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.
Michigan State was 11-1 with Ugochukwu starting, and he was just getting going when he was hurt. He will be a junior next season for the Tigers.
Ugochukwu also 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.
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.
WILL AHMAD HUDSON ALSO PLAY BASKETBALL?
Some are counting football commitment Ahmad Hudson as Wade’s fourth basketball commitment, which is not accurate at the moment. But it could be at some point next season after LSU football season as Wade is very interested in Hudson playing for him.
And Hudson tweeted to Tiger Rag on Friday that he is interested in playing basketball.
Count me in!!
— Ahmad Hudson (@AhmadHudson9) May 8, 2026
Hudson (6-foot-6, 239) committed to the LSU football team over the weekend as a five-star prospect from Ruston High and the No. 1 tight end in the country by 247sports.com. He is the No. 11 overall prospect by 247sports.com and the No. 2 player in Louisiana. On3.com has Hudson as No. 16 overall and No. 4 in Louisiana for the class of 2027.
Hudson, whose father is former LSU basketball guard Antonio Hudson, was also just named the Class AAAAA prep basketball player of the year for the second time by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC) on Saturday night in Baton Rouge during the LABC banquet.
A major basketball recruit as well, he averaged 19.7 points, 13.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots this past season in leading Ruston to the Division I non-select state finals. He was previously named Mr. Basketball in the state. He will be a senior this fall at Ruston, though there is talk he may transfer to University High on the LSU campus.
If Hudson does play basketball at LSU, it would be as a walk-on as his scholarship will be with the football program if he chooses to sign with the Tigers. There have been fewer and fewer dual-sport athletes in major college in recent years, particularly pairing football with basketball as the basketball schedule begins well before the football schedule ends. And spring football often conflicts with the end of basketball season.
Several LSU athletes over the years have said they will play football and basketball, but that either never happened or only happened briefly.
We shall see how Wade and LSU football coach Lane Kiffin work this out.
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