Mady Sissoko is a California Golden Bear
The California Golden Bears land the Michigan State big to get three huge commitments in the coming week.
Cal men’s basketball will definitely be bigger and stronger in their first year in the ACC. Meet senior Mady Sissoko out of Michigan State, the latest Cal men’s basketball commit. He joins Rytis Petraitis and Andrej Stojaković as the newest Golden Bears!
In 2023-24, Sissoko averaged 5.1 rebounds a game in 15 minutes off the bench, shooting 57% from the field. His defensive rebound rate is one of the best in the nation in his playing minutes. With a 7-3 wingspan, his defensive versatility will be worth watching. Joining a trio of forwards/bigs in Joshua Ola-Joseph (Minnesota), BJ Omot (North Dakota) and Lee Dort (Vanderbilt), Cal will certainly not have to worry as much about relying too heavily on one big to carry the load, as Fardaws Aimaq had to do last season.
Additionally, Sissoko uses his NIL money to fund the education of students in his home country of Mali via his Mady Sissoko Foundation. He has raised over $63,000 of a $200,000 goal to support the education of 400 schoolchildren in his hometown of Tangafoya. Let’s give him a warm welcome by contributing to his GoFundMe. Full story here.
You can see Mark Madsen aiming heavily on a defensive-minded profile this season, as almost all of the new players will be a plus on that side of the ball. Pairing them with two offensive talents in Stojakovic and Petraitis will give Cal hopefully a much stronger defensive presence.
Cal has one scholarship left. Will be interesting to see which way the Bears go. It feels like they could use another point/combo guard, but also a big couldn’t hurt. One more move to go!
So so exciting !
Next year is going to become legendary.
It will be so great to watch how Coach Madsen & staff can meld these diverse stars into a benevolent, helping-each-other, aggressive whole.
A real indictment of how lazy/incompetent/ineffective Fox was on the recruiting trail. Madsen's personality & energy must be a big part of the unexpectedly great portal class he's bringing in. And it's not just a portal-era thing. There was a great article (bear insider maybe? can't find it now) where Ben Braun detailed all of the crazy (all legal) things at all hours of the day or night he did to get recruits in. I really like this new coach. His monumental task is getting this team to gel prior to game 1, and not mid-season.