Harvard transfer and Tennessee defect Chris Ledlum commits to St. John's

Former Harvard forward Chris Ledlum has found a second new home after entering the transfer portal earlier this spring. Ledlum originally committed to Tennessee shortly after putting his name in the portal. But months later, in mid-July, Ledlum de-committed from the Vols and came back on the market.

He wasn’t available for long in his second go-around with the portal and has already picked out a new school. According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Chris Ledlum has committed to St. John’s and Rick Pitino, where he’ll join an already-loaded transfer haul for the Red Storm.

Ledlum came on strong in his last two years with the Crimson, finishing as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and topped out at 18.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game this past year. He’s a late addition but a huge one for Pitino, as Chris Ledlum is not just one of the top transfers for the Johnnies, but one of the better forwards from the portal cycle altogether.

The big-bodied bruiser ranks as a top-50 transfer among thousands by the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings, and is also rated as the 10th-best player at his position. He’s a massive get for Pitino ahead of his return to the Big East.

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.