Vanderbilt loses former four-star recruit to NCAA Transfer Portal

Former Vanderbilt Commodores guard Shane Dezonie has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

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

Dezonie just finished up his true freshman year on campus, and he made an impact for Vanderbilt — though he was slated for an increase in playing time next season with the presumed departure of Scotty Pippen Jr. (Pippen has not yet declared for the NBA Draft, but the expectation is that he will), he entered the NCAA Transfer Portal in pursuit of a new home.

Listed at 6-foot-5, the 215-pound guard averaged 2.4 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.7 assists per contest, while playing 11.0 minutes per game for the Commodores. Dezonie’s best performance of the season came in Vanderbilt’s 86-51 drubbing of Georgia in the first round of the SEC Tournament, where Dezonie scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, while grabbing three rebounds and notching an assist.

Click here for Transfer Portal rankings.

A native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Dezonie prepped at Brewster Academy. He has an NIL Ranking of 260, as he has an estimated NIL Valuation of $10,500.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal after Dezonie’s entry

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.