Basketball for the Golden Bears has not been pretty in recent years as the program has been below .500 for eight consecutive seasons. Mark Madsen was seen as a very solid hire when he was brought to Berkeley in 2023 and he’s helped the program take its first step or two back towards competency. Unfortunately, California struggled understandably in their debut season in the ACC and life doesn’t get any easier after major losses this past offseason.
Top scorers Andrej Stojakovic and Jeremiah Wilkinson both entered the transfer portal and left the Golden Bears with major holes in the backcourt. Other talented players like B. J. Omot and Mady Sissoko won’t be back, with the top returning players being guards DJ Campbell and Rytis Petraitis. They each averaged right around 8 points per game last season, though competing in the ACC will take much more than just them back as seniors.
Looking to avoid a ninth straight season with less than 15 wins, Madsen and his staff added a few intriguing freshman but really grabbed names from the transfer portal. Among the notable additions are Chris Bell from Syracuse and John Camden out of Delaware, two players who could really see significant run in this lineup with their size and athleticism. Quality guard play comes to town in the former of Nolan Dorsey from Campbell and Michigan’s Justin Pippen, though there’s another new guard that we have our eyes on for today.
Dai Dai Ames joins the Golden Bears for his junior season after decent work as an underclassman. The 6-1 guard out of Chicago was a Top 100 recruit when he headed to Kansas State as a freshman. He started half of their games with minor production before landing at Virginia last season. Ames’ sophomore season saw him average 8.7 points and 1.9 assists per game while knocking down just under 40% of his 3-pointers in a tough season for the Cavaliers.
What makes Ames really important for the Golden Bears is his ability to run the point. Once a highly-regarded prospect, California isn’t just getting someone who can make shots but a real point guard to run the show. Like we mentioned before, this team has lost an insane amount of talent and production in this backcourt and they’ll need to lean heavily on Ames having an upstart season as a junior, albeit at his third school in three years.
After two tough seasons, Ames looks to get California out of that recent hole though the road surely won’t be easy in the ACC. There is some nice returning talent and the combination of Bell, Camden, and Petraitis is a great starting point for this team. However, if this new-look roster is going to gel better than recent Cal products then Ames needs to be a leader and efficient producer for this squad.