Former Ole Miss combo guard Daeshun Ruffin commits to Jackson State

Former Ole Miss combo guard Daeshun Ruffin left the Rebels but not the state of Mississippi. After entering the NCAA transfer portal shortly after the end of the college basketball season, Ruffin has found a new home. And that will be will former NBA All-star guard Mo Williams at Jackson State.

Ruffin announced his decision from his Instagram account on Friday.

Ruffin played in 11 games last season, starting in two of them. He mostly came off the bench as the Rebels’ third option in the backcourt behind guards Amaree Abram and Matthew Murrell. He was still the second-leading scorer on the team averaging 9.5 points per game behind Murrell’s 14.9 ppg.

It was a tough year at Ole Miss or Ruffin this past season. Towards the end of January, he announced that he would be stepping away from basketball for the foreseeable future until he was “100 percent mental and physical health.” 

While he was away from the program, the Rebels made a change at head coach, moving on from Kermit Davis, who had been there since 2018, and hiring former Texas Longhorns head coach Chris Beard.  

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

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.