By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
I remember when I was playing youth basketball at Airline Park Playground (later named after LSU great Mike Miley) in Metairie, and one day the other team had only four dudes show up.
So, the coach put them in a diamond defense – one at the point, one under the goal and two at the wings with instructions to collapse on those penetrating the lane.
They collapsed, all right, and we won by about as much as coach Will Wade’s McNeese State team beat Mississippi University for Women in 2023, which was 92-23. Yes, Mississippi University for Women – a coed school in Columbus – has a men’s team with males on it that Wade was somehow able to locate and schedule.
And if Wade doesn’t start signing some more players soon, Mississippi University for Women may try to schedule his new LSU men’s basketball team for revenge this season.
Wade, who has been on the job since March 26, just added his fifth official roster member on Thursday, June 18. He is 6-foot-8 forward Jordan Bender of Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bender played for former NBA first round pick Marreese Speights at Northside, but Wade somehow found a guy who is not listed on any significant recruiting websites, which is hard to do. So hats off to Wade for that.
Did LSU just make men’s basketball a club sport to save money to pay off Brian Kelly’s and Matt McMahon’s buyouts and for new deals for Lane Kiffin and Wade? Are open tryouts next?
LSU’s current roster is a joke.
This is what LSU’s men’s basketball roster looked like before adding a player today who appears on no reputable recruiting sites. pic.twitter.com/VcSAoM81OB
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 18, 2026
What happened to all that brash, braggadocious, classic Wade talk from his introductory press conference last March 30?
“We’re going to find 15 players who are willing to lay it on the line for us every night,” Wade said.
Will that include recruiting via Artemis III spaceflights, by chance?
You’ve been all over Europe.
And you got five!
“We’re going to build a winning program, and we’re going to build this thing quick,” Wade said on March 30. “This is not something that’s going to take long. We’re going to get in that portal when it opens next Monday (April 6), and we’re going to put together a winner because everybody in here deserves a winner.”
Or at least enough guys to play five on five?
As the weeks and then months went by, players Wade considered went elsewhere:
WILL WADE TARGETS MISSED VIA THE PORTAL
-No. 2-ranked Kansas State point guard PJ Haggerty, who went to Texas A&M.
-No. 6 Seton Hall center Najai Hines, who went to Connecticut.
-No. 5 Georgia combination guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, who went to Arkansas.
-No. 4 Georgetown small forward KJ Lewis, who went to USC.
-No. 5 North Carolina State guard Matt Able, who went to North Carolina.
-No. 15 Florida Atlantic guard Deven Vanterpool, who went to Providence.
Then Wade suddenly adjusted his “15 players” comment.
“We’re really going to pay seven or eight guys at LSU this year,” he said as things stretched into May. “And we’ll fill out the back half of the roster with some guys who could help us in a pinch.”
How convenient.
Bender may be one of the guys he was talking about as far “filling out” his roster. But he may want to get some tires on the car before he gets the spares.
Wade’s not saying what’s really going on. Portal players he first wanted at LSU didn’t want to transfer to him in droves. Perhaps because his shady reputation keeps following him. He signed the No. 14 portal class last year at North Carolina State with a healthy class of eight. He didn’t have to scour Europe for players then.
Perhaps the slimey way he left North Carolina State is haunting him?
Coming off a 14-18 season with a 3-15 mark in the Southeastern Conference, former LSU coach Matt McMahon had 15 players on his roster at this time last year, including eight from the portal. His portal class was ranked No. 16 in the nation by 247sports.com with three ranked in the top 17 in the nation – No. 6 point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. of UNLV, No. 14 power forward Marquel Sutton of Omaha and No. 17 center Mike Nwoko of Mississippi State.
Sure, McMahon finished 15-17 and 3-15, but he was 12-1 before Thomas got hurt. And excellent point guards like Thomas are like quarterbacks – if you have one, you have a chance even if you don’t have a lot else.
Wade’s portal class of four is currently ranked No. 40 in the nation by 247sports.com with one player in the top 22 – No. 9 small forward Mouhamed Dioubate of Kentucky. Guard Austin Nunez of Texas-San Antonio is not even ranked. Abdi Bashir Jr. of Kansas State is the No. 23 shooting guard, and Divine Ugochukwu of Michigan State is the No. 45 point guard
But, hey, at least Wade doesn’t have to play a diamond defense. With Bender, he now has five players on his roster officially. He can play a real game now. His team might look like it’s on a bender, but that’s a start.
And there is also No. 1 ranked tight end Ahmad Hudson, a 6-foot-6 football commitment who is also a very highly regarded forward prospect who has said multiple times he wants to play basketball for Wade at LSU as well. Better be nice to Lane, Wade.
Now, Wade could end up with as many as 12 players with some help from another Geneva Convention as he is awaiting eligibility clearance before the NCAA changes the rules on five overseas players who have apparently committed to LSU:
LSU POSSIBLE NEW PLAYERS FROM OVERSEAS WITH ELIGIBILITY QUESTIONS
-Brice Dessert, Center, 6-11, 247, Fr., Andalou Efes pro team in Istanbul, Turkey, Pontoise, France, native, Age 23.
-Yam Madar, Guard, 6-3, 181, Fr., Hapoel pro team in Tel Aviv, Israel, Beit Dugan, Israel, native Age 25.
-Saliou Niang, Forward, 6-6, 190, Fr., Virtus pro team in Bologna, Italy, Dakar, Senegal, W.Africa native, Age 22. … 58th pick in 2025 NBA Draft by Cleveland.
-Michael Ruzic, Center, 7-0, 160, Fr., Joventut club pro team in Catalonia, Spain, Besancon, France, native, Age 19.
-Marcio Santos, Center, 6-8, 250, Fr. Maccabi pro team in Tel Aviv, Israel, Native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Age 23.
And there is also “signee” RJ Luis, a 6-7 guard/forward who was the Big East Player of the Year at St. John’s in the 2024-25 season. But he just happened to sign with Utah in the NBA as an undrafted free agent and got traded to Boston in 2025. He never played in an NBA regular season game, but there are still major eligibility issues as he signed professional contracts. LSU is lawyering up – not a good sign in roster building. Kiffin signed 41 out of the portal without any legal proceedings or having to go overseas, unless you count Hawaii.
Perhaps Wade can call Alabama coach Nate Oats for advice on how he handled Charles Bediako’s eligibility case that he lost.
Even if Wade gets most of his overseas targets, none of them appear to be world beaters like Luis, I don’t care what part of the world or league in which they played. Some may be pretty good. There is some size. Some may be average. But this is not looking like a team that will do more than hover just under .500 in the SEC next season, which would be an improvement over last year – but a major disappointment as far as Wade’s bombastic claims a few months ago.
And he never seems to run out of those.
“There’s a lot of different things going on,” Wade said in May of the delays on his overseas players getting cleared to LSU’s roster. Delays that have continued through mid-June. Funny, McMahon signed Ron Zipper of Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the Israel Premier League last year – IN MAY.
“By the day school starts, we’ll have a real good team, and that’s all that matters,” Wade said in May.
If Wade could find players the way he locates BS, LSU would be a contender next season.
“By the end of August, we’ll have a great team,” he said in May.
We’ll hold you to that.
Wonder if Wade was thinking in May that his “great team” would include a high school player as his fifth roster member who is not ranked anywhere?
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