Looking at incoming freshman David Kravish

Forward/Center David Kravish will begin his first season at Cal in 2011-2012.

Cal brought in two big men in the class of 2011; one is Christian Behrens, who committed late in the process and the other is David Kravish, who committed early and stayed with the Bears. Today, we’ll be looking at Kravish and seeing what he can do for the Bears.

Kravish is 6-9 and weighs 200 pounds. Typically, that’s not center height, but Cal has had plenty of centers at that height or smaller. He will definitely have to put on weight before he’s ready to make a major impact; being a big fella in major college basketball requires at least some girth, and Kravish doesn’t have any. Kravish was also recruited by Iowa, Colorado, Creighton, and Wichita State. He had scholarship offers from each of those schools.

Kravish’s strengths are his athletic gifts. He’s agile and quick, and he has solid jumping ability. He also has long arms, useful for snaring boards and blocking shots. Besides his athleticism, Kravish is a presence in offensive rebounding, as well as on the defensive boards. He’s good at positioning himself when a guard penetratesand can finish with at the bucket. David also has a capable shot from the outside which can draw defenders to outside the key.

His weaknesses are all fixable problems. He’s way too skinny, but getting in a college weight lifting program should help alleviate that issue. That leads to him having problems establishing post position, and that’s the other issue with him. Teaching post play is harder than it sounds, but I’ve Mike Montgomery do so many incredible things with post players that I believe he can do the same with Kravish.

Kravish is probably not going to make a big impact next year. At this point, he’s too unrefined to play in the Pac-10; he doesn’t really have that great of a post game, and he’s very skinny. However, David has the skills to be an impact player for Cal. I could see him easily becoming a fixture in the line-up by the time he’s a sophomore. There’s still a lot of development for him, so there’s no promise that he’ll make an impact even that soon.

Kravish is an exciting prospect with a lot of upside. Hopefully he’ll become a big time impact player for Mike Montgomery and the squad. Go Bears!