BERKELEY – Almost 30 years later, Wyking Jones received an offer from Cal he could finally accept.

While starring at St. Bernard High School in Southern California, Jones was recruited by a handful of top schools – including Cal. But just three days before Jones' scheduled official visit to Berkeley, Cal head coach Lou Campanelli relayed the bad news that he gave his scholarship to fellow top prospect Monty Buckley.

Jones ended up becoming an All-West Coast Conference player at Loyola Marymount before playing professionally overseas for six seasons. That preceded a long career as an assistant coach at multiple stops.

That last stop was Cal. Friday, he was named the new head coach of the Golden Bears, and he finally feels like he's arrived in Berkeley.

"Monty, if you're out there watching, I no longer hold that grudge against you, brother," Jones said Wednesday at his introductory news conference at Haas Pavilion.

It may be a cliché to say Jones was destined to become the head coach at Cal, but the new head coach himself didn't dismiss that notion. He wanted to play at Cal. His wife, Estrella, was born and raised in Berkeley and her family has produced four generations of Cal graduates. Jones' sister-in-law, Dr. Na'ilah Suad Nasir, serves as UC Berkeley's Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion and has been a member of Cal's faculty since 2008.

"It does feel like destiny. It's a wonderful thing," Jones said. "I wanted to come here out of high school and I didn't get that opportunity. It's a dream come true to be able to represent a university as wonderful as this one. It is just a wonderful feeling to be here."

Jones himself is from Inglewood, Calif., and was looking to get back to the West Coast while serving as an assistant at Louisville from 2012-15. He said he felt he would become a head coach someday – preferably at Cal – but perhaps not so soon after moving back West to serve on Cuonzo Martin's staff.

"That background really, really brought us back home," Jones said. "When I was looking to come back to the west coast and this opportunity opened up on Coach Martin's staff, I had to pursue it. I had to get this job. It brought us back home."

And now Jones is back home as the leader of the program, a position he was awarded because of his vision, preparation, character and familiarity with Cal. Athletic director Mike Williams said after considering multiple candidates, it became vividly clear that Jones stood out as the best candidate to move the program forward.

"One of the things that is really impressive is when you have a candidate who comes in and is so organized mentally, and is able to communicate that so clearly," Williams said. "It gives you a lot of confidence that person is going to be able to coach your team. He was able to very clearly lay out for us what he was going to do, starting on Day One. He gets the culture and the environment here, and what it takes to succeed here."

Jones said much of his vision is to continue the program's trend in recent years of thriving on the court, in the classroom and in the community.

"My vision is to continue to bring kids in here that can compete at a high level in the Pac-12 Conference, and more important, continue to bring in young men that represent this program in an unbelievable way with their character," Jones said. "That is something we've done very well. I think the type of young men that we've brought into this program speaks volumes."

Cal's current players celebrated the news of Jones' promotion. With UC Berkeley on spring break, Jones spoke to most of them by phone after getting the job.

"Kingsley Okoroh was talking so fast with that British accent, I had no idea what he was saying," Jones said. "I just knew he was excited that I was his coach. That meant so much to me."

Marcus Lee, a transfer from Kentucky who sat out last year but will play for the Bears in 2017-18, was recruited by Jones when he was at Louisville and has stayed close with him ever since. Lee also said Jones is a perfect fit for the job.

"I don't doubt that Kingsley was like that on the phone. That's pretty much how I was," Lee said. "I was so happy. I couldn't get words out."