LSU freshman Shawn Phillips enters Transfer Portal

LSU head coach Matt McMahon’s roster rebuild is underway, and a day after the Tigers added a transfer portal addition, freshman Shawn Phillips tells On3 he plans to enter the portal.

The 7-foot center, a former Top 150 prospect who was ranked by the On3 Industry Rankings as the No. 16 center in the country, was rarely used by McMahon in his debut season.

Phillips played in 20 games, averaging 1.4 points and 2.2 rebounds. On the year, he averaged 7.4 minutes a game and made 10-of-22 field goal attempts

He’s the fifth Tiger to enter the portal, joining Justice Williams, Corneilous Williams, Kendal Coleman and Justice Hill.

LSU career short-lived for Phillips

LSU won only two SEC games all season but managed a third in the opening round of the SEC Tournament thanks a strong outing from little-used freshman Shawn Phillips, bouncing Georgia from the event with a 72-67 win.

Phillips scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds in the game.

He had played only 109 minutes all season before seeing 25 in the Georgia win.

“I’m really proud for him. He’s really grown as the season’s gone along,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said on the SEC Network after the game. “He’s not a stiff 7-footer. He can move.

“I thought he was really good in our ball screen offense there in the first half especially. And he just gives you a presence around the rim. I thought he had some big time plays, second chance opportunities. We were all probably a little nervous, he’s at the free throw line there. But he stepped up and knocked them down.”

LSU looks to rebuild in Year 2 under McMahon

McMahon took over LSU last spring and the Tigers sputtered to one of the worst seasons in recent history. LSU finished just 2-16 in Southeastern Conference play with a 14-19 overall record.

LSU led off SEC play with a home win over Top 10 Arkansas, but then lost 13 straight league games before beating Vanderbilt at home Feb. 22. LSU beat Georgia in the SEC Tournament before falling to the Commodores on March 9 to end the first campaign under McMahon.

“I think clearly disappointed in the overall result of the season,” McMahon said after the loss to Vanderbilt. “You asked me, one of your first questions when I was blessed to get to take to job, What are your goals? My goal is the same every year: I want to help our players and team max out and become the best we’re capable of being. Whether that’s 15 wins, 18 wins, 31 wins… I don’t think we were able to get that accomplished this year. That’s clearly my responsibility. But there’s the reality, also, I’m well aware. I’m not an excuse-maker. I don’t blame anybody or complain.

“The reality is we didn’t take over the 22-win LSU team that went to the NCAA tournament. We took over a program in crisis, zero players, zero signees. Really had to start at ground zero and try to put a team together and do our best moving forward. Unfortunately wasn’t able to get it done at the level I would have liked to in January and February. Take quite a few positives from the year.”

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.