Ole Miss PG, former McDonald's All-American Daeshun Ruffin enters transfer portal

Former McDonald’s All-American and Ole Miss point guard Daeshun Ruffin has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3’s Jamie Shaw reports.

Ruffin stepped away from the program in January in an attempt to better his mental and physical health. He explained his reasoning for stepping away afterward.

“In hopes of regaining 100 percent mental and physical health, I have decided to step way from the team and take every action necessary to get well,” Ruffin’s statement read. “However, this is not me giving up on the game I love, but simply taking time to return to full health. I look forward to being back with my Ole Miss teammates in the future and giving them and you the very best version of me.”

Ruffin’s second season in Oxford started off bumpy, suffering a bone bruise in the exhibition game and missing the first seven games of the season. He was already returning from an ACL injury suffered 10 months prior when he played his first game of the season on Dec. 3 at Memphis.

In 11 games played Ruffin started two of them, coming mostly off the bench behind guards Amaree Abram and Matthew Murrell. He was still the second leading scorer on the team averaging 9.5 points per game behind Murrell’s 14.9 ppg.

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.