Michigan point guard Dug McDaniel enters transfer portal

Michigan just took a huge blow to its roster as leading scorer and starting point guard Dug McDaniel has opted to enter his name in the transfer portal, On3 had learned.

McDaniel averaged north of 16 points per game in 2023-24 as just a true sophomore. He was once a former top-100 recruit and will have two years of eligibility left wherever he lands — which is likely to be at a major school given his production this season even on a bad Wolverine squad.

McDaniel experienced quite the two-year ride in Ann Arbor. As a true freshman, he was thrust into the starting point guard role in December when veteran Jaylin Llewellyn went down for the year. That experiment was rocky but allowed valuable development.

By McDaniel’s second season, he blossomed into a true lead guard capable of running the show for an extremely-high-tempo offense. The result was a terrific season for McDaniel with terrific raw numbers and moderate efficiency. Given his spark for scoring and youth, McDaniel could prove to be one of the better guards to hit the portal this cycle.

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.