Oregon's N'Faly Dante announces he will return for fifth season with Ducks

Oregon’s all-conference center will be back for one last ride in Eugene next season.

N’Faly Dante announced on Monday that he will return to Oregon for his fifth college season in 2023-24.

“Unfinished business! Let’s get it (Duck nation),” Dante wrote in a Twitter post.

Unfinished business! Let’s get it🦆 nation. pic.twitter.com/h4JEkGVU5z

— N'faly Dante (@nfaly_dante12) April 17, 2023

Last season, Dante led the Ducks with 13.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game — both career highs. The 6-foot-10 center averaged 26.3 minutes per game and shot 61% from the field. His field goal percentage was the second-best ever by an Oregon player in a single season.

Dante’s return is a significant development for the Ducks, who are coming off a disappointing 21-18 season that ended with a second consecutive trip to the NIT.

The Ducks have already seen four scholarship players enter the transfer portal since the end of the season, including former 5-star center Kel’el Ware, who has since committed to Indiana.

In addition to Dante, the Ducks are also set to return guards Keeshawn Barthelemy and Jermaine Couisnard, as well as forward Nate Bittle.

They are also bringing in a 2023 signing class that features 5-star Kwame Evans and 4-stars Mookie Cook and Jackson Shelstad.

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.