SEC Basketball Portal Update: LSU makes a big splash

By Chris Marler

The LSU fans that waited for Will Wade to make some noise finally got their wish, and they got it in a big way. Here’s our latest SEC Basketball portal update. 

Numbers to know 

If you thought two days ago was busy, yesterday was the day after Thanksgiving at the airport levels of busy. In total 111 players saw some sort of action in the portal with 67 players entering and 44 players committing to new homes. 

That means that 1,297 have entered the portal and 437 have committed to new schools which brings the total up to 34 percent. The portal will officially close in the coming day, so expect another day of mass entries before it officially closes. 

The Wade-ing is the hardest part 

It took 13 days for Will Wade to finally land his first player, and it feels like it was very much worth the wait. 

The Tigers landed the No. 5 small forwards and No. 55 overall player in the portal. Former Alabama, and then Kentucky, transfer Mo Diobaute became the first player for the 2026-2027 LSU roster. 

Dioubate feels like the kind of player LSU fans will instantly gravitate toward, think a less polished offensive version of Herb Jones. He’s elite defensively, attacks the glass, and plays harder than anyone on the floor.

BREAKING: #LSU has landed a commitment from the No. 5 SF in the Transfer Portal: Mo Dioubate.

The 6’7, 215-pounder will make his way to Baton Rouge after a stint with the Kentucky Wildcats.

Will Wade lands the coveted bucket-getter coming off of a strong 2025-26 campaign. pic.twitter.com/TajqyfKBV2

— Zack Nagy (@znagy20) April 21, 2026

Kentucky meltdown 

We’re a day or so away from getting into the winners and losers of the portal as a whole. With a day or so to go the winners seem to be Texas and Tennessee with teams like South Carolina, Missouri and Texas A&M having a great few weeks, as well. 

The one consistent name that has come up repeatedly for “losers” in the portal is not just the biggest loser in the conference but also the country. That is Kentucky. 

Consider this, too: this is a team widely criticized for having one of the worst portal cycles so far, yet it’s in a conference where Georgia had just one commit and LSU had none until Monday night.

Kentucky and Mark Pope just haven’t been able to secure any wins in the portal, and they’ve swung and missed more than LSU in a midweek game. Sorry, that’s a baseball reference, but you get the point. 

Yesterday, one of the biggest names left in the portal, Donnie Freeman, decided to go to St. John’s over Kentucky. The reason was because he wanted to play for a coach that has “actually sent players to the league” referencing Rick Pitino and not Mark Pope. To make matters worse, Kentucky reportedly passed on another player because they were so all-in on Freeman, and still ended up with nothing. 

Kentucky essentially passed on Rancik because they were sure they were getting Freeman. They got neither

Mismanagement by a staff that insisted they didn’t need a GM. Fairly impossible to defend

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) April 21, 2026