Andre Kelly Returning to College, but Not to Cal - Frontcourt Star Headed to UCSB

No matter how you spin it, this is not a good look for the Cal basketball program.

Andre Kelly, who announced last month he would enter the NBA draft and the transfer portal, revealed on his Instagram page Wednesday that he will play his final season of college ball at UC Santa Barbara.

Bottom line: the Bears lost their best returning player to a Big West Conference program.

Make no mistake, the Gauchos are a good Big West team. Coach Joe Pasternack got his start in the profession at Cal under Ben Braun, first as an administrative assistant before being promoted to assistant coach.

In five seasons as head coach at UCSB, Pasternack has assembled a record of 105-45. The Gauchos were 17-11 this past season after four straight 20-win seasons.

Santa Barbara is an excellent school, part of the UC system, and Kelly wrote that he will pursue his masters degree at the school.

A 6-foot-8 forward from Stockton, Kelly averaged 13.4 points this past season and was second in the Pac-12 at 8.4 rebounds per game before suffering a severe ankle injury against USC on Jan. 29. He missed the team’s final 11 games.

Kelly improved all four seasons he was at Cal, boosting his scoring average from 6.3 to 7.5 to 10.3 to 13.4.

The arc of the Cal program has not followed the same upward path. The Bears are riding an all-time worst streak of five straight losing seasons, including four in which they lost at least 20 games.

Compared to UCSB’s record over the past five years, Cal is 51-105 over the same stretch.

Coach Mark Fox has been in charge just the past three seasons. He inherited a mess and his job was made much tougher by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But his program doesn't appear on the cusp of escaping this grim cycle of losing.

This is the second straight season Cal's best player has transferred to another school. Top scorer Matt Bradley departed for San Diego State after the 2021 season and led the Aztecs to a 23-9 record and a berth in the NCAA tournament.

As an undersized low-post player, Kelly remains a long shot to play in the NBA. He certainly has the talent to fashion a professional career overseas, but said he put his professional dreams on hold because is still not 100 percent healthy.

Kelly could have returned to Cal, but when it came time to choose a school he wanted one that would give him the chance to “compete for a championship.”

Every player wants to win, wants to play in the NCAA tournament.

While Cal hasn’t been since 2016, the Gauchos made it to the NCAAs in 2021. That was UCSB's first trip to the NCAAs since 2011 while playing in what is typically a one-bid conference.

Even so, when it came down to it, Kelly decided he has a better chance to get there in 2023 at Santa Barbara than at Berkeley.

Cover photo of Andre Kelly by Darren Yamashita USA Today

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