Indiana transfer Tamar Bates commits to Missouri

Indiana transfer Tamar Bates has committed to Dennis Gates and the University of Missouri, he told On3.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore shooting guard averaged 6.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists this season for the Hoosiers, who finished with an overall record of 23-12, good enough for second in the Big Ten.

Bates, a native of Kansas City, discussed his commitment to Mizzou with On3.

“I chose Mizzou because they are building a culture that I wanted to be apart of,” he said. “The team is built to win and with the daily work that’ll be put in I’m excited to see what we can really do.

“Coach Gates is a humble man who values family and real relationships as I do. He and his staff have shown they know how to put guys with my skill set in positions to be successful. I’m a Kansas City guy, so having this great opportunity and being right up the road is a blessing in itself.”

Missouri finished the 2022-23 season fourth in the SEC in Dennis Gates’ first year at the helm. The Tigers closed the season with a 25-10 overall record.

On3 Transfer Portal Rankings

Tamar Bates headed to Columbia, 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.