FIU transfer guard Denver Jones arriving in Auburn on Thursday for official visit

Denver Jones, the transfer guard from Florida International, will arrive in Auburn on Thursday for an official visit, he confirmed to On3’s Joe Tipton.

Jones is expected to stay in Auburn until Saturday afternoon. It is the first known visit for Jones since he entered the transfer portal in March.

Jones has emerged as one of the Tigers’ top transfer targets, if not the top transfer target. He’s exactly what Bruce Pearl and staff are looking for in a transfer. Jones is a shooter. He’s a scorer.

According to On3’s Jamie Shaw, Jones “is one of the few players in the transfer portal who averaged over 20 points last season. The 6-foot-4 guard from FIU finished 25th nationally in scoring at 20.1 points while shooting 37.1 percent from three.”

Also of note, he shot 47% from the field.

RELATED: On3 Transfer Portal Rankings

Auburn team to beat for Jones?

Jones, who is from New Market, Ala., is the only basketball visitor expected in Auburn this weekend.

Damian Dunn, a transfer guard from Temple, is expected to visit next weekend (April 14-16). Dunn, who originally is from Kinston, N.C. but played high school ball at Meadowcreek in Pebblebrook, Ga. (the same school as former Auburn star Jared Harper), averaged 15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3 assists this past season. Dunn is a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining.

As for Jones, Auburn appears to be the team to beat. This weekend should only strengthen that view. According to Shaw, Memphis also is a player in his recruitment. He has two years of eligibility remaining.

Shaw’s intel on Jones

* Denver Jones is one of the few players in the transfer portal who averaged over 20 points last season. The 6-foot-4 guard from FIU finished 25th nationally in scoring at 20.1 points while shooting 37.1 percent from three.

Jones, the No. 48 player in the transfer portal, hosted Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl in home recently. He is from New Market, Alabama, which is just under four hours from the Auburn campus. Watch the Tigers here, but also keep an eye on Penny Hardaway and Memphis.

The Memphis campus is just under four hours in the other direction from New Market, Alabama. Dayton has also been in home for him.

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.

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