A day after an East Baton Rouge Parish judge ruled in favor of allowing LSU signee RJ Luis to practice and play for the Tigers, first-year basketball coach Will Wade didn’t change his stance on rostering the former St. John’s star.
Judge Ronald Johnson signed an injunction Wednesday, temporarily granting Luis eligibility through at least Nov. 13. Another hearing is scheduled for that date to determine whether to extend the injunction to preliminary status and potentially make it permanent, Luis’ attorney Tony Clayton told Matt Moscona on After Further Review Wednesday.
LSU and Wade were both enjoined in a lawsuit brought by Clayton on Luis’ behalf. He’s trying to keep the Southeastern Conference from imposing penalties on LSU if Luis is rostered.
Wade conducted his first press conference Thursday for the start of the upcoming regular season with a preemptive strike on the topic of Luis before taking questions from the media.
“I thought all of our eligibility stuff was over,” Wade said. “I’d like to talk about some eligibility stuff. I’m not talking about that. I can’t talk about it in light of what happened yesterday (Wednesday). I’ve made my stance very clear on things and my stance has not changed. I’ll be happy to talk about the 14 guys that are on our roster.”
Luis, who signed with both the Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz and never played for either club, signed with LSU in May. He remained in a holding pattern, along with several other signees, waiting to be cleared for play by the NCAA.
The Southeastern Conference put protocols in place for any school attempting to roster professional athletes that wanted to return to college after signing pro contracts.
For anyone in violation of such rules, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that coaches could be suspended, universities could forfeit up to half of their athletic budgets and lose their voting privileges in conference-related matters.
When Wade attended the SEC’s Media Day on Oct. 13, he didn’t appear to have Luis in his future plans.
“We’re going to follow all the SEC protocols with him,” Wade said, when asked about Luis. “I think it’s pretty clear what the SEC protocols are on all that. He didn’t travel with us to McNeese (exhibition) and hasn’t been rostered.”
CBS Sports reported a week after SEC Media Day that Wade, “had given up the fight for Luis to be eligible,” according to Matt Norlander.
Wade has assembled a 14-player roster that will play together for the first time against LSU-New Orleans on Nov. 3 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at 7 p.m.
“We’re excited to get going,” Wade said. “We’ve played these (three) exhibition games. Looking forward to playing a real game and getting rolling. (We’ve) Got a couple of days left to practice. We’ve got to continue to get better, work on ourselves and turn our attention to New Orleans after that.”
