Florida State transfer wing Matthew Cleveland arrives in Auburn for official visit
Matthew Cleveland has arrived on campus for an official visit to Auburn basketball, Auburn Live has learned.
Cleveland, who is transferring from Florida State, arrived on the Plains late Tuesday night. He’s expected to visit with the Tigers on Wednesday before leaving early Thursday morning.
The visit isn’t the first to Auburn for Cleveland. He previously visited while a high school recruit at Pace Academy in Atlanta, Ga.
Cleveland recently listed Auburn as one of his three finalists. The other two are Miami and Missouri. He already has visited both Miami and Missouri, according to his On3 profile page. Cleveland visited Miami on April 19 and Missouri on April 22.
Auburn likely will be his final visit before announcing a decision.
Cleveland is one of the top uncommitted transfers in the portal, and it’s easy to see why.
Cleveland led Florida State in scoring last season, averaging 13.8 points per game while shooting 44.5% from the floor and 35% from the 3-point line. He also averaged 7.4 rebounds per game.
Cleveland has two years of eligibility.
Auburn has signed a transfer combo guard (2) in Denver Jones and transfer forward (4) in Chaney Johnson. The Tigers continue to look for a transfer wing (3). Cleveland and Jaylon Tyson appear to be two of the top targets at this time, but Auburn also is looking at others.
RELATED: On3 Transfer Ranking
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.
The NCAA Transfer Portal
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.
More on the portal database
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.
The post Florida State transfer wing Matthew Cleveland arrives in Auburn for official visit appeared first on On3.
