Cal Basketball: Teammate on Transfer Jordan Shepherd - `He's The Right Piece for Us'

Graduate guard has played a variety of roles for the much-improved Golden Bears.

The Cal basketball team has made a big leap forward from recent seasons for a variety of reasons, starting with more depth, more length, more experience.

The defense has continued to develop. Forwards Andre Kelly and Grant Anticevich are playing their best ball as seniors. Point guard Joel Brown’s decision making has improved.

But no factor in the Bears’ progress from four straight losing seasons to a 9-5 start, including 2-1 in the Pac-12, is more impactful than the contributions of Jordan Shepherd.

A graduate transfer guard, who previously played at Oklahoma and Charlotte, Shepherd brings the Bears 14.3 points per game, a willing playmaker, a calming influence on the floor and a seasoned mentor for the Bears’ young players.

“He’s the right piece for us,” Brown says in the video below.

With the Bears set to take on No. 7 USC (12-0) on Thursday night, the season is not quite at the halfway point. Still, it's not a reach to suggest that Shepherd is the best graduate transfer Cal has brought in over the half-dozen seasons since the practice came into vogue.

His predecessors, also all guards, include Ryan Betley from Penn (8.5 points) and Makale Foreman from Stony Brook (7.2 points) last season, Kareem South from Texas A&M Corpus Christi (8.9 points) in 2019-20 and Grant Mullins of Columbia (10.3 points) in 2016-17.

All of them made contributions, but none of them moved so easily into such a prominent role.

“Jordan has been just a dynamite fit because he’s such a great person. Our guys love playing with him,” coach Mark Fox says in the video above. "He’s such a willing passer. He’s obviously scored well for us — I’ve probably forced him to be maybe more aggressive and it’s hurt his (shooting) percentages a little bit because we’ve been thin there.

“He’s really been a great addition. He’s fit well within our locker room and within our lineup.”

Shepherd, who played several games with a hard splint on his shooting hand because of an injury, said his teammates get much of the credit for helping him fit.

“They made my transition pretty seamless. Everyone’s been very helpful with getting me here and helping me adapt to a new culture, a new environment,” he said.

“I just try to bring my own experiences to the team, to the program, to the culture. I’m pretty well-traveled so whatever I can bring to help us win is what I’ll do.”

Junior forward Kuany Kuany, still fairly young and improving, said Shepherd’s experience is invaluable.

“It helps a lot, especially me. It makes me know that someone’s always going to be there to slow the game down for us,” Kuany said. “Shep’s brought a lot to this team. He goes hard every day, and just seeing him go out there and have fun it rubs off on everybody.

“He does all the right things, so he’s someone that I look up to and a lot of my teammates look up to. It’s been a very positive thing for us. He’s become one of our leaders.”

Shepherd embraces all the roles he’s been able to shoulder for the Bears.

“Coming in I was expecting to bring my experience, some veteran leadership to a young team,” he said. “But also to try to put the ball in the basket and defend and do everything that contributes to winning.”

Kelly and Brown echo Kuany’s sense of the well-being Shepherd brings to the team.

“He’s very calm on the floor, which is nice,” Kelly said. “When things are happening, getting frantic, getting loud, getting chaotic, having him with the ball in his hands is a very nice thing to have.”

“As an older guy he’s been a leader who taught me, but also a lot of the younger guys,” Brown added. “His personality has brought a good vibe to this team and a good chemistry. A lot of us are able to play off him.”

No one more so than Kelly, who seems like he’s been the recipient of all 37 of Shepherd’s assists through 14 games. The two have developed a nice pick-and-roll chemistry.

“He’s able to score, get his own, but when teams try to double him he can find the open guy,” Kelly said. “He’s just that mature, older guy, where he’s relaxed in late-game situations. We’re confident he’ll make the right play.”

Just as he shares the ball, Shepherd is happy to share the credit for his connection to Kelly. “He makes my life easier,” Shepherd said. “He’s someone I can throw the ball into in the paint and he basically guarantees you two points.”

Fox talks in the video above about how difficult it continues to be for Cal, with its academic demands, to get graduate transfers through the admissions process.

In the case of Shepherd, the evaluation was made more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic because Cal could not scout him in person or invite him to the campus for a visit.

“That may be the greatest challenge of it all,” Fox said. “You just can’t see a guy physically, you don’t get a chance to sit down face-to-face and have a conversation and really understand how they’re wired. You don’t get a chance to see them compete. You’re doing it all off of film.”

One advantage Fox admits having was friendships with Shepherd’s two previous college coaches, Lon Kruger at Oklahoma and Ron Sanchez at Charlotte, who were able to provide scouting reports.

Still, Fox said, “You just don’t know.”

He knows now.

Cover photo of Jordan Shepherd by Matt Pendleton, USA Today

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