Former LSU, NC State guard Cam Hayes commits to East Carolina

Cam Hayes is returning to his home state, as the LSU transfer and former NC State point guard has committed to East Carolina.

Hayes, a Greensboro, North Carolina native, was a highly-rated player in the 2020 recruiting cycle. He was rated as a national top 65 recruit and the No. 15 overall point guard, in addition to being the No. 5 player out of North Carolina as a four-star, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

As a true freshman at NC State during the 2020-2021 season, Hayes played in 23 games with 14 starts. He posted a line of 7.8 points, 3.1 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 38.6% overall and 36.4% from three-point range. He played in 32 games with 13 starts in 2021-2022, averaging 7.0 points per game while shooting 33.5% overall and 25% from deep.

Prior to the 2022-2023 season, Hayes entered the portal and transferred to LSU. He was an important piece of last year’s Tigers team, playing in 31 games with 18 starts. He averaged 23.1 minutes per game, posting a line of 8.1 points, 2.3 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 0.7 steals while shooting a career-best 40.2% from the field and 32.4% from beyond the arc.

The addition of Hayes is another impressive one for East Carolina and second-year Pirates head coach Michael Schwartz. The Pirates only lost one key contributor from last year’s team, which was point guard Javon Small, who entered the portal. East Carolina has already added former Kansas point guard Bobby Pettiford.

Hayes should play an important role for East Carolina, with him and Pettiford joining Jaden Walker in the point guard room. The Pirates also have Kalib LaCount as another option at that position.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information as Hayes heads to East Carolina

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.