Cal Basketball: As Matt Bradley Bids Adieu, Here's Where He Ranks Among Transfers
We still don’t know where Matt Bradley will play his college basketball next season, but the junior guard said his goodbyes to Cal and the Berkeley community this weekend on social media.
“Dear Berkeley,” Bradley wrote on a Twitter post. “You have transformed me into a man I never imagined myself growing up as a youth. You’ve taught me how to overcome adversity, the value of hard work, and how to love others.”
Bradley, who announced early last week he had entered the transfer portal, went on to thank “so many amazing people,” citing coaches, staff, teammates, friends, brothers and sisters, along with students and fans who supported the basketball team, and the Higher Ground Church in Oakland for embracing him.
“I am thankful for every second spent at Berkeley,” he wrote. “My 3 years at Berkeley were much bigger than basketball and school.”
Bradley, who led the Bears in scoring the past two seasons and earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors this season, gave no indication why he is leaving or where he is heading.
But Bradley, a 6-foot-4 wing player who scored more than 1,200 career points for the Bears, will find an eager new home.
Eric Bossi of 247Sports rated Bradley as the seventh-best transfer on the market. Here’s what he wrote:
Bossi’s take
: Another big-time producer in the Pac 12 who was a four-star prospect during his high school days, Matt Bradley has spent the last three seasons at Cal living up to his prep reputation as a physical scoring machine.
He’s made over 150 threes during his first year of school gets to the free throw line five times per game and is physically imposing. Teams looking for perimeter punch are lining up to try and lure him to campus.
And here’s how Bossi ranked the top-15 transfers in the portal (transfer destination in parenthesis):
1. Walker Kessler, center, North Carolina
2. Marcus Carr, guard, Minnesota
3. Xavier Johnson, guard, Pitt (Indiana)
4. Timmy Allen, forward, Utah
5. Tre Mitchell, forward, UMass
6. Earl Timberlake, forward, Miami (Memphis)
7. Matt Bradley, guard, Cal
8. Xavier Pinson, guard, Missouri
9. Adam Miller, guard, Illinois
10. Christian Bishop, forward, Creighton
11. Stanley Umude, forward, South Dakota (Arkansas)
12. Marreon Jackson, guard, Toledo (Arizona State)
13. Joseph Yesufu, guard, Drake (Kansas)
14. Liam Robbins, center, Minnesota
15. Rasir Bolton, guard, Iowa State
Cover photo of Matt Bradley by Darren Yamashita, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo