NY Times article on LSU basketball - good summary of where we are

This article was linked in an output provided by AI and I was able to access it at first but not now.

In short, it was a positive article about what Wade has been doing to construct a roster and how important it was that LSU landed Dent - "completing a sweep of UCLA's starting backcourt." Getting Dent was one of several different examples of how Wade "pushed the envelope" (but characterized in a positive way) to construct a roster.

The article mentioned that LSU is waiting, like many teams, on the status of its international recruits and its lawsuit to get RJ Luis eligible, a player drafted by the NBA and signed two NBA contracts but never played in a game. It mentioned LSU went straight for the lawsuit route because of the NCAA's precedent with Charles Bediako last season.

This article was linked in an output provided by AI and I was able to access it at first but not now.

In short, it was a positive article about what Wade has been doing to construct a roster and how important it was that LSU landed Dent - "completing a sweep of UCLA's starting backcourt." Getting Dent was one of several different examples of how Wade "pushed the envelope" (but characterized in a positive way) to construct a roster.

The article mentioned that LSU is waiting, like many teams, on the status of its international recruits and its lawsuit to get RJ Luis eligible, a player drafted by the NBA and signed two NBA contracts but never played in a game. It mentioned LSU went straight for the lawsuit route because of the NCAA's precedent with Charles Bediako last season.

BTW nice paywall link bro

Sorry about that. Like I said, I was able to read the article the first time I accessed it and I don't have a subscription. Not sure how that happened unless it had something to do with the initial AI output.

LSU lands Donovan Dent, completing sweep of UCLA’s starting backcourt

LSU men’s basketball head coach Will Wade has completed his plunder of UCLA’s starting backcourt from last season.
On Friday, Donovan Dent announced on social media that he was transferring to LSU, where he will join former Bruins teammate Skyy Clark. Having already completed four years of college basketball between stops at New Mexico and UCLA, Dent was granted one more year of eligibility following a recent state court decision in California that gave an extra year to athletes who graduated high school in 2022.
Dent announced in May 2026 that he was retiring from basketball after helping lead UCLA to a 24-12 record and a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Following a July federal court ruling in Colorado that initially granted everyone in his class an extra year, Dent unretired and entered the transfer portal for one more season.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit granted the NCAA a temporary stay over the original Colorado ruling. However, separate temporary restraining orders or injunctions issued to specific athletes by individual state courts (such as in California) remain active, hence Dent’s eligibility.
The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 13.3 points and 7.6 assists per game last year for the Bruins. He was one of the most efficient guards in the country, going on a seven-game stretch in which he logged 77 assists to just six turnovers.
He joins Clark in Wade’s rebuild in the Bayou. Clark, a 6-foot-3 guard, averaged 11.5 points per game for the Bruins alongside Dent in 2025-26. On Aug. 12, he announced his commitment to LSU via the portal following the same Colorado ruling that spurred Dent to unretire.
Clark, 23, had previous stops at Illinois and Louisville before spending his last two seasons in Westwood. He is also deemed currently eligible via the California temporary restraining order against the NCAA.
What this means for the Tigers
Dent is the most consequential roster addition yet for Wade, a potential all-conference guard whose speed aligns perfectly with Wade’s ideal fast-paced offense.
He didn’t get to show off that speed much at UCLA last season — considering the Bruins finished 308th nationally in adjusted tempo, per KenPom — but he did the year prior at New Mexico, which finished top-10 in the same metric. (He was one of two Division I players to average at least 20 points and five assists per game in 2024-25, winning Mountain West Player of the Year in the process.) Wade has never had his teams play at quite that breakneck pace in his 12 prior seasons as a head coach, but the freedom he gives his guards should still empower Dent in a way he wasn’t in Los Angeles.
Perhaps more importantly, for a team with serious backcourt questions, Dent is a known quantity. He immediately slots in alongside Clark, a fellow former Bruin, as a starter for the Tigers, giving Wade — whose roster remains in flux — at least some dependability as his roster rebuild continues.
About that, though, considering classes begin in Baton Rouge next week. LSU is still in the process — like many D-I schools — of getting its international recruits signed, many of whom would be among the Tigers’ best players should they be declared eligible. That includes Senegalese-Italian wing Saliou Niang, Brazilian forward Márcio Santos, French center Brice Dessert and Croatian forward Michael Ruzic.
If all those players are deemed eligible, then a starting lineup with Dent, Clark and Niang on the perimeter, and Dessert at center — with either Kentucky transfer Mouhamed Dioubate or another international filling the final forward spot — would conceivably be a top-20 preseason side.
But, of course, that outlook remains incredibly unclear until the NCAA clears (or rejects) Wade’s international haul.
It’s also worth noting that adding two members of UCLA’s backcourt — both of whom have only been temporarily cleared through their eligibility lawsuits in California — is the latest boundary Wade pushed this offseason while rebuilding the Tigers.
In May, he added former Saint John’s wing RJ Luis, immediately sparking criticism across the sport. Luis — the Big East Player of the Year in 2024-25 — did not play college basketball last season after going undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, instead signing two NBA contracts (but not appearing in a professional game). According to the NCAA’s precedent established with Charles Bediako last season, Luis should not be eligible because he has signed NBA contracts. Still, Wade brought him into the program anyway and has attempted to pave the way for Luis to play via another lawsuit.
Last week, though, in a response to Luis’ lawsuit, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey requested in an affidavit in Louisiana that Judge Ronald Johnson uphold NCAA rules preventing athletes from returning, saying that standard is “essential to the integrity of college sports.” That puts Sankey at direct odds with one of his member schools’ most visible coaches.
“These rules are grounded in the principle that athletics are an integral part of the academic experience,” Sankey wrote. “The rules align the time permitted for college athletics with the pursuit of an undergraduate education and further the important purpose of preserving opportunities for future student-athletes to participate in college sports.”
While a decision on Luis’ eligibility is unlikely to come soon, adding Dent and Clark at least gives Wade some cover in case his various roster-building methods fall through.