Cal Sports Report

Michigan Transfer Justin Pippen, Son of Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, Commits to Cal

Justin Pippen played sparingly as a freshman at Michigan and will be the second Golden Bears player who is the son of an NBA star
Jake Curtis|
Justin Pippen
Justin Pippen | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:

California Golden Bears

Michigan transfer Justin Pippen, the son of basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, committed to Cal on Tuesday.

The 6-foot-3 Pippen is a point guard who played in 28 games off the bench as a freshman for the Wolverines this past season. He averaged only 6.7 minutes per game while averaging 1.6 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.6 assists. He made 27.3% of his field-goal attempts overall and hit 26.7% of his three-point attempts.

He missed the Big Ten tournament and the first two games of the NCAA tournament because of a concussion. Pippen then entered the transfer portal before Michigan's Sweet 16 loss to Auburn.

His best game came against Purdue-Fort Wayne, when he had 10 points and four rebounds..

Pippen was a four-star recruit coming out Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, California. The 247 Sports website ranked him as the nation’s 71st-best prospect in the class of 2024, and ESPN ranked him at No. 76.

Pippen becomes the fourth transfer to commit to Cal in the past few weeks, joining Virginia transfer Dai Dai Ames, Loyola-Maryland transfer Milos Ilic and Campbell transfer Nolan Dorsey.

Pippen is the second son of a famous NBA player to join the Cal program.  Andrej Stojakovic, son of former NBA standout Peja Stojakovic, transferred to Cal from Stanford after the 2023-24 season..He averaged 17.9 points this season as a Cal sophomore after averaging 7.8 points as a freshman at Stanford.

Pippen no doubt is hoping for a similar improvement under Mark Madsen, who spent nine years as a player in the NBA and was given much of the credit for turning Jaylon Tyson into a first-round pick in the 2024 NBA draft.

Cal has lost several players through the portal. Freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson transferred to Georgia, BJ Omot transferred to Minnesota, and Joshua Ola-Joseph remains in the transfer portal and has yet to commit to a school.

Cal walk-ons Stephon Marbury II, Hugh Vandeweghe and Jaden Goodall have also entered the transfer portal.

.

.

Recent articles:

Cal WR Dazmin James is intriguing because of his bowl performance

Collin Morikawa is among the favorites at the Masters

Cal loses an assistant basketball coach at Florida State

Women's gymnastics team falls short of returning to the NCAA Championship

Justin Wilcox discusses new Cal football GM Ron Rivera's role

Cal gets a 2026 commitment from an O-lineman who grew up in Russia

Published | Modified
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.

Home/Basketball