LOOK: Former Washington State Cougars guard Noah Williams announces commitment for next season

Former Washington State Cougars guard Noah Williams has announced he will remain in the conference and the state next season and play for in-state rival the Washington Huskies. Williams’s mother made the announcement from her Instagram account on her sons commitment for next season with this image.

Williams is a six-foot-five combo guard and the latest to come out of the Seattle area. He looks to follow in the footsteps of other local stars like Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, and current star former Huskey and San Antonio Spur Dejante Murray and make it to the NBA.

Former #WSU G Noah Williams, a Seattle native, announces commitment to #Washington (per his IG). pic.twitter.com/EXInMqFBYv

— Colton Clark (@SpokesmanClark) April 11, 2022

The junior has spent his first three seasons with the Cougars. After an impressive sophomore season last year, Williams struggled a bit in 2021- 22. Across the board, his numbers went down, going from 14.1 points per game to 9.5. His three-point and free throw percentages suffered steep drops, going from 37.9 from deep to 26.2 and from 80.4 from the charity stripe to 71.6. Last season Williams averaged 9.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and two-point assists per game on 33.2% shooting from the field.

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.