Report: West Virginia transfer Joe Toussaint hears from high-level programs after entering portal

West Virginia transfer Joe Toussaint reportedly has quite the list of suitors after entering the transfer portal on Friday. Multiple teams have reached out, including four Big 12 teams, according to Zagsblog’s Adam Zagoria.

Gonzaga, Kansas State, DePaul, Western Kentucky, Seton Hall, Nebraska, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Georgetown, Texas Tech, Pitt, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have all reached out to Toussaint, Zagoria reported Friday night.

Toussaint was one of three Mountaineers to hit the portal Friday in light of the coaching change at West Virginia. Kerr Kriisa and Tre Mitchell also went in, while others are reportedly waiting to find out how the process plays out as WVU works to replace Bob Huggins. Toussaint averaged 9.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game for the Mountaineers this past season after transferring from Iowa.

Huggins resigned last week in light of an arrest for DUI, which came roughly six weeks after he appeared to say a homophobic slur on Cincinnati radio. He brought in an impressive transfer class this cycle, which included Kriisa from Arizona and RaeQuan Battle from Montana State. However, the future of the current roster has plenty of questions after the Hall of Fame coach’s resignation.

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.