Mississippi State small forward Alden Applewhite enters transfer portal

Mississippi State small forward Alden Applewhite officially entered the transfer portal on Sunday evening, he announced via his Twitter page. Last season, the freshman from Memphis, Tennessee averaged two rebounds per game and one point per game in very limited action. The 6-7, 200-pound small forward only saw action in two games.

Here is the announcement below from his Twitter page.

“First, I would like to thank God, my family, friends, and teammates for supporting me all last year. Also, I would like to thank Mississippi State for all the experiences throughout my freshman year. With prayers and long discussions with my family, I have decided to enter my name in the transfer portal and explore all opportunities for my basketball career–Alden Applewhite”

When he made his college choice coming out of high school, Applewhite picked Mississippi State over Clemson, Iowa State, St. John’s, and Wake Forest.

He played his high school basketball at the prestigious program of Arizona Compass Prep (Chandler, Arizona). Applewhite averaged 10.6 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game before being sidelined at Arizona Compass Prep during the 2020-2021 season. He also had a stint at Houston High School (Germantown, Tennessee) and Lausanne Collegiate School (Memphis, Tennessee). While at Houston High, he led them to the program’s first state playoff tournament appearance, averaging 15.5 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game in the 2019-2020 season.

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.