Guard Lulu Twidale, who led Cal in scoring in 2025-26, is one of four starters returning for the Bears next season.
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
With guard Lulu Twidale as their only returning starter last season, the Cal women lost their first eight games against Power Four schools, including their first four in the ACC.
The Bears responded by winning 10 of their final 16 games against ACC competition (including two games in the conference tournament), but those early stumbles left their résumé not quite good enough to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
For the upcoming season, head coach Charmin Smith and her staff will have the advantage of welcoming back Twidale and three other starters from 2025-26: guards Mjracle Sheppard and Gisella Maul and forward Taylor Barnes.
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In this era of revenue sharing, NIL and the transfer portal, a Power Four school having four returning starters is — in and of itself — noteworthy.
“I think the culture’s strong,” said Smith, who’s entering her eighth season leading the program. “I think we have really good people, and I think that set us up for success in retaining people. …
“All of them could have gotten more money elsewhere, but there’s something about our program that was a fit for them and made them want to stay.”
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Twidale was a second-team All-ACC selection as a junior in 2025-26 when she led the Bears in scoring at 16.2 points per game and set the school season record for 3-pointers (101).
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“Money isn’t the reason I stayed,” Twidale said from her native Australia in a phone interview. “Obviously, it’s a part of the game today, but … being surrounded by really amazing people — great coaches, great teammates — was more important to me than chasing a bag.”
Twidale listed graduating from Cal and the fact that so many key teammates chose to stick with the Bears as main reasons for her decision to remain in Berkeley.
“We all have our different reasons for wanting to stay,” Maul said, “but then, at the same time, I also think that the biggest reason for wanting to stay is that we all bought into the process and bought into trusting in the staff and trusting in the plan and trusting that we’re going to be better” next season.
Maul said the players’ familiarity with each other will help the Bears become more cohesive than they were at the outset of last season.
“One of our biggest things that we struggled with last season was how new we all were,” Maul said. “A lot of us were put in roles we hadn’t been in before and a lot of people were brand new.
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“So I think we struggled with trying to figure each other out, and I feel like by the time we did, it was a little too late.”
Sheppard was one of those new players last season. The point guard had spent her freshman season at Mississippi State and her sophomore season at LSU before coming to Cal. Twidale is enthused about what Sheppard’s return means for the Bears.
“I think it is very important to have a point guard that has been in the system for a year already, knows how we play,” Twidale said. “She’s had a year to get comfortable in the system and I know she’s going to progress a lot.”
Sheppard averaged 8.8 points and 3.5 assists per game last season and led the Bears with 71 steals.
Cal’s key losses from last season are center Sakima Walker and guard Aliyanha “Puff” Morris. Walker, who averaged 12.5 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds per game, signed with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in April but was waived.
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Morris, a part-time starter who averaged 7 points per game, transferred to Arizona.
Smith did add three players via the transfer portal: 6-foot-5 center Albina Syla (Rhode Island) and guards Shannon Dowell (Missouri) and Carly Amborn (Stanford). The Bears had recruited Amborn, who will be a sophomore next season, when she was at San Domenico-San Anselmo.
Smith just finished a stint as an assistant coach on the United States under-18 team that won the Women’s AmeriCup tournament in Irapuato, Mexico.
She sees parallels between the 2024-25 Cal team that reached the NCAA Tournament and next season’s squad. That 2024-25 team had three returning starters plus Twidale, who had been a significant contributor as a reserve the previous season.
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“We’re retaining our core,” Smith said. “That gives me a lot of confidence.”
Steve Kroner is a freelance writer. Email: skroner@sbcglobal.net; X: @SteveKronerSF