West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell will visit Kentucky this weekend

Kentucky basketball may finally add a veteran from the Transfer Portal. The latest forward the Wildcats are courting is Tre Mitchell from West Virginia, who just entered the portal as a grad transfer after Bob Huggins’ resignation. Shortly after he hit the market, Kentucky was in his ear and now have visit scheduled for him this weekend, according to recruiting insider Travis Branham. He reported Mitchell’s visit to Kentucky on Friday morning:

“West Virginia big man Tre Mitchell has officially entered the transfer portal, a source confirms to @247Sports. Mitchell will visit Kentucky this weekend.”

Well, that was certainly quick. Just after officially putting his name in the portal, he’s already booked a trip to Lexington. And folks in the know around the UK program have hinted that Mitchell may not even leave town.

His addition would obviously be massive for Kentucky. It’s no secret what a weird and worrisome offseason it’s been for Kentucky and John Calipari — from the roster exodus to the failure to land any transfers, plus the whole Antonio Reeves saga. Just not a lot of good news for a long time and with such a strong recruiting class coming in, too.

We know Calipari has been trying to land a veteran forward since the day the season ended. He went hard after Keshad Johnson, scheduled a visit that never happened with Arthur Kaluma, sent feelers to several other top forwards in the portal but struck out across the board. Then came Bob Huggins and his string of mistakes the last few months to open the door for one final — and very, very good — option in Tre Mitchell.

Now, Calipari just has to close the deal on what would be a terrific and versatile forward to pair alongside incoming five-star big man Aaron Bradshaw.

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.