Alabama transfer Alex Tchikou taking visit to Big 12 power Kansas State

Former Alabama big man Alex Tchikou has been on a tour around the country looking for his next home. The Paris native elected to enter the transfer portal after the Crimson Tide lost to Notre Dame. And according to a recent report, courtesy of Travis Branham of 247sports, Tchikou is currently in Manhattan, Kansas, on a visit with Big 12 power Kansas State Wildcats.

The highly-coveted big man has been one of the most sought-after prospects in the transfer portal this offseason. Tchikou has been contacted by Florida State, Xavier, USC, Washington, Arizona State, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, Cal, Ole Miss, Memphis, UCSB, Tennessee State and Georgia Tech, among others. And as of Friday, Kansas State can be added to the list.

The former four-star prospect from Paris was rated as the No. 94 prospect in the country for in the 2019 class, per the On3 Consensus.

More on the NCAA 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.