Clemson hosting Syracuse transfer Joe Girard on recruiting visit

Clemson is hosting one of the best pure scorers in the Transfer Portal, if not the best scoring point guard in the whole market. That’s right, the Tigers will host Syracuse transfer Joe Girard for a visit this weekend, according to college hoops insider Jon Rothstein.

Here was that report: “Syracuse transfer Joe Girard tells me that he will visit Clemson this weekend.”

He’ll be a super-senior in 2023-24 after spending the last four years at ‘Cuse, where he averaged 13.2 points throughout his career and 16.4 in 2023. He’s a bucket, as they say, and the type of perimeter playmaker and scorer the Tigers haven’t had since Marcquise Reed.

It’s hard to overstate how massive a get this would be for Brad Brownell. He’s a historically defensive-minded coach that, frankly, has struggled putting together solid offenses. Girard is erratic and certainly won’t have the green light he did at Syracuse (which is a good thing) but he’s the type of dynamic offensive player the Tigers have needed for years. He’s a true lead man as a scorer and those are the most valuable type of players, especially for a defense-first program.

It’s a massive next few days for Clemson hoops.

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.