Cal Sports Report

Cal Adds Northern Arizona Transfer Jalen Cone

Third-team all-Big Sky guard is the second basketball transfer Bears have added since Mark Madsen was named head coach

Jake Curtis

Jalen Cone, a 5-foot-11 point guard who was a third-team all-Big Sky conference selection while playing at Northern Arizona this past season, has signed with Cal as a transfer, the school announced Friday.

"Bringing Jalen to Berkeley was a top priority for our coaching staff," Cal head coach Mark Madsen said in a statement provided by the school. "He's an elite shooter who will boost our offense immediately and bring a mature, calming presence to our team. Jalen is also a tremendous playmaker who gets into the paint at will. Jalen's work ethic fuels his hunger to win, and that's the type of player every program benefits from. He's a true winner in every sense of the word and an outstanding teammate both on and off the court. We are incredibly excited to welcome Jalen and his family to the community and can't wait for him to arrive on campus."

Cone made an interesting comment to the 247 Sports Transfer Portal: "I think we'll make a run in that Pac-12 next season."

This will be the second transfer for Cone, who is the second transfer to commit to Cal since Mark Madsen became the Golden Bears' head coach.Β  Former Texas Tech and Utah Valley center Fardaws Aimaq commited to Cal last week.

Cone averaged 17.6 points this past season as a junior and that ranked sixth in the Big Sky.Β  He also averaged 2.5 assists. The Lumberjacks did not have a very good season in 2022-23, going 12-23 overall and 5-13 in the Big Sky, leaving them in ninth place in a 10-team league.

Cone had some big scoring game this past season, scoring 25 points or more 10 times in 2022-23, and that included a 45-point effort against Southern Utah, which finished with a 24-13 record finished third in the WAC.

Jalen Cone
Jalen Cone / Twitter

The 2022-23 season was his second at Northern Arizona, and he averaged 18.8 points in 2021-22. Cone scored more than 30 points three times that season, including a season-high 36 against Sacramento State.

He transferred to Northern Arizona after spending two seasons at Virginia Tech of the ACC.Β  He appeared in 47 games with five starts in his two seasons at Virginia Tech. He was limited to 15 games with four starts due to an injury as a sophomore in 2020-21, when he averaged 9.2 points in 20.0 minutes per game.

Cone scored 18 points or more four times in 2020-21, and scored 15 points or more seven times as a freshman in 2019-20.

Cone played his high school ball atΒ Walkertown (North Carolina) High School. He averaged 25.7 points and 6.6 assists per game in 2018-19 and 35.5 points per game in 2017-18.

Cover photo of Jalen Cone is by James Snook, 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.

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