Will Wade isn’t pretending LSU’s roster is a normal one, and he didn’t spend Wednesday trying to make it sound that way.
Speaking to members and guests of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, the LSU coach laid out a blunt picture of where things stand as the Tigers head toward their season opener. His best guess: by Nov. 3, LSU will have everybody it expects to have.
“I believe that on November 3, we will roll out there with every player eligible that is within those guidelines, that’s within the SEC guidelines,” Wade said. “And I believe all the international kids, all the fifth-year kids, will be eligible.”
That confidence matters because LSU is still working through a roster that has been in flux since June, when the official list included only four players. The Tigers open their exhibition schedule Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against McNeese State at Townsley Law Arena in Lake Charles, and Wade said about eight players will be available, including “basically three walk-ons” while the program waits on the status of other scholarship players.
He made clear the plan for Thursday is bigger than the scoreboard.
“We're not going to do anything that sacrifices what we're trying to do long term,” he said. “The thing (Thursday) is to raise money for McNeese.
If we win, that's great. We lose, not great, but life's going to move on.
It doesn't go on our record.”
Wade did not name the players set to suit up Thursday, but the roster currently lists senior guard Abdi Bashir (Kansas State), junior guard Divine Ugochukwu (Michigan State), senior forward Mo Dioubate (Kentucky) and fifth-year senior guard Austin Nunez (UTSA). Nunez received a medical redshirt after appearing in four games in 2024-25.
He also said one or two of his fifth-year players could see action against McNeese. That group includes Nunez, plus UCLA transfer guards Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark, both of whom are tied up in a lawsuit against the NCAA.
More than 70 plaintiffs were granted an extra year of eligibility through a temporary restraining order in California, and a hearing on a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Oct. 20.
Wade sounded optimistic about LSU’s four international signees, saying their situations line up with players from other schools whose overseas teammates have already been cleared by the NCAA Eligibility Center.
“We feel like almost all of them are going to be eligible,” Wade said. “It's going to be hard to deny our kids when their teammates are eligible, and we know their (international) contracts and their contracts are more than our kids' contracts. I tend to feel pretty good about our chances.”
Those international players are 20-year-old Croatian forward Michael Ruzic, 22-year-old Italian-Senegalese wing Saliou Niang, 23-year-old French center Brice Dessert and 24-year-old Israeli center Gilad Levy. Wade said he does not know how long their eligibility process will take.
One player Wade did not directly address was RJ Luis, the former St. John’s star who has been practicing with the team since receiving a preliminary injunction on Aug. 24 in his case against the NCAA.
Luis, the former Big East Player of the Year, went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, signed a two-way NBA contract and played in preseason games. After his injunction, the SEC changed its rules to block schools from adding players such as Luis who sign NBA or G League contracts.
Wade didn’t name him, but he did say LSU plans to stay inside the lines.
“I know everybody thinks we're like some fly by the seat of our pants,” Wade said. “But look, we're gonna abide by the SEC and the NCAA rules.
We're not cutting any corners with the SEC rules or their stuff. We're not cutting any corners with the NCAA rules and what they got going on because they're sure as hell looking at us, both entities (men’s basketball and football).
We’re not trying to bring some sort of undue attention.”
He also made it clear this kind of roster construction is not his long-term model. Wade said LSU “took advantage of a loophole” and described the approach as a series of “calculated risks” designed to give the Tigers the best shot to compete quickly.
“Everybody else took one or two of these kids,” he said. “We took five or six of them.
I understand we went a little bit overboard, but everybody else has one or two of them. Nobody's complaining about them.
“I figure if you're going to dive in, you might as well not dip your toe. Just dive head first and let's go.”
When a crowd member asked how much money Wade had to assemble the roster compared with the reported $50 million Lane Kiffin had for football, Wade was hesitant at first before giving a range.
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