LSU’s basketball roster is about to fill out.
Friday’s injunction against the NCAA allows for players who played a four-year career between 2022 and 2026 to play a fifth in 2026-27. The COVID athletes got that privilege, and the five-for-five era was set to begin this school year. Now, the recently graduated will be essentially grandfathered in. They’re jumping in the transfer portal.
I spoke with a team source in June who indicated LSU knew this was coming and felt confident that the Tiger roster would take shape in August once this ruling came down. LSU was prepared, and I’d expect news to trickle out over the next couple of weeks prior to school starting.
On Friday, a flood of players began looking for a new home. Will Wade’s roster is incomplete at the moment and needs some guards after Yam Madar decided to remain overseas to play professionally.
These names are not to be read as targets at this point, only options for LSU. Keep in mind, many rosters are complete as the calendar turns to August. LSU should have some cash on hand that was earmarked for Madar. And there won’t be as many teams in the market at this point in the year. Here are a few players who entered the portal on Friday. More are to come.
Dug McDaniel – G, Memphis
McDaniel has started 81 college games at Michigan, Kansas State and Memphis where he played last season. His time there did not overlap with Rick Stansbury’s who left after the 2024-25 season. But McDaniel was the starting point guard for Penny Hardaway last season and averaged 14.2 points and 4.6 assists per game.
He’s 5-foot-11 and very quick. He finished 2025-26 second in the American Conference in steals with 62. He was an 83 percent foul shooter and a 34 percent three-point shooter.
Maurice Odom – G, Arizona State
“Moe” has played at Pacific, Pepperdine and Arizona State. He’s a 6-foot-2 guard from The Bronx who finished fourth in the nation in assists at Pepperdine in 2024-25. He’s started 114 games over his three stops and averaged 16.4 points and 5.6 assists per game as a Sun Devil last year.
He shot the ball very well, 38 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the line. I’m not sure if Odom is on LSU’s radar, but he’s a really good college player.
Mark Mitchell – F, Mizzou
Mitchell is not a guard, but he’s a proven SEC big man, having made the All-SEC third team as a junior and the second team last year. He led Mizzou in scoring (18.3), rebounds (5.2) and assists (3.2) last year, the second Tiger in program history to pull that off.
Prior to his time at Missouri, he started for two seasons at Duke. You read that correctly. Mitchell is going to be one of the hottest names in this newly found cycle.
Donovan Dent – G, UCLA
Dent scored 20-plus eight times for UCLA last season. He’s a 6-foot-2 combo guard who averaged 7.6 assists per game. His 265 assist are were the second most in a single season in UCLA history trailing only Lonzo Ball.
Dent scored 30 on USC and notched a triple-double against Rutgers in the Big 10 Tournament. He can really do it all on the offensive end of the floor except shoot the three where he was just a 25 percent shooter at UCLA and is a 33 percent shooter over more than 130 games at New Mexico and UCLA.
