D2 transfer RJ Sunahara commits to Georgia Bulldogs

Nova Southeastern transfer RJ Sunahara, the Division II Player of the Year, has committed to Georgia, he told On3.

The 6-foot-8, 210-pound power forward averaged 18.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists this past season as the Sharks went undefeated en route to winning their first national championship. Along with Georgia, Sunahara also considered Notre Dame and West Virginia.

“I chose Georgia because of the coaching staff and the opportunity to play the best of the best,” he said to On3. “Coach White has a great vision for the program and I wanted to be apart of it.”

Sunahara will now head to Athens to finish out his college career. The Georgia Bulldogs, led by Mike White, finished the 2022-23 season 11th in the SEC with an overall record of 16-16.

With the addition of Sunahara, the ‘Dawgs have now landed a total of nine commitments. He becomes the fifth enhancement out of the transfer portal, joining Niagara’s Noah Thomasson (19.5 PPG), USF’s Russel Tchewa (11.1 PPG, 8.6 RPG), Illinois’ RJ Melendez (6.0 PPG), and VCU’s Jalen Deloach (9.7 PPG, 6.9 RPG).

UGA will also welcome in four players from the high school ranks — four-star guard Silas Demary Jr. (No. 60), four-star guard Blue Cain (No. 64), four-star power forward Dylan James (No. 90) and three-star wing Mari Jordan (No. 145).

RJ Sunahara headed to Athens, 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.