Lewis Duarte, a guard from the Dominican Republic who committed to Rutgers basketball via the transfer portal a few weeks back, has yet to sign with the program because, according to Kristian Dyer of 247sports, he is yet to be cleared to compete by the NCAA.
The main reason why he has yet to be cleared today, according to this article by ScarletNation, is that he played in a professional league in his home country, in addition to signing with Overtime Elite.
The program is optimistic that Duarte will
be able to sign without much issue, as other universities have done this in the past. For example, Seton Hall recently signed a player who had played professionally in the G League, meaning that Duarte should be able to do the same if the rules are applied equally.
The 23-year-old Duarte was listed as a three-star recruit coming out of the 2022 recruiting class and was listed as the No.54 shooting guard by 247sports before signing with New Mexico State for his freshman season, where he did not appear in a single game for the Aggies due to eligibility issues. During his last two seasons playing professionally in his homeland, Duarte played 38 games and averaged 8.9 points, three rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while recording an average of 21.3 minutes per game.
