Seton Hall center Tyrese Samuel commits to Florida out of the transfer portal

Tyrese Samuel, the former center for Seton Hall, has made his decision on his future.

After entering the transfer portal earlier this offseason, Samuel has committed to Florida to play his next season of college basketball.

ŠwäMp Rëadÿ🐊
~ Gator Nation 🔵⚪️🟠
#Commited pic.twitter.com/dpieP1FtD7

— Tyrese Samuel (@Tyrese5G) April 17, 2023

Samuel started all 33 games last season for the Pirates as he averaged 11 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 55% from the field. Over his career, Samuel appeared in 118 games in New Jersey. In those games, he averaged 6.9 points and 4.3 rebounds on 51% shooting.

Samuel hails from Montreal in Canada. He attended high school at Orangeville Prep in Ontario before coming to the United States for college. On3’s Industry Rankings rated him as a three-star prospect in the 2019 class. He was ranked as a Top-150 recruit overall and a Top-30 power forward.

Now, with this commitment, Todd Golden has his fourth addition via the portal. Samuel joins Yale’s EJ Jarvis, Marshall’s Micah Handlogten, and Iona’s Walter Clayton Jr. as players who are now headed to Gainesville to be Gators next season. That gives Florida a Top-10 class in On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings and ties Arkansas for the most portal commitments thus far.

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.

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.