Cal's Jaylen Brown declares for 2016 NBA Draft

Jaylen Brown is officially one-and-done, as the Cal forward declared for the 2016 NBA Draft on Thursday.

The 6-foot-7 forward came to the Golden Bears as the fourth-ranked recruit in the entire country, and certainly didn't disappoint in his lone collegiate season. Brown averaged 14.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, ranking second on the team in both categories. He will hire an agent, exhausting his college eligibility.

"The journey here at Cal has been nothing short of great," Brown said. "I'm surrounded by so much support. The people here have been tremendous. I've grown so much since I've been here. My teammates, my brothers - we started history here - the first team to go 18-0 at home. It's been tremendous to be a part of it with you guys. I cannot speak highly enough about the education here at California. I've grown so much since I've been here."

The Bears improved drastically with Brown's spectacular play, making the NCAA tournament for the first time in three seasons.

"I'm really happy for Jaylen," head coach Cuonzo Martin said. "I think it's a great day for Jaylen and his family. He's such a wonderful young man. I'll be 45 years old and I've learned a tremendous amount from Jaylen, his humility, his understanding about life. Off the court, he doesn't want to talk a lot about basketball. He wants to talk about life, education, how to learn, how to grow. That's why I think he'll be very successful, not just in basketball but in life."

The Georgia native is widely regarded as one of the top prospects in the draft. Draft Express ranks him fourth overall, trailing only Duke's Brandon Ingram, LSU's Ben Simmons, and Maccabi Tel Aviv's Dragan Bender.