Will Wade’s second stint at LSU is starting with a brutal reality check from the SEC’s media: the Tigers are pegged for 14th in the league preseason poll.
That leaves LSU ahead of only Mississippi State and South Carolina in the 16-team forecast released Monday, with SEC media days set to open Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama. The Tigers also landed no players on the preseason All-SEC teams.
Wade, who coached LSU from 2017-22 before returning, is building almost from scratch. LSU has no returning players and has pieced together a roster made up of fifth-year transfers, overseas pros and a former college player who didn’t pull out of the NBA draft. Even with 14 players traveling to McNeese State, only seven saw action in Thursday’s 63-60 exhibition win on the road, and that group included two freshmen who were unranked high school recruits.
The international freshman who did play, 7-foot Croatian center Michael Ruzic, made the biggest noise. He finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds against McNeese.
The rest of the core in that exhibition was made up of fifth-year point guard Donovan Dent, who came from UCLA; junior combo guard Divine Ugochukwu, who transferred from Michigan State; senior shooting guard Abdi Bashir, a Kansas State transfer; and senior forward Mo Dioubate, who arrived from Kentucky.
Several of the more notable names sat out at McNeese, including fifth-year transfer guard Skyy Clark, 22-year-old Italian-Senegalese wing Saliou Niang, 23-year-old French center Brice Dessert and 24-year-old Israeli center Gilad Levy. Austin Nunez, a fifth-year transfer from UTSA, is eligible, but he’s coming back from offseason left foot surgery.
LSU’s situation is still unsettled because multiple players have not yet been officially cleared by the NCAA. The only signee absent was RJ Luis, the former St.
John’s standout who received a preliminary injunction after going undrafted in the 2025 NBA draft and signing an NBA contract. That situation could still create headaches for LSU, since the SEC has put rules in place to penalize schools that roster players who previously signed NBA deals, including two-way contracts.
The Tigers have two more exhibitions before the games count for real: they host Central Florida on Wednesday and visit Florida State on Oct. 24. LSU opens the regular season at home against LSU New Orleans on Nov. 3 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The full SEC preseason media poll had Florida at No. 1, followed by Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. Vanderbilt was sixth, Kentucky seventh, Missouri eighth, Auburn ninth, Texas A&M 10th, Georgia 11th, Oklahoma 12th and Ole Miss 13th before LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina rounded out the list.
Thomas Haugh of Florida was named preseason Player of the Year.
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Lane Kiffin's Rare Late Decision Still Haunts LSU's Kentucky Loss
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Instead, the punt opened the door for Kentucky to mount the kind of closing sequence LSU wanted to avoid. The Wildcats forced the game to overtime with a field goal, then finished it by going for two and sealing the win, leaving LSU to replay a rare late-game choice that will linger because of how the final minutes unfolded. [Read more 🡒]