LSU’s run at keeping RJ Luis Jr. on the roster has come to an end.
According to CBS college basketball reporter Matt Norlander, the LSU guard will not be cleared by the SEC and will miss the upcoming season. The Tigers are backing away from the eligibility fight and turning their attention to the start of the 2026-27 college basketball season.
Luis Jr., who was the 2025 Big East Player of the Year at St. John’s, had received a preliminary injunction in August that initially made him eligible at LSU. But because he previously signed an undrafted contract with the Utah Jazz, he runs into SEC rules that bar players from returning to college after signing a pro deal.
That leaves LSU without a player who looked like he could be one of the team’s top pieces. In three college seasons, Luis appeared in 85 games with 52 starts and averaged 14.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 43.9 percent from the field. For a Tigers team built around several experienced veterans, losing that kind of production is a real blow.
Still, LSU had already been operating without him in practice and scrimmages, so the Tigers won’t be adjusting to a brand-new reality. The eligibility issue had always carried risk as Will Wade and his staff worked through a complicated roster build this offseason.
There is at least one bright spot for Baton Rouge.
Forward Saliou Niang has been ruled eligible for the season. He was the No. 58 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2025 NBA Draft, but because his decision to attend LSU came before the NCAA changed course on pros returning to college, he avoids the ineligibility issue, per Norlander.
Losing Luis stings, but Niang gives LSU a chance to absorb some of that blow as the Tigers try to make noise in the SEC in Will Wade’s first year back.
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Will Wade has stayed quiet on the eligibility situation involving other players, and that silence has kept one roster question hanging over the program as the preseason winds down. With legal matters still in play, LSUs final tune-up now carries a little extra weight as fans watch to see who else will be available when the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]