UC Santa Barbara is getting one of the Pac-12’s top post scorers and rebounders … on the rebound.
Andre Kelly, a starting forward at Cal who was originally recruited by the Gauchos five years ago, announced on Tuesday that he will play basketball for UCSB next year as a graduate transfer.
“Coach (Joe) Pasternack recruited me during my time in high school, so I already had a good relationship with him,” Kelly said. “He still really wanted me. He has the same vision for me that I have for myself.
“For my last year, I want to win — win the conference championship and advance to the tournament with my teammates — and improve and develop.”
Kelly should bolster UCSB’s postseason chances as a replacement for Amadou Sow, a four-time All-Big West Conference forward who will graduate next month. His stature of 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds as well as his averages of 13.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game are strikingly similar to Sow’s.
He averaged 10.3 points and 6.4 rebounds as a junior, 7.5 points and 5.6 rebounds as a sophomore, and 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds as a freshman.
Although he missed the last six weeks of the season with an ankle injury, his seven double-doubles this year still ranked among the top five of the Pac-12. He shot 60.7% from the field and just under 70% from the free-throw line.
“He can score, he can rebound, he can really pass the ball,” Pasternack said. “He’s just a complete package on the court and off the court.
“It’s really refreshing because Andre chose UC Santa Barbara for all the right reasons. He’s an incredible student, a lot like Amadou, and had great grades at Cal, which is one of the top two public universities in America.”
Kelly, who scored 1,014 points and grabbed 657 rebounds during his four seasons with the Golden Bears, is able to play a fifth year of college basketball because of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-21 season. He will walk graduation at Cal in two weeks to receive a degree in Legal Studies.
He put his name into the NCAA transfer portal on April 16 while simultaneously declaring for the NBA Draft. He decided against signing with an agent, however, which allowed him to return to college and work “on my perimeter skills.” He attempted just four three-pointers at Cal last season, making two of them.
“I’ve got a good mid-range game, I just want to be able to stretch the floor a little bit more, stretch it out to three and improve my ball-handling on the perimeter,” Kelly said. “Being able to guard multiple positions is something I really want to improve on.”
He was born in San Francisco but moved to Stockton as a child with his family. He’s a fan of former Gaucho Gabe Vincent, another Stockton native who’s been starting for the Miami Heat this week in its NBA semifinal series against Philadelphia.
“There’s definitely that great Stockton-to-Santa Barbara connection,” Kelly said. “He’s a hometown hero.”
Kelly drew Pasternack’s eye while setting the single-season scoring and rebounding records for Stockton’s Lincoln High School. The Gauchos offered the three-star recruit a scholarship but lost that battle to Cal.
“We built a relationship with him and his father, but he chose Cal and got a degree from one of the top academic institutions,” Pasternack said. “We had just taken over (at UCSB) and still had to prove ourselves.
“We had a much different product to sell this time. Our facilities have changed and we developed our winning culture.”
Kelly took an official visit last Thursday and Friday — his first time on UCSB’s campus since he was in high school.
“I really love the city, and the campus is just such a beautiful place,” he said. “I really liked the feel and the energy when I was down there.
“I met some of the players like Miles (Norris) and Ajay (Mitchell), and they seem like great guys.”
Pasternack said that Kelly, the son of Gerardo and Lupe Kelly, will fit right in with his returning players.
“We really research the character of everybody we recruit, and he has incredible character,” he said. “He comes from an amazing family. Mom and Dad have done an amazing job with him. He gets along with anybody.
“He checks all the boxes with his character, his academics, and his elite basketball talent. I think he’s going to fit in really well with our players.”
Pasternack is still “literally scouring the earth … recruiting a lot of international players right now” in his search for two additional players. But Kelly, along with 6-10 Crean Lutheran High School star Koat Keat Tong, have helped the Gauchos fill the voids left by Sow and Robinson Idehen, their two graduating big men.
“Andre is a huge piece to our recruiting class, along with Koat Keat Tong,” Pasternack said. “We’ve been very selective in who we’ve taken.
“We’ve got two scholarships left so we’re just going to really research what’s out there, like we’ve done with these guys, and try to find the best fit for our organization.”
Kelly plans to attend the first session of summer school at UCSB and join the Gaucho workouts.
“I’m excited to get down there and get to work,” he said. “They missed the tournament last year by just a little margin but hopefully, this year, I can come down there and help us get to the tournament — and not just make it, but make a little noise and win some games and advance.”