LSU basketball exodus continues as ninth player enters transfer portal
As LSU transitions from an era led by Will Wade to new head coach Matt McMahon, star guard Eric Gaines is leaving the program. According to a report from On3’s Matt Zenitz, Gaines is entering his name into the transfer portal.
Gaines‘s decision comes on the same day five-star freshman Efton Reid entered the transfer portal, making it nine total LSU players to leave the program since the end of the season, according to On3’s Joe Tipton.
The post-Wade era LSU exodus has coincided with four players decommitting from the Tigers.
To illustrate, Shareef O’Neal, Jerrell Colbert, Bradley Ezewiro, Brandon Murray, Xavier Pinson, Adam Miller, and Justice Williams were lost to the portal. As for the decommitments, five-stars Yohan Traore and Julian Phillips, and four-stars Devin Ree and Marvel Allen are taking their talents elsewhere.
As you can see, Matt McMahon has his work cutout for him as he begins his time at LSU. Gaines is adding his name to the list of players who would rather play elsewhere.
Gaines was a four-star recruit out of Lithonia, Georgia according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average. At the time of his recruitment, Gaines also held offers from programs like Alabama, Houston and TCU.
In his first season with the Tigers, Gaines averaged 2.5 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists over 13.4 minutes per game. However, his role increased last season, averaging 9.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists over 26.9 minutes per game.
His career high for points in a game is 16, which he achieved twice last season. However, Gaines couldn’t find a rhythm during LSU’s loss to Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament, as he was shut out scoring-wise.
More on Eric Gaines, transfer portal
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.
The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.