Former LSU five-star Efton Reid makes transfer commitment to title contender

Former LSU five-star big man Efton Reid was one of the most coveted college basketball prospects in the 2022 transfer portal. The gifted big man chose his transfer destination on Sunday afternoon and it turns out he’s going to be playing with the Gonzaga Bulldogs, according to Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers. The commitment is massive for the Bulldogs and once again means they will be in the mix as legitimate national title contenders during the 2022-2023 college basketball season.

Reid, a 6-foot-11, 238-pound center from Richmond, Virginia, just finished up his freshman season at LSU. He entered the NCAA Transfer Portal just weeks after former head coach Will Wade was fired amid a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA, after which LSU hired former Murray State head coach Matt McMahon.

Reid averaged 6.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per contest as a true freshman, appearing in 34 games and averaging 19.6 minutes per contest. Additionally, Reid shot 51.9 percent from the field.

In his final game with the LSU Tigers, a first-round NCAA Tournament loss, Reid had four points, three rebounds and two turnovers in 17 minutes.

Reid was a highly-coveted prospect coming out of high school, as he was rated a four-star recruit, via the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. That rating made Reid the No. 4-ranked center in the 2021 recruiting class, as well as the No. 28-overall recruit in the cycle.

On3’s National Basketball Recruiting Expert Jamie Shaw recently ranked Reid as his No. 5 center in the portal.

It should be noted that midnight on Sunday night, May 1st is the deadline for prospects to enter the transfer portal. Athletes must notify their school of intent to transfer in writing by May 1. However, that does not necessarily mean the player appears in the portal by May 1. The school then has two business days to do paperwork and enter the athlete into the portal, per Adam Breneman.

For all the latest information and updates on where college basketball prospects are headed this offseason, keep it locked to the 2022 On3 Transfer Portal Wire.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

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.

Simon Gibbs also contributed to this story.