Oregon center transfer Kel’el Ware commits to Indiana

According to On3’s Joe Tipton, Oregon center transfer Kel’el Ware will continue his college basketball career at Indiana. One of the highest-rated players available via the NCAA transfer portal, head coach Mike Woodson makes a huge splash for the program.

Ware played high school basketball at North Little Rock (AR) High School, where he was a five-star prospect. He was the No. 6 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Ware later confirmed the news, posting a hype video for his announcement. Some footage from Ware’s trip to Bloomington was included as well, with Hoosier fans getting an early look at the big man in the traditional uniform.

Heyyyyyy👋🏼 pic.twitter.com/1nw29oIG4X

— KW10 (@KelelWare) April 10, 2023

Ware only spent one season with the Ducks after arriving on campus with plenty of hype. He played in 35 games, averaging 6.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. The struggles came despite being viewed as one of the best NBA prospects in the country.

Now, he will attempt to prove himself at Indiana. After losing big man Trayce Jackson-Davis to the NBA Draft, Ware is expected to be the next Hoosiers star.

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.