When Cal coach Mark Madsen signed forward Fardaws Aimaq, he called the Texas Tech transfer one of the best rebounders in the world.
And while that bit of hyperbole is, at best, difficult to quantify, it’s fair to suggest that Fardaws may be Cal’s best rebounder in more than half a century.
With 333 rebounds and a minimum of two games to play, the 6-foot-11 senior from Vancouver, BC, is on pace to to grab 355 rebounds. That would elevate him to No. 3 on the Bears’ all-time single-season list.
He would trail only Darrall Imohoff, who is second with 371 rebounds in 1960, and Ansley Truitt, who tops the list with 382 boards in 1972 — 52 years ago.
The Bears (13-17, 9-10) close the Pac-12 regular season on Thursday at Stanford (8 p.m. on ESPN2). Aimaq had 12 rebounds against the Cardinal in the Bears’ 73-71 win back on Jan. 26 in Berkeley.
Cal then will play at the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas, beginning a week from Wednesday, March 13, where they will play until they lose.
Currently, Aimaq is fifth on Cal’s single-season list, trailing Bob Presley (347 rebounds in 1968) and Mark McNamara (341 in 1982). He needs 15 over his next two games to move ahead of both Presley and McNamara.
The remarkable aspect of this is that Aimaq is not a leaper, far from it. But what he lacks in verticality he more than makes up for with positioning, strength and perseverance. He has 22 games of at least 10 rebounds, including 14 or more 10 times with a season best of 20 vs. USC.
Aimaq leads the Pac-12 and is fifth nationally with 11.1 rebounds per game.
That’s the highest per-game average by a Pac-12 player since Arizona’s Deandre Ayton recorded 11.6 as a freshman in 2017-18. Ayton had a total of 405 rebounds that year.
The Pac-12 record for rebounds in a season is 506 by UCLAs Bill Walton in 1973. Oregon’s Jim Luscotoff averaged a conference-record 17.2 in 1955.
Aimaq’s 333 total rebounds rank sixth in Division I, second only to reigning national Player of the Year Zach Edey of Purdue among players from power conferences.
Aimaq is also fifth nationally with 19 double-doubles.
Madsen’s totals are greater than any Madsen, his coach, put up during a career as a power forward at Stanford that took him to a Final Four and, eventually, the NBA.
Aimaq began his college career in 2018-19 at Mercer, then transferred to Utah Valley and played the 2020-21 and ’21-22 seasons under Madsen. He led the nation in rebounding at 13.6 per game in 2022.
He then spent last season as Jaylon Tyson’s teammate at Texas Tech, where he produced 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds in 11 games before being injured.
Including each of his stops, Aimaq has accumulated 1,338 rebounds to go with 1,615 points during his college career.
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