North Texas transfer Abou Ousmane set for potential visit to LSU

North Texas transfer Abou Ousmane has been hearing from several teams in the transfer portal this offseason. The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 11.1 points, six rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game this year as a junior for the Mean Green. According to Andrew Slater of The Athletic, Ousmane has been speaking with Syracuse, Seton Hall, LSU, Rhode Island, Virginia, Providence, and DePaul. He’ll be visiting Seton Hall this week and a potential visit to the LSU Tigers is on the horizon next week, per Slater.

A dominant shot-blocker, Ousmane blocked 84 shots during his time at North Texas — the fifth most in school history. He also earned All-C-USA third-team honors this season, playing a critical role in guiding the Mean Green to the 2023 NIT Championship. Ousmane erupted for a career-high 37 points on Dec. 22 against the UTSA Roadrunners on 15-of-19 shooting from the field. He tallied a double-double in that game, bringing in 11 rebounds. The 37 points were the most points scored by a North Texas player without a three-pointer since 1999 and the most by a C-USA player without a three-pointer in over a decade.

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.