BREAKING: Transfer G Jayden Taylor commits to NC State
NC State landed a commitment from Jayden Taylor this Tuesday morning. The former Butler combo guard is the Wolfpack’s first transfer portal commitment of the offseason, and he will be a crucial part of replacing the backcourt production of Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner.
After spending two seasons in the Big East, Taylor chose to enter the transfer portal. He took official visits to both Arkansas and NC State last week, announcing his decision to join the Wolfpack shortly after those trips.
“I chose NC State because of the genuine belief they have in me,” Taylor told On3’s Joe Tipton. “My playstyle is a perfect match, and I knew after my visit at Raleigh, this is a place I can be successful.”
Taylor averaged 12.9 points per game during his sophomore season, leading Butler in scoring. He also recorded 1.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game.
Standing at 6-4, he started 22 of 32 games, hitting 40.8 percent of his field goal attempts and 32.6 percent of his threes.
Taylor is a former three-star recruit and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining when he arrives in Raleigh. The Wolfpack roster now holds four open scholarships, but the program is waiting on a waiver for graduate student center Dusan Mahorcic.
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 by 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 the process starts. 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.
