Jabari Bird has made the decision everyone expected him to make and committed to Cal. The Salesian small forward announced his decision at his high school earlier today. Bird picked Cal over Pac-12 schools like Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, cancelling his visits to those other schools after a trip to Berkeley this past weekend as he made his official to Cal. That trip was enough to convince him he wanted to be a Bear.
"It was just hanging out with the team," Bird said. "It was getting to know them a little bit better. I got to be on campus a lot more. I just knew that Cal was the place for me to be."
Bird is considered to be one of the top basketball recruits in the Bay Area along with Aaron Gordon, and is a consensus top-20 national recruit. Bird competed in the Elite 24 a few weeks ago in Long Beach, and is likely to be in the running for McDonald's All-American Honors. Bird will be Mike Montgomery's first five-star recruit at Cal. He is Cal's first five-star recruit since Leon Powe picked the Bears under a decade ago.
Talk about Bird and Cal basketball recruiting over at the California Golden Blogs, and Pac-12 basketball recruiting at Pacific Takes.