LSU basketball literally lost its entire team to the transfer portal
LSU basketball will not have a single scholarship player from the 2021-22 squad returning after a mass exodus of players entering the transfer portal following Will Wade getting fired.
It’s not uncommon for a college team to have to “start from scratch” in some way. It’s just that usually, that phrase is figurative.
In the case of the LSU basketball program, it’s literal.
After Mwani Wilkinson and Alex Fudge entered the transfer portal at the start of the weekend, the Tigers were down to zero scholarship players from the 2021-22 squad left on the roster.
LSU literally lost its entire basketball team to the transfer portal
This all stems from LSU firing head coach Will Wade in March after he and the program were accused of seven Level I violations by the NCAA.
Tari Eason and Darius Days, who were the teams leading scorers, declared for the NBA Draft.
Wilkinson and Fudger are just two of the 11 players who have entered the transfer portal. Brandon Murray, Xavier Pinson, Eric Gains, Efton Reid, Shareef O’Neal, Justice Williams, Parker Edwards, Bradley Ezewiro and Jerrell Colbert are all leaving the program.
Murray averaged 10 points per game while Pinson led the team with 4.8 assists per game. Gains was the team leader in steals.
Reid was a five-star prospect from the class of 2021.
The program’s recruiting class also dissolved with five-star big men Julian Phillips and Yohan Traore plus four-star small forward Devin Ree decommitting. Marvel Allen, a five-star 2023 guard, also backed off his pledge.
So where does LSU go from here? New head coach Matt McMahon has a lot of work ahead of him to build a roster from the ground up.
The former Murray State head coach will have the help of a couple of familiar faces with guards Justice Hill and Trae Hannibal following him to Baton Rouge. He’s also landed Northwestern State’s Kendal Coleman via transfer and center Corneilous Williams as a commit.
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