Report: UMass guard RJ Luis expected to visit Texas A&M this weekend
Former UMass guard RJ Luis became one of the top players in the transfer portal once he decided to enter earlier this month. Now, one of his first visits is reportedly set.
Per Jon Rothstein at CBS Sports, Luis says he plans to visit Texas A&M over this weekend. While he adds that Luis is ‘receiving interest’ from Arizona as well, the Aggies will get an early shot at the former Minuteman as he heads to College Station for the next few days.
Luis will be a sophomore next year after a solid freshman campaign in the Atlantic 10. He appeared in 27 games while in Massachusetts with 10 starts. During that first season, he averaged nearly 23 minutes of action per game.
In his appearances, Luis finished third on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game. He also averaged 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals while shooting 45.5% from the field and nearly 35% from three.
Coming out of high school, Luis was rated as a three-star prospect in 2022 by the On3 Industry Rankings. He was ranked as a Top-5 player in Maryland, a Top-50 shooting guard, and a Top-250 prospect overall.
In On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings, Luis is listed as the No. 60 player available in the portal. With him listed as a small forward, he ranks within the Top-20 of that position.
Buzz Williams has been making moves down at A&M, especially with how this last season went for the Aggies. With that in mind, they’ll look to impress again once Luis gets to campus for the weekend.
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.
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.
Track transfer portal activity
While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.
If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.
The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Consensus recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).
The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz’s Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.