Cal Sports Report

Michigan State Grad Transfer Mady Sissoko Commits to Cal

Sissoko is the ninth player to transfer to Mark Madsen's basketball program at Cal in the past few weeks

Jake Curtis

March 21, 2024, Charlotte, NC, USA; Michigan State Spartans center Mady Sissoko (22) rebounds the
March 21, 2024, Charlotte, NC, USA; Michigan State Spartans center Mady Sissoko (22) rebounds the / Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Michigan State graduate transfer center Mady Sissoko has committed to Cal, according to Joe Tipton of On3 Sports on Monday. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound Sissoko is not much of a scorer, but Cal hopes he can provide a physical presence in the middle.

He is the third Cal commitment from the transfer portal in three days, along with commitments from Stanford transfer Andrej Stojakovic on Saturday and Air Force transfer Rytis Petraitis on Sunday.

Mark Madsen now has commitments from nine transfer players, including one junior college transfer, as he replenishes the Cal basketball roster. The Golden Bears lost all five starters plus the top four reserves from the 2023-24 squad, which went 13-19 overall and 9-11 in Pac-12 play.  Cal begins play in the Atlantic Coast Conference next year.

Sissoko is from Mali, and he attended Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, before enrolling at Michigan State. As a senior at Wasatch Academy, he averaged 12.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 0.9 blocks and 0.9 assists in 13 games before the season was postponed. Sissoko was ranked No. 35 in the ESPN Top 100 prospects that year.

He is not a big scorer, but he has been a starter for Tom Izzo’s Michigan State program the past two seasons.

This past season, he started 26 of the 35 games in which he played and averaged 3.3 points and 5.1 rebounds while making 56.8% of his field-goal attempts.  He did not attempt a three-pointer.

In the NCAA tournament, he came off the bench to record two points and nine rebounds in 17 minutes in the first-round win over Mississippi State, and collected four points and three rebounds in eight minutes off the bench in the second-round loss to North Carolina.

Sissoko’s numbers were slightly better in 2022-23 when he started 33 of the 34 games in which he played.  That season Sissoko averaged 5.1 points and 6.1 rebounds while making 61.2% of his shots from the floor.

He also played in 30 games in 2021-22 and 25 games in 2020-21, so he has a wealth of experience in big-time college basketball.

Sissoko joins eight other players who have transferred to Cal recently. They include guard Christian Tucker (Texas-San Antonio), center Lee Dort (Vanderbilt), forward B.J. Omot (North Dakota), forward Joshua Ola-Joseph (Minnesota), guard DJ Campbell (Western Carolina), guard Andrej Stojakovic (Stanford), forward Rytis Petraitis (Air Force) and junior college transfer Jeff Nwankwo.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.