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BERKELEY'S NEWS • NOVEMBER 18, 2023

Lars Thiemann, Sam Alajiki enter transfer portal, add to growing list of transfers from Cal

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Staff

MARCH 28, 2023

According to On3, senior center Lars Thiemann has entered the transfer portal, along with sophomore wing Sam Alajiki, who announced the move via Twitter.

Fresh off the heels of Joel Brown and Kuany Kuany entering the portal over the past two weeks, as well as the recent firing of head coach Mark Fox, it’s clear that Cal fans will be seeing a completely different team on Pete Newell Court in the 2023-2024 season.

Coming from Germany, Thiemann has been a consistent contributor in his four years at Cal. He played in every game in both his freshman and junior seasons and only missed one game in his sophomore and senior seasons. Thiemann held down the middle year in and year out, culminating in his best result this past season with career-high averages of 9.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Alajiki’s career also began in Europe, where he lived in both Ireland and England for the first 16 years of his life.

As a freshman, Alajiki got an honorable mention to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team, the first Cal player to earn the honor since the 2016-17 season. That year, he tied Cal’s single-season 3-point field-goal percentage record and set a Cal freshman record with a shooting percentage of 50. This past season, in an expanded role, Alajiki served as Cal’s main shooter in 24 minutes a game and improved his all-around game down the stretch.

Now, the only Cal player to have started over half of the games to not enter the transfer portal is freshman Grant Newell.

The program will now be seeing monumental changes, in search of a new head coach as well as new players to round out its roster.

Contact Kyle Ngo at 

LAST UPDATED

MARCH 28, 2023