young man whose quickness, shooting and athleticism will be an asset to our program."
Kuany chose Cal over Washington State and Nevada last week, after the Bears jumped in late for the Melbourne native.
“I choose Cal over Wazzu and Nevada because Berkeley is where I felt that I was needed,” Kuany said of his decision to our Ben Parker. “I’m pretty familiar with the area because I’ve lived around here for the past year…Their pitch to me has been to come in and play, they feel that I can bring a lot to the program with my ability to stretch the floor, push the ball in transition and defend multiple positions… I hope to bring my versatility to the program. Cal fans can expect me to knock down open shots and throw down dunks in transition.”
Kuany joins PG Joel Brown and PF DJ Thorpe in the 2019 class for the Bears right now.
What this Means
Fox now has nine of his 13 scholarships allocated for the 2019-2020, which looks like so:
| Freshman | Sophomore | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Joel Brown |
Matt Bradley |
Grant Anticevich |
Paris Austin |
|
DJ Thorpe |
Andre Kelly |
Juhwan Harris-Dyson |
|
|
Kuany Kuany |
Jacobi Gordon |
Cal has also put out an offer to Greek guard Dimitrios Klonaras, and are currently waiting on a decision from him as to whether he rounds out their freshman group.
This leaves Fox with the need to play a balancing game going forward. A couple scholarships may remain open for the year to have more flexibility in the 2020 recruiting cycle, since Austin is the only senior on the squad.
What Kuany does is bring a little more size to the group, an issue over the last couple years. There's now four big bodies, at least length-wise, between Kuany, Thorpe, Kelly, and Anticevich. Kuany's someone with the ability to switch on to smaller players on defense, and in a world where switching screens is becoming so prevalent due to more positionless basketball, he'll see the floor if he does it well.
This is not going to be the easiest year for Cal due to the attrition left in the wake of the Wyking Jones era, but it has to start somewhere.
