re: Will Wade press conference 1:00 pm today BOOT UP

He can’t give a roster because it might not be in the benefit of some players…

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How does it not seem good?

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This is the rant. People make everything into whatever it is that THEY want to believe. Positive people will spin something into a reason to be excited. Negative people will spin the exact same thing into a reason to complain.

At least he is owning it. One way or another.

I know its hard to lose a press conference, but man, wade always wins them

Luis is out. Niang most likely out. I think the rest should be ok, but who knows. Was always a gamble putting together the roster this way.

Looks like he's lost some weight for sure

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No idea what that even means and he seems to not want to get into it

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I'm assuming the international players have contract offers and maybe negotiations with other pro teams as well as a backup plan and that formally announcing them as LSU player may create some issues for those players in terms of those other discussions.

My other takeaways:

Luis is unlikely to be eligible. Of course, most have thought that since the beginning.

Obviously, there is no firm determination on the international players. LSU expects them to be eligible, but it's not confirmed yet. Liken it a bit to when McMahon signed Jalen Cook. At the time of signing he wasn't eligible and there was no guarantee he would be. Yet, LSU was confident enough that it would work out...and it ultimately did.

Don't be surprised if the international players don't play in the exhibition game vs. McNeese.

Wade said again what he said at the beginning, this is a unique one year approach to roster building. Major conference coaches over the last couple of years (including this year) are trying to take advantage of the anomaly of college basketball being more financially lucrative that international pro basketball. That never was the case before NIL and that's what is driving the foreign pros to college. Wade knows and knew months ago the NCAA was going to work to close that loophole for future years. But while the opportunity was present, why not try to sign experienced pros to give you the best chance to be great immediately?

His general description of the roster sounds like the 18-19 team. Especially the statement that the team has a "ways to go" in defensive rebounding. That was the 18-19 team. Attack the rim constantly, get the FT line and make a ton of them, crush teams on the offensive glass, hope to be just good enough defensively. The only change is maybe this group can shoot the 3 much better.

I do like the approach of being bold and trying to build a roster to compete at a high level IMMEDIATELY. Wade knows there is no "program building" anymore. It's a year to year thing.

His clock was going to run out during the season so that was expected.