NCAA Basketball: Top 10 players to wear jersey No. 15 in 2023-24 season
By Joey Loose
9. Jalen Cone (California)
Earlier in his career, Cone didn’t see a ton of the floor while at Virginia Tech, actually joining the Hokies five years ago before the start of the pandemic. After transferring to Northern Arizona, he showed great promise in the Big Sky as a major scoring threat for the Lumberjacks. Cone then opted to transfer a second time and found quite the fit back at the power conference level, this time on the West Coast.
He’d become a big part of the action at California this season, averaging 13.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game for the Golden Eagles. While the 13-19 record isn’t great, California actually looked better this season and finished 6th in the Pac-12, with Cone becoming the team’s third-leading scorer. Additionally, Cone was among the conference’s leaders in made 3-pointers, becoming a much needing scoring threat for this program.
He spent nonconference play putting up solid efforts, including 26 points against Santa Clara and 23 points on Cal State Bakersfield. Cone remained a factor during Pac-12 play, playing well in upsets at UCLA and against Washington State before dropping 20 points against USC. The season didn’t progress in a super positive way, but Cone scored 19 points against Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament to finish things off, playing a solid role for a program that took a small step in the right direction.