West Virginia G Jose Perez intends to enter transfer portal

Jose Perez has entered the transfer portal, again, according to On3’s Joe Tipton.

Perez, a college basketball journeyman, committed to West Virginia out of Manhattan last offseason but was unable to obtain a waiver. After former WVU head coach Bob Huggins was fired following Perez’s initial commitment, he announced he was re-entering the portal. Soon after, he announced his intentions to remain in school at WVU.

Now, he’s back in the portal and looking for a new home ahead of his fifth year of college basketball after the Mountaineers dismissed him from the program late last month. He released a rather open statement on the situation during the initial fallout.

“Gave me your word to comeback, I went to bat for you in all meetings went behind the scenes to get recruits recruited/hosted every player since I’ve been here then got thrown to the street like a dead animal…,” Perez wrote in a statement posted to social media. “25 years old as a grad student in undergrad classes after I graduated never accepted being put in undergrad classes but people wanted me eligible, only disagreement was not going to study hall and that’s where the decision was made nowhere else.

“Literally nowhere to go don’t make it seem like I’m the bad person cause I truly wanted to play here and was one of the reasons I came back because the ‘boss’ gave me his word he would have my best interest now I am once again entering a phase of depression and I can’t play the sport I love it’s been 2 years since I suited up and I still decided to comeback. Good luck wish nothing but the best to Mountaineer nation.”

It seems Perez already has an idea of where he might find himself next. According to Tipton, he’s scheduled to visit Chris Beard and Ole Miss on Friday, Oct. 13. It should be noted that Perez garnered interest from top-programs around the country such as Oregon, Gonzaga, Michigan, before deciding to rejoin the Mountaineers program earlier in the offseason.

Before his time in Morgantown, Perez averaged 18.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists while shooting nearly 40-percent from the field for Manhattan during the 2021-22 season. Before that, he spent two years at Gardner-Webb to begin his college career before transferring to Marquette.

Without Perez, the Mountaineers will begin their 2023-2024 campaign under interim head coach Josh Eilert on Nov. 6 against Missouri State.

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.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.

If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Consensus recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).