re: Just noticed basketball has 4 players on the roster, how does will wade fill the roster

How long was your coma? 6 months? Do you know we hired Will Wade back?

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It will also be interesting to see how so many foreign players blend in with the much younger current transfers

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The foreign players are 23, 23, 22, and 19. The transfers are 23, 22, 22, and 20. And then RJ is also 23. I wasn't sure if he counted as a transfer but he is certainly not a foreign player. Yes, Yam Madar is old but he isn't coming any more.

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The foreign players are 23, 23, 22, and 19. The transfers are 23, 22, 22, and 20. And then RJ is also 23. I wasn't sure if he counted as a transfer but he is certainly not a foreign player. Yes, Yam Madar is old but he isn't coming any more.

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This has to be the oldest roster LSU's basketball team has ever had.

Andy Campbell never played

No worries. The Dream Team that scrimmages against the women’s team will fill out the roster.

Well, the Aggies are already building team chemistry, they're playing in a summer league right now. I'm sure others are following suit, and here we are waiting around.

For those wondering:

Reece

Game 1:

0 Points
0-4 FG
0-1 3pt
5 Asts
1 TO
3 Steals
20 minutes played

Game 2:

12 points
3-7 FG
2-4 3pt
4-4 FT
4 Asts
3 TO's
2 Steals
20 Minutes played

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Go cheer for Texas A&M then.

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Uhh if that's what you gathered after my post, I'm not sure what to tell you.

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For all intents and purposes these guys are "pros"...including the NCAA transfers. This is not a bunch of 17, 18, 19 year olds trying to find where their classes are located and struggling to wake up at 5:00 am for workouts. Pro players aren't playing pickup games and going to pizza parties.

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Doesn't matter how old they are or how long they've played basketball. Even NBA teams that acquire players in the offseason or at trade deadline, struggle with building chemistry and learning tendencies. It's a horrible excuse.

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It this different from what we've always known college basketball to be? Absolutely. But that is because the game has significantly changed. Until just a few years ago experienced players changing teams yearly wasn't an option. Nor was it more lucrative to play major conference college basketball than in an international pro league.

Wade has never had a losing season in 12 years and he's led a team to the NCAA Tournament in 9 of those 12 seasons (if you include what would have been the 2020 tournament). Suffice it to say, I think he knows what he is doing to at least hit those benchmarks...which would be a VAST improvement from the last four years.

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This year specifically, is different than any other year in college basketball, I 100% agree. How is what Wade has done in the past even remotely relevant to this completely different landscape of college basketball you speak of? It isn't.

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All of the "concern" is from people who either (a) barely follow college basketball as a whole (b) want Wade to fail/struggle (despite claims to the contrary) to satisfy some weird desire to prove themselves right on an anonymous message board. No games are being played right now, which means no results are occurring. As a fan I'm willing to bet the coaching staff knows a hell of a lot more about what is going on than me or the local media that doesn't want to cover basketball anyway. That means at this moment all of the "concern" is just noise to cure boredom.

Let me know what happens in November when the games start counting. Until then, I'll assume Wade and his staff knows what they are doing.

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The concern is having to throw together team chemistry and a system in about a month. This isn't football, but these things take time and tons of repetitions. If you blindly trust Will Wade in this era of college basketball, that's fine, but fans have every right to be concerned. If you remember, this was the same narrative that was pumped months ago, and we're about a month away from practice starting. Mind you missing summer workout period that started July 20th.

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Uhh if that's what you gathered after my post, I'm not sure what to tell you.

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Your comment of...

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I'm sure others are following suit, and here we are waiting around.

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seems to imply A&M (and others) doing something right while LSU isn't.

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Doesn't matter how old they are or how long they've played basketball. Even NBA teams that acquire players in the offseason or at trade deadline, struggle with building chemistry and learning tendencies. It's a horrible excuse.

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There is still 3 months until the season starts. The roster will have time to build "chemistry"...which is often an aspect completely overrated by fans. Talent and coaching matters. If ample time to "build chemistry" were a big deal Matt McMahon would have won more than 17 SEC games given his teams had plenty of chances to build chemistry in the offseason. Good players are good and good coaches are good all the time.

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This year specifically, is different than any other year in college basketball, I 100% agree. How is what Wade has done in the past even remotely relevant to this completely different landscape of college basketball you speak of? It isn't.

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Because it's still basketball and for the last 12 years he's been able to run out different rosters, and different programs, and win. I guess this could be the one time in 13 years that all falls apart. But I'll take the odds based upon 12 years of data it isn't.

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The concern is having to throw together team chemistry and a system in about a month. This isn't football, but these things take time and tons of repetitions. If you blindly trust Will Wade in this era of college basketball, that's fine, but fans have every right to be concerned. If you remember, this was the same narrative that was pumped months ago, and we're about a month away from practice starting. Mind you missing summer workout period that started July 20th.

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I'm just a fan. What do I need to be concerned about? That Will isn't texting me daily updates on what is going on in his program? Just because you or I don't know what is going on outside the public eye doesn't mean things aren't happening. God knows the local media has little to no interest in covering LSU basketball, so it's not like anyone is out there looking for information anyway.

I don't really give a shite how the sausage is made...because I'm not the one responsible for making it. I don't need weekly/daily status reports from the coach keeping me updated on what's happening in his program. Just show me the end product (in this instance results on the scoreboard). Whatever trust I have in Wade isn't "blind". It's based upon over a decade of past information...5 of those years while he was at LSU. I trust that he is, at minimum, going to put a winning team on the floor this season because he has always put a winning team on the floor. How successful that team will be remains TBD. However, I do find a bit ironic the questioning of why one would have trust in Wade when many of those doing the questioning blindly "trusted" prior coach to put a winning team on the floor year after year despite the fact there was little to nothing suggesting he could do so.

Every offseason for the prior 3 years was "this is the year!"...only for fans to forget LSU was still playing basketball by the end of January. Now, LSU has a coach who not only has won at multiple schools, but has done so AT LSU. Yet, there is "concern" he will fail this season. Just say "I hope LSU struggles this year so I can run to the message board and rub it in the faces of all of those who (a) said McMahon sucked and (b) wanted Wade back." At least that would be honest as opposed to hiding behind the "I'm just a concerned citizen" schtick.

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Just say "I hope LSU struggles this year so I can run to the message board and rub it in the faces of all of those who (a) said McMahon sucked and (b) wanted Wade back."

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Some people have legitimate questions without hoping Wade fails to prove a point. We are hopeful his approach is successful, but there are no guarantees and several variables can impact the result. On the othe rend of the spectrum the way some spak of Wade is reminiscent of the way the media treated Obama- he's too big to fail , therfore one must not question . Before the usual chorus starts in with their crap ( you know who you are) I am waiting to see how it all plays out, hopeful whatever he does Wade can have the program competitive and battling for championships and tournament berths. If everything clicks with the current roster they should be able to do that, but I still believe they need more offensive fire power.

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I don't think you quite understand how much brining in new players and coaching staff with a new philosophy, new systems, new focuses on conditioning actually matter. The one thing Wade does well is he plays a very fast pace. We have a ton of European players coming in. What's the one knock on almost every European player that comes to America? "Can they handle the speed we play at?". So you're telling me that doesn't matter, and it's not a big deal because we have 3 months left until tip off? Ok, it's fair to have that opinion, I just don't understand it at all.

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Michigan just won a national championship with 4 of 5 first year transfers. Illinois went to the Final Four with a true freshman and first year pro from Europe as their leading scorers. Good coaches get good players to play well quickly...and NO ONE is expecting LSU to have that level of success this season.

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Again, Matt McMahon wasn't/isnt coaching in this era.

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I guess that is technically correct because he's not coaching anywhere right now. But he was a head coach less than 5 months ago. There hasn't been some sweeping "new era" that has come along since then. He just didn't take advantage of opportunities that were present.

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Why do you think alot of European players that go to the NBA such as Jokic, Giannis , Markkanen etc. stuggle early and don't play much?

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Because they were 17, 18, 19 year olds entering the best league in the world against 24 - 35 year olds. It had nothing to do with their country of origin. That's the OPPOSITE of what is happening with LSU. Aside from one guy, the international players Wade is trying to bring in are 22, 23, 24 years old who have been playing against older players and will be entering a league (college basketball) where their competition will be the same age or younger than them.

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Again, not sure why MM is being brought up

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He's brought up as an example that (1) simply having your roster set months before the start of the season doesn't equate to success if you are a bad coach and (2) it displays the irony of having "concerns" about a guy who has done nothing but win, but not having concerns every offseason about a guy who could do anything but at LSU...which suggests the level of concern is really more personal than contextual