Cal Basketball: Senior Point Guard Joel Brown Enters The Transfer Portal

The Canada native has one season of eligibility left and will use it elsewhere.

Cal senior point guard Joel Brown, who has one season of athletic eligibility remaining, has entered the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-3 native of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, wasn’t considered likely to return to the Bears after four losing seasons. But now he can explore a new basketball home before completing his college eligibility.

Brown played 122 games for Cal, starting 93 of them. Very much a pass-first point guard, he averaged 4.8 points and 2.8 assists for his career, including a career-best 6.9 points and 3.2 assists this season.

Because of injuries, he played much of this season as the Bears’ only real point guard and, as a result, averaged nearly 33 minutes per game, including more than 36 minutes per outing the final five games.

Not only did Brown pile up huge minutes on the floor, he played with fire through the end of a disappointing season that led to the firing of fourth-year coach Mark Fox.

Brown scored a career-high 22 points in a loss to Oregon State in the Bears’ regular-season finale. A week earlier, he stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, a career-best nine assists and seven rebounds in a loss to Washington State.

Brown is one of three fourth-year seniors on the roster, along with forward Kuany Kuany and center Lars Thiemann. Both of them also have an additional year of eligibility because of the COVID exemption, although neither has indicated they would like to return and the Bears’ next coach is sure to have something to say about it,

Cal finished this season 3-29, setting an all-time program record for most defeats in a season. The Bears lost their final 16 games of the season after starting the year with 12 consecutive defeats.

Cover photo of Cal point guard Joel Brown by Rob Edwards, KLC fotos

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo