LSU forward Kendal Coleman enters NCAA transfer portal

LSU forward Kendal Coleman entered the NCAA transfer portal, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw.

Coleman spent this past season with the Tigers after the first two of his college career were Northwestern State. He averaged eight minutes a game while with LSU this year.

His best season came in 2021-22 with Northwestern State. He finished the season with 15.4 points per game, 10.1 rebounds per game and shot 54.6% from the floor.

Coleman was a member of the Class of 2020 when he committed to Northwestern State and was not ranked within the On3 Industry Rankings.

LSU struggled this season and finished the year 14-19, going 1-1 in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers were the No. 14 and final seed in the conference tournament.

However, the knocked off Georgia in the first round but fell to Vanderbilt in the second round. It was the first season under Matt McMahon.

McMahon was hired as LSU’s head coach after eight seasons at Murray State. He went 154-47 and led the school to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

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.