BREAKING: Ben Middlebrooks commits to NC State
NC State landed a major addition to its front court Tuesday morning when Clemson transfer portal center Ben Middlebrooks committed to the Wolfpack. He announced the decision via Instagram.
After officially visiting both NC State and Auburn over the weekend, the center chose to run with the Pack.
The 6-foot-10, 232-pounder posted modest numbers last season, averaging 3.2 points and 2.7 rebounds in 11.2 minutes of action while playing all 34 contests for the Tigers. Middlebrooks started 7 games and shot 48 percent from the field and 77.3 percent at the free throw line.
During a Dec. 30 matchup against NC State this year, he scored a season-high 10 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
As a recruit, the center was a four-star prospect, according to ESPN, and the No. 25 power forward in the 2021 recruiting class. He played two years with the Tigers and has two more years of eligibility remaining.
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.
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.
