Cal transfer Dai Dai Ames commits to Tennessee

Former Cal guard Dai Dai Ames has committed to Tennessee out of the NCAA transfer portal, per On3’s Joe Tipton. Ames was in Knoxville this weekend visiting the program before committing to Rick Barnes’ staff.

Tennessee will be Ames fourth school in four seasons. He began his career at Kansas State before moving on to Virginia and finally California before the Chicago native made his way to Tennessee through the portal on Saturday.

He logged career-best stats during his time at Cal, starting in all 34 games he appeared in. He logged 16.9 points per game to go along with 2.2 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game this season. That included a 37.6% clip from deep and an 85% clip from the free throw line.

Ranking 88th overall in On3’s transfer portal rankings at the time of his commitment, Ames has steadily improved his numbers in each season of his career. At K-State he averaged 5.2 points before bolstering that number to 8.7 points per game at UVA before doubling them out on the west coast.

Before college, Ames was a three-star recruit according to the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was the No. 256 overall recruit in the 2023 class and was the 53rd-rated point guard.

He’ll join a Tennessee team coming off its third-straight trip to the Elite Eight with a 25-12 record and a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was the sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the Vols under head coach Rick Barnes.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.