Cal lands Vanderbilt transfer Lee Dort, starts major roster rebuild

For the second year in a row, Cal basketball coach Mark Madsen is going to need to assemble his team largely through the transfer portal after offseason attrition left only three returning scholarship players and limited experience on the roster.

Madsen and the Bears officially started the rebuilding process Monday, landing a commitment from Vanderbilt transfer Lee Dort.

Dort, a 6-foot-10, 245-pound forward, was the No. 50-ranked prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, out of McKinney, Texas, but he's yet to break out at the college level.

Dort played just 6.5 minutes per game as a freshman during the 2022-23 season, averaging 1.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per contest. He appeared in only one game last season before being suspended from the Vanderbilt program following an arrest.

Dort was arrested Nov. 26 on a felony charge of aggravated assault by strangulation following a domestic disturbance on campus, according to an arrest affidavit acquired by The Tennessean.

Per Yahoo Sports, "Dort was accused of shoving his ex-girlfriend against a wall and bedpost and gripping her neck in her Vanderbilt dorm room. When police arrived, they observed a scratch on her shoulder and a red mark on her upper arm. The ex-girlfriend originally had a protective order against Dort, but that order was dismissed."

According to The Tennessean, inJanuary Dort agreed to a pre-trial diversion that has him on track to have his criminal charges dismissed, but he remained suspended from the program.

Madsen will certainly face questions about how he vetted Dort before recruiting him.

From a basketball standpoint, the Bears now have five players for the 2024-25 season in Dort, 6-foot-11 sophomore forward Devin Curtis (5.3 minutes per game in 16 games last season off the bench), 6-foot-10 redshirt junior forward Gus Larson (7.0 MPG in 28 contests), sophomore guard Vladimir Pavlovic (6.1 MPG in 7 contests) and incoming three-star point guard recruit Jeremiah Wilkinson.

The Bears lost their top nine scorers from last season between exhausted eligibility/graduation, NBA draft pursuits and the transfer portal.