Kentucky forward Daimion Collins enters NCAA transfer portal

Kentucky forward Daimion Collins is entering the NCAA transfer portal, according to On3’s Joe Tipton. Being a great recruiting pull for head coach John Calipari at the time, Collins will be wearing a different jersey at the beginning of the 2023-2024 season.

In two years with the Wildcats, Collins has not been able to make too big of an impact. Collins is averaging just 2.4 points and 2.0 rebounds in 52 career games played. While he flashed during the first few appearances of his true freshman season, there have been struggles along the way for Collins.

Collins played high school basketball at Atlanta (TX) High School, where he was a five-star prospect. He was the No. 15 overall recruit in the 2021 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Prior to committing to Kentucky in high school, Collins had four other contenders to earn his signature. Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech were the local schools, while Kansas was another blue-blood program involved.

As to who will go after Collins moving forward will be seen in the near future. Given the potential the former five-star possesses, he could prove to be a popular man until ultimately deciding on his next destination.

Here was Collins full statement regarding his decision:

Daimion Collins transferring pic.twitter.com/4XEl0KjhWB

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) April 21, 2023

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.