The University of Tennessee announced on Apr. 15 the signing of Dai Dai Ames, a senior guard and Third Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) selection, to its men’s basketball program for the 2025-26 season.
Ames joins Tennessee with one year of eligibility remaining after a standout junior season at California, where he averaged 16.9 points, 2.2 assists, and 2.0 rebounds per game while starting all 34 games. He helped lead Cal to its highest win total since the 2015-16 season.
Head coach Rick Barnes said, “We are excited to welcome Dai Dai and his family to the Tennessee basketball program. He is an extremely competitive and coachable individual who really gels with our culture.” Barnes added that Ames’s ability to make shots in late-clock situations was a key factor in his recruitment: “Dai Dai can make shots in late-clock situations, which is a skill we were looking for in the portal. He is a crafty lefty with a strong frame who can finish at the rim through contact, as well as a superb movement shooter and an elite midrange scorer. All of that makes him a great fit for our system. Dai Dai really wants to be part of a winning team and contend for championships.”
Ames ranked among ACC leaders last season in several categories including made field goals (sixth), free throw percentage (seventh), scoring average (ninth), field-goal percentage (12th), and minutes played (13th). In ACC play alone, he shot over 92 percent from the free throw line—the second-best mark in the league—and scored at least twenty points twelve times.
Before transferring to Cal, Ames played at Virginia as a sophomore where he started twenty-six games and averaged nearly nine points per contest while shooting just under forty percent from three-point range. As a freshman at Kansas State, he started sixteen games.
Across his college career so far, Ames has scored double figures fifty-one times out of ninety-six appearances and holds career averages of ten-and-a-half points per game.
Looking ahead, Ames becomes Tennessee’s third transfer addition this offseason following Tyler Lundblade—Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year—and Miles Rubin—a two-time Atlantic Ten Defensive Team honoree.
