Matt Bradley Enters Transfer Portal

Cal basketball's climb back into relevancy just got tougher.

In news reported first by Jeff Goodman, Cal guard Matt Bradley will be entering the transfer portal. The Bears leading scorer the past two seasons will not be going in as a grad transfer, and will still have the opportunity to return to Cal if he chooses.

Coming out of the Wasatch Academy in Utah as a four-star recruit, Bradley has since turned into a top scoring option for the Bears, leading them in scoring over the past two seasons (with 17.5 and 18 ppg respectively). He has scored 1289 points over his Cal career, ranking him 21st on Cal's all-time scoring list.

Without Bradley, Cal loses their top-scoring option and a player whose effort could turn games. In the Bears' Pac-12 tournament win over Stanford, Bradley has a key block of Lukas Kisunas that led to him assisting Ryan Betley on a 3-pointer that broke the game open. Bradley scored in single digits only twice during his sophomore and junior seasons, despite missing multiple games due to ankle sprains in the 2020-21 season.

Over his three seasons, Bradley shot 40.4% from beyond the arc. He also took a higher percentage of his team's shots as a junior than any other Pac-12 player. While the Bears did have a winning record without Bradley in the lineup (4-3 vs. 5-17 when he played), they were a better team with him playing. Bradley notably helped Cal to an upset of a ranked Colorado squad, scoring a career high 29 against the Buffs.

Bradley's likely departure blows a hole into Mark Fox's squad for the 2021-22 season. While a scholarship spot will open for the Bears to potentially take in a transfer of their own, there isn't a player on the roster with the ability to create from nothing like Bradley did consistently over the last two seasons.

Barring further entries into the transfer portal, Cal does have 9 different players returning that have started a game for them in the past, but the Bears will need to find something that works in Mark Fox's third year in Berkeley.