Report: Kowacie Reeves makes decision on future at Florida
Florida Gators freshman guard Kowacie Reeves will know longer be entering his name into the NCAA transfer portal, per Travis Branham of 247 Sports. Reeves surprised Florida basketball fans and the program when it was revealed that he intended to enter the portal earlier this week. When the news broke Wednesday, the 6-foot-6 native of Macon, Georgie, did make it clear remaining with the Gators was a real option.
According to Branham, news of Reeves’s reversal and to return to Florida was announced on Friday, and just nearly 48 hours removed from his entry into the transfer portal.
Reeves was a top-50 player in the On3 Consensus for the 2021 recruiting class. He played in 29 games (10 starts) and averaged 15.5 minutes per game. He averaged 5.5 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.5 steals per game while shooting 33% from 3-point range. Reeves really came on late in the 2021-22 season. He scored a career-high 21 points against Texas A&M. Reeves also scored 14 points in each of Florida’s two NIT games.
Transfer portal background information
The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.
The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.
Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.
The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.
A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.