LSU’s basketball reboot under Will Wade has barely gotten off the ground, and the roster picture is still as bare as it gets.
On Wednesday night, UCLA transfer Skyy Clark announced he was joining the Tigers, giving LSU its fifth committed player. That group now consists of Abdi Bashir Jr., Skyy Clark, Austin Nunez, Mouhamed Dioubate and Divine Ugochukwu.
Abdi Bashir Jr. is listed as a senior guard, Skyy Clark as a senior guard, Austin Nunez as a senior guard, Mouhamed Dioubate as a senior forward and Divine Ugochukwu as a junior guard. Even with those five in place, LSU still doesn’t have anything close to a complete starting five, let alone a finished roster.
Wade has said more pieces are coming, including several international players who reportedly have not been announced yet. Former NBA prospect RJ Luis Jr. also plans to play for LSU, though the source material notes that signing multiple NBA contracts and playing in the league leaves no path back to college. As things stand, though, nothing has officially come together.
That uncertainty is the big problem. LSU is 83 days from opening against in-state rival New Orleans, and the Tigers still can’t fill 15 two-thirds of the roster.
The NCAA is also fighting in court to block the fifth-year transfer gates from opening, which could have been a straightforward way to patch together the 10 open spots. If that doesn’t happen, the pressure only grows, especially with classes in Baton Rouge starting in two weeks.
Wade told CBS’ Jon Rothstein in May, “The day school starts, we’ll have a really good team,” but the calendar is moving faster than the roster is.
Wade returned to LSU in March, and the staff was already in place for the transfer portal window a month later. Even so, the Tigers didn’t land any major additions, and none of Matt McMahon’s players were expected to stay. That left Wade with a rebuild that still hasn’t found a foundation.
The bigger picture around LSU isn’t helping either. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry took on the role of shell athletic director after football coach Brian Kelly was fired last year, and Verge Ausberry eventually stepped into the job. The school has also been buried by a wave of coaching moves, with three coaches on payroll between Kelly, Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron last December.
All of that has LSU on the hook for at least $240 million over the next eight years.
For now, Wade’s second stint in Baton Rouge remains very much unsettled.
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