Longwood transfer center Szymon Zapala commits to Michigan State

Former Longwood center Szymon Zapala has committed to Michigan State and Tom Izzo, he told On3.

The 7-foot, 240-pound center originally from Poland averaged 9.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in only 16.7 minutes per game this season. He began his career at Utah State, playing three seasons there.

Zapala is the Spartans second transfer addition this offseason, joining Frankie Fidler from Omaha. Fidler, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, averaged 20.1 points per game this season.

Zapala and Fidler will join three incoming freshmen in East Lansing — four-star point guard Jase Richardson (No. 33 nationally), four-star shooting guard Kur Teng (No. 48), and three-star power forward Jesse McCulloch (No. 153).

Michigan State currently has the No. 24th overall recruiting class in the country.

Szymon Zapala commits to Michigan State, 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 asynchronous 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.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA Transfer Portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement. If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Industry recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

The On3 Transfer Portal Rankings allow for you to filter the On3 Industry Rankings to find the best of the best in the portal, starting with Overall Top Players. 

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.