VCU point guard Ace Baldwin enters NCAA Transfer Portal

VCU point guard Ace Baldwin has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw. Baldwin hits the market after three years with the Rams, where he developed into one of the top pure point guards in the country. In 2022-23, he took home A-10 Defensive and overall Player of the Year awards while averaging over 12 points and nearly six assists per game.

Obviously, Penn State is a school to watch here since the Nittany Lions stole Mike Rhodes away from VCU this offseason after losing their own coach, Micah Shrewsberry, to a bigger gig at Notre Dame after just a couple seasons with the program. That’s how the carousel spends ’round, though.

Baldwin to PSU would a terrific starting point for the Rams, but also quite the juxtaposition from what they had in 2023. Of course, Ace can be great but he’ll almost certainly be no Jalen Pickett, who simply did everything to make PSU a floatable ship this past year. That team was an offensive juggernaut and the best volume three-point shooting team in the country. Baldwin will come in known for his defense first, passing second and scoring later on.

That goes for anywhere he lands. Sure, PSU is a likely spot but surely he’ll check out other options and maybe garner some interest from one of the bigger fish in the sea. After all, Kentucky looked at Baldwin during his high school days and he even visited the ‘Cats back in the day. They also just lost their starting point guard to the portal as well…

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.