Forward Brandon Ashley will not be staying local in college, and he will not be staying local for the remainder of his high school days either. Ashley is transferring from Bishop O'Dowd to the renowned basketball factory, Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada for his senior season, reports Mitch Stephens of Prep Insider from the San Francisco Chronicle. Both Ashley and Salesian point guard Dominic Artis are heading to Findlay together, depriving the Bay Area of perhaps its two best senior high school basketball talents, and raises the possibility of an Artis-Ashley combo teaming up together in college as well.
Of more interest to college basketball recruit-nuts is Ashley's top seven. He named it last night at Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco while watching the Pro-Am. As expected, the Arizona Wildcats and Oregon Ducks made the cut, and there were five other schools on the list--the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the Kentucky Wildcats, the Syracuse Orange, the Texas Longhorns, and the UCLA Bruins.
"Those are the schools that recruited me the hardest and longest since Day 1," Ashley said. "It's definitely nice to be wanted. Those are the people you develop the strongest relationships with."
It's another blow to Mike Montgomery, who continues to struggle to land top-quality local recruits. Not even landing in Ashley's top 7 has to make you wonder if the California Golden Bears will have the mettle in the recruiting game to become a top-notch basketball school. It looks as if Monty will have to double his efforts with his coaching to keep the pressure up.
To discuss Cal basketball, head to the California Golden Blogs.