Cal’s DeJuan Clayton Enters Transfer Portal for 8th College Season

DeJuan Clayton, who helped Cal in the nine games he played in his injury-plagued 2022-23 season, has entered the transfer portal with one season of eligibility remaining, multiple sites reported Thursday.

The 6-foot-2 Clayton becomes the eighth Cal player since the end of Cal’s 3-29 season, which led to the dismissal of head coach Mark Fox and the hiring of Mark Madsen.

Clayton turns 26 years old in May and the 2023-24 season would be his eighth in college basketball. Because of several factors he figures to have one more season of eligibility. Former Cal standout Jaylen Brown is also 26 years old and this is seventh NBA season, including two as an all-star.

The 6-foot-2 Clayton missed all but six games in one of his seasons at Coppin State because of injury and played just two games at Harford for medical reasons. Those counted as medical redshirt seasons and did not count against his eligibility. He also played one season at Coppin State that did not count against eligibility because it was during the pandemic.

This past season a hamstring injury caused him to miss Cal’s first 13 games. He then played nine games, including eight starts, but then sat out the final seven games with an unspecified illness.

NCAA rules stipulate that a player can claim a medical redshirt if the injury occurs in the first half of the season and he plays in less than 30% of the team’s games. Clayton was injured before the 2022-23 season started and he played in 28% of the Bears games, giving him the opportunity to consider this past season as medical redshirt season.

Thus he presumably still has one season of eligibility remaining. We assume Clayton would not have entered the transfer portal unless he was certain he would be eligible for 2023-24.

Two of Cal’s three wins this past season came with Clayton in the starting lineup, including the Bears lopsided victory over Stanford when Clayton scored 26 points.

He averaged 9.2 points and 2.9 assists while shooting 37.7% on three-point shots in his one season at Cal.

It appears he won’t be part of the roster Madsen is putting together. Madsen has already added two transfers – Fardaws Aimaq, who came from Texas Tech, and Jalen Cone, who was at Northern Arizona. Devin Askew, who missed most of the 2022-23 season, and Jalen Celestine, who sat out the entire season, have both stated that they plan to stay at Cal for next season.

The other seven Cal scholarship players who entered the transfer portal after the season are Joel Brown, Kuany Kuany, Sam Alajiki, Lars Thiemann, Jarred Hyder, Marsalis Roberson and Obinna Anyanwu.

Cover photo of DeJuan Clayton by James Snook, USA TODAY Sports

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