Ex-Cal Forward Sam Alajiki Is Transferring to Rice

Owls went 19-16 this past season and play in Conference-USA

There had been speculation that new Cal baskertball coach Mark Madsen might try to recruit Sam Alajiki out of the transfer portal, but apparently that did not happen as Alajiki is transferring to Rice, according to Jon Rothstein.

Alajiki was a starter in 14 of the 29 games he played for Cal this past season as a sophomore. He averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 35.9% on three-pointers.

He will be moving to a Rice team that went 19-16 this past season, including 8-12 in Conference-USA, placing sixth in the 11-team conference.

The Owls took Texas to overtime before losing to the Longhorns in Austin, Texas., and Rice had a win over North Texas, which won the NIT.

Rice played in the College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament, beating Duquesne in the first round before losing to Southern Utah.

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Cover photo of Sam Alajiki is by Joe Nicholson, USA TODAY Sports

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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.