Percy quickly finds a home at Weber State
Six scholarship players set to return for the Lobos in 2020-21
Tavian Percy spent less than a week in the NCAA’s transfer portal.
Wednesday, the 6-foot-6 guard who played the past two seasons for the UNM Lobos announced on social media he was committed to play for Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
The Miami native who played his senior season in high school in California before playing 46 games over the past two seasons for the Lobos will have two seasons remaining to play, but will have to sit out the coming season per NCAA transfer rules, unless he successfully appeals for a waiver to make him immediately eligible.
“We had long conversations,” Percy told Brett Hein of the Ogden Standard Examiner of conversations with Lobos head coach Paul Weir leading up to his transfer. “This process for me to leave was long . ... The coach supported that and is helping out all he can. I respect him for talking to me before it was too late.”
Percy also told Hein he received transfer interest from Chattanooga, Radford and Southern Illinois.
Percy’s role on next year’s Lobos roster wasn’t clear and he never really broke through with playing consistent minutes the past two seasons with the Lobos, even when injuries or off-court issues limited the UNM roster. He averaged 10.5 minutes per game this past season. Some fans were vocal on social media during the season about wanting to see more playing time for Percy.
His father, Terry Percy, on Wednesday afternoon posted on Twitter of his son’s commitment, “Cuffs
off.”
Percy joins a Weber State team that now has eight committed incoming transfers this offseason for head coach Randy Rahe.
ROSTER UPDATE: Of the 13 scholarship players on this past season’s Lobo roster, three exhausted eligibility, four entered the transfer portal, and six scholarship players are set to return for the 2020-21 season.
The status of the four transfers: Percy, a guard (committed to Weber State); forward Vance Jackson, a graduate transfer (signed with Arkansas); guard Vante Hendrix (uncommitted); point guard J.J. Caldwell (uncommitted).
Point guard Drue Drinnon also transferred out this past academic year, but quit the Lobos before the first game and left UNM after completing classes in December without playing a game. He recently announced he is transferring to Navarro Junior College in Texas.
His scholarship was filled with the early January enrollment of 6-9 power forward Bayron Matos, who enrolled a semester early to train and condition when a scholarship opened, but did not play any games.
NOT COMING: While the Lobos, along with fellow Mountain West program San Diego State and the SEC’s Georgia, were among four finalists for 6-foot-10, 4-star prep center Frank Anselem, the Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep graduate instead chose to commit to play for Syracuse on Wednesday afternoon.
SCHOLARSHIP COUNT: For now, UNM is officially under the NCAA scholarship limit of 13 by one for the 2020-21 season based on returning players (six) and confirmed committed players (two from high school, four from either junior college or other Division I programs).
Santa Fe High four-star wing J.B. White, who just completed his junior year with the Demons, has said he hopes to finish his class requirements this summer and enroll at UNM for the coming season, which would be scholarship No. 13, but UNM can’t comment publicly on that matter because White, as a junior, has not signed a National Letter of Intent (only high school seniors can do so).
Just graduating does not automatically clear White to join the roster, though. The NCAA would still need to verify he completed his 16 core required classes, UNM would have to enroll him and he would have to file an NCAA waiver to reclassify his recruiting class from 2021 to 2020. The NCAA has waived requirements of SAT and ACT testing for the Class of 2020 students because COVID-19 shut down testing dates and locations across the country, and UNM confirmed last week it has done the same for just this spring’s enrollees.