Oregon guard Te-Hina Paopao enters transfer portal

For the second time in as many weeks, the Oregon women’s basketball program is losing an all-conference guard.

Te-Hina Paopao, a three-year starter and former 5-star recruit, has entered the transfer portal according to a report from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Paopao was a first-team all-Pac-12 selection in 2021 and 2022, and an honorable mention all-conference selection last season.

During the 2022-23 season, Paopao averaged 13.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Ducks. She was Oregon’s third-leading scorer and shot 42.4% from three-point range.

Paopao’s departure comes less than a week after Oregon’s other all-conference guard, Endyia Rogers, declared for the 2023 WNBA Draft.

With the departure of Paopao, Rogers, and seniors Taya Hanson, Taylor Hosendove, and Ahlise Hurst, Oregon head coach Kelly Graves will be working with a drastically different roster next season.

Sophomore center Phillipina Kyei, freshman guard Chance Gray, and freshman forward Grace VanSlooten will be the Ducks’ only returners who saw significant playing time last season.

Freshman center Kennedy Bashem also contributed when healthy, but missed much of last season due to injury.

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.