NCAAB

Jaylon Tyson

Jaylon Tyson

The transfer portal era in college athletics seems like its been with us forever.

Likewise, most fans can recall less turbulent times when transfers happened, they simply didnt 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: 3.

Jaylon Tyson Sport: Basketball Arrival year at Cal: 2023-24 Previous schools: Texas (0.8 points in 8 games in 2021-22) and Texas Tech (10.7 points, 4.6 rebounds in 2022-23) Contributions at Cal: A 6-foot-6 wing, Tyson came to Cal for the 2023-24 season as part of first-year coach Mark Madsens initial recruiting class.

He made his impact felt in his debut, posting 20 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals in the Bears' 87-79 loss to Pacific.

The Plano, Texas native scored in double digits in each of Cals first 25 games, had 17 games of 20 points or more and finished the season averaging 19.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists with eight double-doubles.

Tyson earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in the Bears final season in the conference before Cal moved on to the ACC.

He also was a first-team All-NABC district selection and a top-10 finalist for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year.

His 607 points are tied for the seventh-most by a Cal player in a single-season and his 19.6 per-game average was the highest since Ryan Anderson scored 21.1 in 2007-08.

Tyson was the 20th pick in the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft, one of just three Pac-12 players chosen in the first round.

Cal hadnt had a first-round NBA pick since Jaylen Brown in 2016.

Standout performance: Tyson put up 30 points in a pair of Pac-12 victories, but his best effort came in the second of those when he scored 11 points in the final 4 minutes of regulation to force overtime in an 81-75 win over Washington State.

He also contributed nine rebounds and five assists while converting 9 of 10 free throws, including 4 for 4 in overtime.

The win came two days after a buzzer-beater defeat to Washington and snapped Cals eight-game losing streak to the Cougars.

Impact on his team: Tyson was the best player on a team that made a 10-game leap in total victories over the season before, even if the Bears 13-19 overall record fell short of their ambitions.

Cal was 9-11 in Pac-12 play (compared to 2-18 the year before) and Tyson averaged 20.2 points over a 9-5 stretch in the middle of the conference scheduled that demonstrated the programs growth.

Previously on our list: Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky Jeff Faraudo was a sports writer for Bay Area daily newspapers since he was 17 years old, and was the Oakland Tribune's Cal beat writer for 24 years.

He covered eight Final Fours, four NBA Finals and four Summer Olympics.