Report: Kentucky guard Zan Payne enters transfer portal

Kentucky basketball walk-on guard Zan Payne entered the transfer portal as a graduate student just hours before the deadline for the one-time waiver, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. He is also the son of new Louisville head coach Kenny Payne, who has already rebuilt the roster this offseason.

Stay up to date on the latest news with On3’s Transfer Portal Wire.

Zan Payne appeared in 11 games over two seasons during his Kentucky career before entering the transfer portal. He played 17 minutes as a walk-on, including 13 last season while scoring 10 career points with four rebounds and one steal.

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

At 6-foot-4, Payne originally committed to the Wildcats as a member of the 2018 class. Despite being an unranked prospect, the local standout stayed home after attending Lexington Catholic High School.

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.