Former Clemson guard Al-Amir Dawes announces transfer destination

Former Clemson basketball guard Al-Amir Dawes announced on Wednesday that he will transfer to Seton Hall, via On3’s Joe Tipton. The former three-star recruit previously narrowed his options to either the Pirates or Georgia, with the former prevailing.

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Al-Amir Dawes will play his senior season under new head coach Shaheen Holloway, a former player at Seton Hall who recently got the job after taking St. Peter’s on an NCAA Tournament run.

Over three years with Clemson, Dawes started 66 of 88 appearances. He averaged 9.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting 37.2 percent from the 3-point line.

See the top available prospects with On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings.

Coming into college, Dawes ranked as a three-star recruit in the 2019 On3 Consensus and became the No. 131 overall player. He also ranked as the No. 14 combo guard and the No. 9 player in his home state of New Jersey. Now set for a homecoming, the Newark, New Jersey native brings experience at the highest level.

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.

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.