Jaylen Brown, the top player left on the board in 2015, has committed to the Cal Golden Bears, his AAU coach told ESPN.com.
Brown, a 6-foot-7 small forward from Wheeler High School (Ga.), is the No. 4-ranked prospect in the ESPN 100 for the 2015 class.
He chose the Golden Bears over finalists Michigan, Kentucky and North Carolina. Brown cut Kansas earlier this week, after dropping UCLA, Georgia and Georgia Tech after last weekend.
Brown's recruitment was one of the most unpredictable in the 2015 class. Instead of trimming his list over the last few months, Brown added a couple of schools to the mix -- all the while keeping every school involved in his recruitment in the dark. Last summer, after Brown admitted how close he was with Adidas, it appeared that Brown's ties to the shoe company might push him toward an Adidas school. However, that connection seemed to wane as Brown's recruitment shifted into the home stretch.
California wasn't even much of a factor for most of Brown's recruitment, as the elite small forward caught people by surprise when he took a visit to Berkeley in March. The Golden Bears were hoping to make Brown part of a package deal that also included Ivan Rabb (No. 8) and Caleb Swanigan (No. 9). When Swanigan committed to Michigan State, the package deal seemed off, but Cuonzo Martin and staff ended up closing the deal with Rabb and then making up ground late for Brown.
Along with Rabb, California is also bringing in four-star small forward Davon Dillard and three-star wing Tyson Jolly. The Golden Bears return starting guards Tyrone Wallace (17.1 points, 7.1 rebounds), Jordan Mathews (13.6 points per game) and Jabari Bird (10.5 points per game), meaning they will trot out one of the most talented starting fives in the country.
On the flip side, Brown continues a surprising run of misses for Kentucky this spring. John Calipari and the Wildcats have now missed on all of their five-star targets in the last month, including Brandon Ingram (No. 3), Cheick Diallo (No. 7), Malik Newman (No. 10), Stephen Zimmerman (No. 12) and now Brown.