Will Wade Gains Commitment From Unranked Michigan State G Divine Ugochukwu After Injury

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

He’s no PJ Haggerty or Dedan Thomas Jr, but he did play part of one season for legendary coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State.

New LSU basketball coach Will Wade has gained a commitment from unranked combination guard Divine Ugochukwu (6-foot-3, 195 pounds), who averaged 5.1 points and 1.5 assists in 16 minutes a game for Michigan State last season as a sophomore. He started 12 games and played in 22 before suffering a foot injury on Feb. 4 against Minnesota that required surgery and ended his season.

Ugochukwu, who will be a junior at LSU, displayed an excellent shooting touch from three-point range during his brief season with the Spartans as he shot 44 percent from long range at 19 of 43. He shot only 50 percent overall from the field, however, at 42 of 83. Michigan State finished 27-8 overall and 15-5 in the Big Ten before advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 under the 71-year-old Izzo, who has taken the Spartans to eight Final Fours and one national title.

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The 247sports.com recruiting website does not rank Ugochukwu as a portal prospect. He was a three-star prospect coming out of Fort Bend Clements High in Sugar Land Texas in 2023 as the No. 44 combination guard in the country and No. 23 player in Texas by 247sports.com.

Wade missed on No. 1 point guard PJ Haggerty in the portal out of Kansas State as Haggerty chose Texas A&M last month. And the No. 3 point guard in the portal – Dedan Thomas Jr. of LSU – chose Houston.

As a freshman at Miami in the 2024-25 season, Ugochukwu averaged 5.3 points and 2.3 assists a game in 28 games and 16 starts with 20.2 minutes a game. He took over as the Hurricanes’ point guard and started the final 10 games after Nijel Pack was injured. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 assists in Atlantic Coast Conference games for Miami, which finished 7-24 and 3-17 in the ACC.

Ugochukwu is Wade’s third commitment for his class of 2026-27 and one of only three players on the entire roster so far. He will join previous commitments – center Marcio Santos (6-8, 250) of the Maccabi Tel Aviv professional team in the EuroLeague and No. 8 small forward Mouhamad Dioubate (6-7, 220), formerly of Kentucky.