Counting Down Cal's Top-50 Transfer Athletes: No. 26 Recee' Caldwell

We rank the mid-career arrivals in Berkeley who have had the greatest impact on the Golden Bears

Recee' Caldwell | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

The transfer portal era in college athletics seems like it’s been with us forever. Likewise, most fans can recall less turbulent times when transfers happened, they simply didn’t look like a stampede to the 1849 California Gold Rush.

We thought it was time to rank the best transfers Cal teams have attracted, most of them in recent seasons but also including a few OGs from yesteryear. 

We limited our ranking to transfers from four-year colleges.

Here is the next athlete in our countdown: 

26. Recee' Caldwell

Sport: Basketball

Arrival year at Cal: 2018-19

Previous schools: UCLA (6.9 points in 2014-15), Texas Tech (12.3 points in 2016-17 & 2017-18)

Contributions at Cal: 

— Caldwell played the 2018-19 season at Cal, averaging 10.0 points and 4.6 assists while shooting 36.3 percent from the 3-point arc

— A 5-foot-9 point guard, she had four games of at least 20 points and nine games with at least six assists

— Caldwell was at her best late in the season. Over the Bears’ final 12 games, she averaged 13.8 points and 5.9 assists while shooting 40 percent from deep

— Caldwell, who has been married since 2022 to NBA player De’Aaron Fox, was the first graduate transfer to the Cal women’s basketball program

Standout performance: Cal had lost five straight games to fall to 14-11 when Caldwell triggered a five-game win streak that helped to the Bears earn an NCAA tournament bid. She scored 20 points in a 69-60 win over Arizona State that halted the losing streak. She then scored a season-high 24 points as Cal rallied from a 39-19 deficit in the third quarter to an 82-76 overtime victory over Arizona, the Bears’ biggest comeback win in a decade. Caldwell had 13 points and four assists in the third quarter and declared afterward, “We weren’t losing on senior day.”

Impact on her team: Caldwell’s late-season heroics helped the Bears to secure an NCAA tournament bid, their last one until 2025. Then she dished a career-high 12 assists in Cal’s 92-72 opening-round victory over North Carolina. Cal lost 102-63 to top-seeded Baylor in its second-round game and finished with a 20-13 record.

Previously on our list: 

No. 27: Jacob French

No. 28: Anna Purchase

No. 29: Justin Pippen

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