LSU has one player on roster, but Will Wade has a plan
By JAMES MADDEN
Since Will Wade departed NC State after just one season to return to LSU, the Tigers have yet to make a splash in the transfer portal. The only player that Wade and the Tigers have landed at the time of writing is Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate.
As most top players in the transfer portal are off the board and signed with other schools, Wade has made it clear that he has a plan to resolve this issue.
On Tuesday morning, Wade said he’s relying heavily on recruiting international players to build next season’s roster.
“This year, I’m gonna lean a little heavier on the international route,” Wade said Tuesday. “This is the last year that a lot of kids over there are going to be eligible. One thing that we did last year, that I made a mistake on, we paid 11 guys. We had some dead money on the roster. We’re really gonna pay seven or eight guys at LSU this year.”
International recruiting, especially that of professionals in Europe, has become a growing phenomenon in college basketball over the last few years. A team that has benefited mightily from it has been Illinois, who returned to the Final Four for the first time since 2005 this season.
Wade’s strategy is similar to those that have been publicly outlined by other head coaches across the country. At least fall’s Big 12 media day, former Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley was asked about his approach and reasoning for recruiting so many international prospects. He answered as candidly as he normally does, saying that it’s frankly just cheaper to recruit international players.
“It’s the economics of this year’s portal. I think was very expensive for American players,” Hurley said. “And, you know, international players are very happy making a bump, a significant bump, from where they were in Europe, and wanting to come over to the United States, get an education and play college basketball and the best conference in the United States.”
Despite landing just one transfer so far, Wade has built a coaching staff full of former high-major Division I head coaches and assistants headed into next season.
In addition to Wade, LSU’s staff includes former Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury, former Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire, former LSU and Texas Southern head coach Johnny Jones and former NC State assistant Vernon Hamilton.
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