Alabama guard Jaden Bradley enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Alabama guard Jaden Bradley has entered the Transfer Portal, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw.

Bradley was a top-30 player in the 2022 high school class and started about half of the Crimson Tide’s games, though his playing time diminished to end the year as he averaged just 2.1 points and shot 21% from the field over Alabama’s final 11 games. Still, a recruit of his pedigree who, for most of the season, was a key cog on the No. 1 overall seed. He’s a gem that just hit the open market. Expect schools calling him in droves.

The fit at Alabama was always going to be tough since Bradley’s just not a big time shooter yet. He was really the only member of their rotation on the perimeter who didn’t take threes and instead was more of a driver.

However, as the season wore on and senior Jahvon Quinerly got all the way back to full strength, Nate Oats often opted to play him and Mark Sears together. Now, Bradley will likely look to play for a team that will hand him the keys to the offense as full-time point guard — a role he ought to thrive in.

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

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.