What LSU's decision to leave ex-NFL players off roster means for RJ Luis Jr.'s chance at playing for Will Wade — SkimNews
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- LSU basketball has just four players—Divine Ugochukwu, Abdi Bashir Jr., Austin Nunez, and Mouhamed Dioubate—on its official active roster less than two months before the 2026-27 season tips off.
- RJ Luis Jr., the former St. John's Big East Player of the Year, won a preliminary injunction from a Baton Rouge judge last month clearing him to play, after going undrafted in 2025 and signing a two-way deal with the Utah Jazz before being traded to the Boston Celtics, where he appeared in three preseason games but never played a regular-season game due to injury.
- SEC commissioner Greg Sankey filed an affidavit asking the court to uphold NCAA rules blocking athlete returns to college, and the SEC drafted new rules last month preventing players like Luis—who declared for the draft or signed professional contracts—from coming back to college.
- Will Wade has assembled international commitments from Márcio Santos (Maccabi Tel Aviv), Saliou Niang (Virtus Bologna), Brice Dessert (Anadolu Efes), Michael Ružić (Joventut Badalona), and Gilad Levy, a 7-foot-3 Israeli center, though eligibility rulings remain pending for all of them.
- Saliou Niang was selected No. 58 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2025 draft but never signed an NBA contract, complicating his path back to college eligibility.
- The basketball eligibility fight mirrors LSU's football program court battle over Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, a dispute that grew so contentious the SEC filed a federal motion threatening to expel LSU from the conference.
Why it matters: Wade's strategy of building his roster through court battles rather than the transfer portal leaves LSU with no margin—losing even one eligibility ruling means the Tigers can't field a competitive SEC team. The SEC's new rules and Sankey's direct legal intervention show the conference is willing to escalate against LSU specifically, not just rule generically against returning pros.
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