Cal Basketball: Lars Thiemann, Sam Alajiki Enter Transfer Portal
Two more key players from Cal's 2022-23 men's basketball team have entered the transfer portal.
Center Lars Thiemann, who started 30 games and was the Bears' leading scorer among Cal players who were available for more than half the season, has entered the transfer protal according to On3.
Also, forward Sam Alajiki, who started 14 games this past season, has entered the transfer portal. Alajiki announced on his twitter site that he has entered the transfer portal, and it was also reported on the Verbal Commits twitter.
Thiemann and Alajiki are the third and fourth Cal players to enter the transfer portal, and all four started at least 14 games in 2022-23. Joel Brown and Kuany Kuany are the Cal players who previously entered the transfer portal.
Cal is currently without a head coach. Mark Fox was fired after Cal went 3-29 this past season, which was Fox's fourth as head coach. Cal athletic director Jim Kowlton presumably will be the person making the final decision on the choice of the next head coach, but the university is investigating Knowlton for how he handled the Teri McKeever issue that led to McKeever's firing.
The 7-foot-1 Thiemann played four seasons for Cal, but one of those was the 2019-20 season, which did not count against college eligibility because of the pandemic. That leaves him with one season of college eligibility.
He averaged 9.5 points, which was second on the team behind only Devin Askew, who played only 13 games this past season. Thiemann also averaged 5.4 rebounds, which led the team.
Alajiki is a sophomore, so he has two seasons of college eligibility remaining. He averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds, and he was the Bears' top three-point shooter this season, hitting 35.9% of his shots from beyond the arc.
The only Cal player who started more than half the games that has not entered the transfer portal is freshman Grant Newell.
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Cover photo of Lars Thiemann by Jeffrey Swinger, USA TODAY Sports
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