Cal Basketball

Bears Add Forward Amier Ali from Transfer Portal

The Mississippi State transfer brings to Berkeley length, defense, athleticism and, perhaps most importantly, a high ceiling.
April 26, 2026
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Photo by Mississippi State Basketball

Cal has added another player from the transfer portal.

The Bears landed Mississippi State transfer forward Amier Ali, Bear Insider has learned, adding another wing to the fold after Georgia transfer Jake Wilkins recently announced his move to Berkeley.

http://instagr.am/p/DXmJ1Z-GyH4

Ali, 6-foot-8 and 210 pounds, is entering his third season and offers length, defense, athleticism and, perhaps most importantly, a high ceiling.

The Texas native has career averages of 4.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.6 assists, but that’s before mentioning Ali played merely 87 minutes over 12 games for the Bulldogs in 2025-26 and was, quite frankly, in the wrong situation.

“Amier’s one of those guys, like, you just have to know him to know what kind of player he is,” Mississippi State guard Ja'Borri McGhee said after one of Ali’s rare solid performances last season, a win over New Orleans in late November. “He’s really a three-level scorer; he could shoot it from deep; he could drive, obviously; he makes free throws; and he can rebound.

“To see him come in and stay ready after he hasn’t been playing … we knew he was going to get in and make plays.”

Ali’s freshman campaign at Arizona State was much more stable, as he played 19.2 minutes per game and collected seven games of double-digit scoring and looked like one of the Big 12’s premier rookies.

Ali was ESPN’s No. 54 recruit in the class of 2024.

He clearly has untapped potential that has Bears coach Mark Madsen intrigued, especially with forward John Camden out of eligibility and Chris Bell’s future undetermined.

11 Comments
Discussion from...

Bears Add Forward Amier Ali from Transfer Portal

2,706 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 6 hrs ago by RedlessWardrobe
stu
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Good to see the pieces coming together after so many transfers and out of eligibility.
BearForceOne
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Welcome to Cal, Amier! Looking forward to you having a great career here! Go Bears!
01Bear
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Welcome, Ali!

Go Bears!
stu
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Yet again Madsen finds a high upside guy in a challenging situation. I expect Ali to reach his potential at Cal.
Go!Bears
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stu said:

Yet again Madsen finds a high upside guy in a challenging situation. I expect Ali to reach his potential at Cal

- and then leave us….
stu
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Go!Bears said:

stu said:

Yet again Madsen finds a high upside guy in a challenging situation. I expect Ali to reach his potential at Cal

- and then leave us….

Better to have loved and lost ...
barsad
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Joaquin, can you expand on this statement about Bell:
"… and Chris Bell's future undetermined."
TonyTiger
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barsad said:

Joaquin, can you expand on this statement about Bell:
"… and Chris Bell's future undetermined."


He's appealed for another year as he is out of them. Its a kind of long shot but we'll see.
TonyTiger
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Go!Bears said:

stu said:

do some people keep Yet again Madsen finds a high upside guy in a challenging situation. I expect Ali to reach his potential at Cal

- and then leave us….

Why do some of you keep saying negative stuff that we all know. We're trying drum up some support for this program and some of you always have a negative comment that everyone else already knows iis true but has accepted it and moved on for the good of the program.

I mean what if we got Dukes entire team. What would you say?

Would you rather the old system where it takes 10 years to build a program from scratch or todays NIL where you can do it in three or four?
barsad
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TonyTiger said:

Go!Bears said:

stu said:

do some people keep Yet again Madsen finds a high upside guy in a challenging situation. I expect Ali to reach his potential at Cal

- and then leave us….

Why do some of you keep saying negative stuff that we all know. We're trying drum up some support for this program and some of you always have a negative comment that everyone else already knows iis true but has accepted it and moved on for the good of the program.

I mean what if we got Dukes entire team. What would you say?

Would you rather the old system where it takes 10 years to build a program from scratch or todays NIL where you can do it in three or four?

Old system, please.
RedlessWardrobe
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Back to Ali. Watching the highlight video one thing that I like is on the catch and shoot he has an extremely quick release. Not a jump shot, but he brings the ball up fast and lets go. Would certainly come in handy against a good defense.
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