Cal basketball lands major transfer addition in 6-foot-11 Fardaws Aimaq

New Cal basketball coach Mark Madsen said he wanted to bring in three or four impact transfers this offseason. He said his Golden Bears program would be aggressive in pursuing the top talent in the portal.

And just four days after he was formally introduced as Bears head coach, Madsen has wasted no time delivering on those plans.

In this case, he had personal history and connection to lean on in landing 6-foot-11 Texas Tech transfer Fardaws Aimaq, who had played for Madsen previously at Utah Valley.

Aimaq had his lone season in Lubbock, Texas, undermined by a foot injury that delayed his debut with the Red Raiders. He played in just 11 games, averaging 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.

But with Madsen at Utah Valley, Aimaq averaged 18.9 PPG and 13.6 RPG during the 2021-22 season and 13.9 PPG and 15.0 RPG the previous season.

Aimaq, who is originally from Vancouver, Canada, started his college basketball career at Mercer. He has one year of eligibility remaining.

"We will be aggressive in the transfer portal," Madsen said earlier this week. "When players enter that portal that are great basketball players and great students, we're going to be all over them. We're going to be all over them and we're going to bring them here to Cal."

The Bears' roster is very much a work in progress, but Aimaq is quite a start to the overhaul that Madsen believes will expedite his efforts to rebuild a Cal program that won just three games last season under former coach Mark Fox.

Here's what Madsen said earlier this week about his approach to mining the transfer portal.

"I would say this -- it's all about personal relationships. There's absolutely 1,700 guys in the portal. Of those 1,700, how many are good enough to play at Cal? Through personal relationships and really that go back one year, two year, decades, there's a level of trust with players, with AAU coaches, with agents," he said. "We as a staff are a staff that have -- we'll announce more on the staff later -- we have great relationships and great trust level to help us navigate that."

Madsen's prior connection with Aimaq was clearly a pivotal factor in this case, so it remains to be seen how well Madsen and his staff will be able to sell Cal basketball to top transfers and recruits it doesn't have a past relationship with, but starting with a 6-foot-11 double-double machine will certainly amplify excitement for what is to come.

Here are some clips of Aimaq in action: