Missouri loses two top players to NCAA Transfer Portal

Two Missouri basketball players — guard Javon Pickett and forward Trevon Brazile — entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Monday, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

For a full list of NCAA Transfer Portal entries, click here.

Pickett and Brazile entered the NCAA Transfer Portal shortly after head coach Cuonzo Martin was fired. Martin served as Missouri’s head coach for five years and amassed a 78-77 record.

Pickett was unranked coming out of high school, at least according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, but he earned a three-star rating by 247 Sports. A three-year starter, Pickett has been a mainstay in Missouri’s lineup since his freshman season in 2018-19. He averaged 11.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 2020-21, making him the Tigers’ second-highest scorer.

Brazile, a true freshman, was also unranked by the On3 Consensus, but he received three-star ratings from both 247 Sports and ESPN. A 6-foot-9, 215-pound forward from Springfield, Missouri, Brazile contributed immediately as a freshman, averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 21.5 minutes per contest.

For NCAA Transfer Portal rankings, click here.

More on the Transfer Portal after Pickett, Brazile enter

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.