Bear Territory Tuesday: Having two seven-footers gives Cal a unique advantage

     When people talk about Cal basketball now a days, discussion rightfully revolves around the monster recruiting class that Cal has and the chances this team has of making a run to the Final Four. I mean, if you are a Cal basketball fan, what else is there to talk about? Cal has landed two recruits (Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb) who individually are as huge as the signing of Jason Kidd in the early 90s. In addition, since Jason Kidd's freshman season, in which he led the Golden Bears to the Sweet Sixteen, Cal has only gotten back to the Sweet Sixteen once (1997).

     To say the least, Cal basketball hasn't had a lot to cheer for over the years and suddenly there is talk of them contending for a national championship. "Euphoric" is the way I would describe this recruiting explosion and Cal may not even be done landing big names, since there is still a chance Caleb Swanigan, a five-star big man, comes to Cal.

     But what has been lost in all of this recruiting madness is the fact that Cal has two seven-footers (7'1 Kingsley Okoroh and 7'0 Kameron Rooks). Okoroh will be a sophomore next season and Rooks will be a redshirt sophomore after sitting out last season with a torn ACL. After a year of waiting, we will finally get to see what these two bigs can do together and while they are still a work in progress, their potential impact on games is ginormous.

     To give you a sense of how rare it is to have two or more seven-footers on your roster, I quickly scanned the 2014-15 rosters of all power-five conference basketball teams on ESPN.com to see how many seven-footers each team had. It should be noted that it is possible I missed a seven-footer or two since I checked all the centers from these teams and a handful of forwards from each team at random. It is possible that some guys listed as forwards are seven-feet tall and that I happened to miss them. E.g. A couple of seven-foot forwards who I found were Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin and Jakob Poeltl of Utah.

     With all of that as a disclaimer, here is the data I collected: ACC--- Boston College (1). Duke (1). Florida State (3). Louisville (1). Miami (1). Wake Forest (1). Big XII--- Iowa State (1). Oklahoma State (2). Big Ten--- Iowa (1). Northwestern (1). Penn State (1). Purdue (2). Wisconsin (1). PAC-12--- Arizona (2). Cal (2). Oregon State (1). UCLA (1). Utah (2). Washington (2). Washington State (1). SEC--- Auburn (1). Kentucky (2). LSU (2). Vanderbilt (1).

     What this data shows is that most power-five conference schools do not have a seven-footer on their roster. In addition, very few have more than one. So for Cal to have two seven-footers is something that is certainly rare and something that head coach Cuonzo Martin can take advantage of, especially on defense.



     What is especially nice for Cal is that by landing Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown, there will be plenty of shots to go around, which means that Kingsley Okoroh and Kameron Rooks can primarily focus on playing good defense, getting rebounds, and clogging up the middle. In addition, this means that Cuonzo Martin can give Rooks and Okoroh a lot of minutes since there will be plenty of other guys who can score, diminishing any offensive liability that comes from having them on the floor.

     One of the more intriguing ideas and possibilities is playing both Rooks and Okoroh together at the same time. If you pair them with Tyrone Wallace, Jordan Mathews, and Jabari Bird, you could have a scary combination of offensive potency and defensive impenetrability. Teams would have a very difficult time scoring on one end of the floor and getting stops on the other. I think this kind of a lineup will only be used on occasion since Ivan Rabb is going to be getting a ton of minutes at power forward, but the fact that Cal has the resources to use this kind of a lineup is huge. More importantly, by having two seven-footers who can both play solid defense, Cuonzo Martin has more flexibility and options than he does with just one.

     In conclusion, the flexibility and luxury of having two seven footers is getting overlooked by everybody who is talking Cal basketball and I want to bring it to your attention. When you have something rare, you have an advantage in that what you possess is something rare. Cal certainly has something rare in having these two seven-footers and I can't wait to see how Cuonzo Martin utilizes them. Go Bears!

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord