One of the most crucial members of the California Golden Bears basketball team was big man Richard Solomon. Solomon was Cal's most athletic big man who could provide excellent rebounding on both sides of the court, could play solid post defense and make the Bears tough to score on inside.
That's going to be absent now.
Big News: Richard Solomon's basketball season is over, he has been ruled academically ineligible. #Cal
— John Breech (@johnbreech) January 18, 2012
Coach Montgomery in a statement, "Academics are a priority, we hope that Richard can get his grades right, & rejoin the team, next year."
— John Breech (@johnbreech) January 18, 2012
The news deals a severe blow to Cal's hopes of winning a Pac-12 championship. Cal now has to rely on the experienced senior but smaller Harper Kamp to deal with opposing centers in the conference, and the skilled but undersized and youthful David Kravish to man their frontcourt. Cal doesn't really have much size to go up against teams like Washington, Stanford and UCLA, and will have to rely even heavier on Allen Crabbe, Jorge Gutierrez and Justin Cobbs to try and get the production they need.
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