Cathy and Susie O’Brien were both basketball stars at San Marcos High in the 1980s, both were CIF-San Diego Section players of the year, both rank in the top 10 in section history in career scoring average, both played Division I college basketball and both had sons who have as well.

Now both have sons who transferred to San Diego State.

JJ O’Brien, Cathy’s son, began his career at Utah and spent his final three seasons at SDSU, finishing in 2015. And on Friday afternoon, Cal center Kameron Rooks, Susie’s son and JJ’s first cousin, announced he is transferring to SDSU for his final season.

“That was a big factor,” Rooks said, “because JJ gave me all the insight, told me how the program is, how the coaches are, gave me the lowdown on everything. I talked to him a lot. I watched him play all the time when he was there. I’ve followed the program closely.


“I’m happy to be back home.”

The 7-foot-1, 265-pound center from Mission Hills High is a fifth-year graduate transfer and, as such, eligible immediately.

Good thing, because the Aztecs need him immediately. He becomes the 11th scholarship player on the 2017-18 roster and the biggest, filling the void left by 6-10 senior Valentine Izundu and 6-9 Zylan Cheatham’s transfer to Arizona State. The Aztecs are deep everywhere else.

Rooks also becomes the first commitment of the Brian Dutcher era, after a half-dozen transfers or prep prospects who had SDSU among their finalists this spring opted to go elsewhere.


He comes from superior basketball stock. His mother averaged 24.0 points over her career at San Marcos High (Cathy, her older sister, averaged 23.9). His father is Sean Rooks, the Arizona star and 12-year NBA veteran who died of heart failure last June. His 6-1 sister, Khayla, led Mission Hills to the Open Division title this March and will play at Washington.

Rooks led Mission Hills to a CIF title and landed in the Pac-12 as well, picking Cal over Arizona, Arizona State, Washington and UConn in 2013. His career with the Bears was up and down, abbreviated by foot and knee injuries. He sat out his second year after ACL surgery, had foot surgery last summer and sat out 10 games last season after another surgery on the same knee.

But when he’s fit and healthy, and he insists he is now, he has been a force in the middle. In his first three games last fall before tearing a meniscus in his knee, he averaged 8.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks while shooting 63.6 percent (and that doesn’t count a 16-point, eight-rebound performance in a preseason exhibition). In a 77-65 loss against SDSU in Sacramento on Nov. 21, he had a career-high nine rebounds and four blocks in just 16 minutes.

His healthiest season came in 2015-16, when he played in 33 games and started 10, averaging 3.6 points and 4.9 rebounds in 17.2 minutes.


“My knee and my foot are fine,” Rooks said. “I’m healthy, and I’m trying to do the things necessary to keep myself healthy, like yoga and stretching, a lot of treatment.”

For the Aztecs, he provides a natural 5-man on a roster loaded with pick-and-pop 4s who might struggle guarding (and pushing off the block) a legitimate center. He also could pose a matchup problem in the Mountain West, where experienced, skilled 7-footers are a rarity.

Rooks becomes the latest fifth-year big to transfer into SDSU over the past seven years, joining Garrett Green (LSU), Josh Davis (Tulane) and Valentine Izundu (Washington State). All were 6-8 or taller, and all started at least nine games in their lone season on Montezuma Mesa.

One potential piece of collateral damage may be SDSU’s scheduled game against Cal at Viejas Arena, the second in a three-game series that began last year in Sacramento and continues with dates on each other’s home floors over the next two seasons.


Usually, teams try to avoid facing former players. Last year, in fact, the Bears scrapped a game against Gonzaga after Jordan Mathews transferred there from Cal. The Aztecs ended up being the beneficiary, stepping in to take over the home-and-home series with Zags, playing in Spokane last year and at Viejas Arena this season.

However, all indications so far are that the 2017 game – Rooks would be gone before the 2018 game at Cal – will remain on the schedule.

“I would love to see it go forward and play against my old team,” said Rooks, who must complete a couple classes in summer school before getting his undergraduate degree from Cal and enrolling at SDSU. “I mean, it’s a game of basketball. We’re going to be competitive. It’s not going to be friendly. But after the game, we’ll talk and have fun with each other.”

The Aztecs, meanwhile, have two scholarships remaining for next season and remain active in the spring transfer market.


Kavell Bigby-Williams, a 6-10 post from Oregon, has completed visits to SDSU, Wichita State and Baylor and could announce a decision soon. If he transfers, he’d have to sit one year to play one. Another option is to return to Oregon, where he could play his final two years without sitting.

Vance Jackson, a 6-8 sharpshooting freshman wing from UConn, is scheduled to visit over the weekend and then Baylor. The Aztecs recruited him out of St. John Bosco High in Bellflower and Prolific Prep in Northern California, although Washington is considered the favorite to get him.


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mark.zeigler@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutzeigler