LSU Basketball Currently With Six Players on Campus, Rest of Team to Arrive in Next Few Weeks
With LSU basketball gearing up for a return to the court at the end of the month, the 2020 team is already starting to file in. While making an appearance on 104.5 ESPN on Thursday, coach Will Wade said the Tigers currently have six players on campus with the rest of the team set to arrive within the next few weeks.
Once the players wrap up going through the proper health protocols this week, Wade said the players that are in town will start the workout process. The team is allowed to conduct workouts in "small groups" as well as establish individual times where the players can go in the gym and shoot individually with one team manager rebounding for them.
"We're going to lift them in two groups of three to start and then we'll give them each an assigned time in the gym where they can get their shots off and do what they need to do basketball wise," Wade said.
As of now, Cam Thomas, Mwani Wilkinson, Jalen Cook, Eric Gaines, Aundre Hyatt and Darius Days are all back on campus. Wade said the plan is to bring in four more players next week and then another group closer to the end of the month.
The coaching staff itself, can't actually start working with the players until July 20 officially but Wade said he has an "inkling" that date could be moved back a little bit after the most recent spike of COVID-19 cases across the country.
"We can't do anything with them as a coaching staff for another couple of weeks," Wade said. "That may get pushed a little bit further back but so far our guys came in this weekend. Monday they met with compliance and went through the physicals and yesterday they got their tutoring and class schedule all situated. We're trying to get all of that out of the way right now while everything has slowed down."
Days being back on campus is particularly interesting as the rising junior is currently testing the NBA waters for the first time and has yet to officially announce he'll be back with the team.
Wade said Days is in as good a shape as he's been in since arriving to Baton Rouge two years ago. If he were to return to school, he'd add much needed spacing with his three-point shooting ability.
"He's a great shooter but we've got to get his shooting percentage to match how good of a shooter he really is,' Wade said. "I think he's been able to expand his game and do a lot of different things for us. He can play off the bounce a little bit, he can play in the mid range a little bit, there's just a lot of things that hopefully we can expand.
"He's lost 18 pounds from what he played at last year and I know he's been working extremely hard. I think he's poised, if he comes back, to have a real breakout season for us just in terms of being able to expand his game and play a lot of different ways."
LSU is also awaiting the draft decisions of guard Javonte Smart and forward Trendon Watford, who would be welcomed additions to an exciting, yet youthful roster. Center Moussa Cisse, one of the 2020 classes biggest prospects to not commit yet, is also supposed to be deciding on his future some time this week. LSU and Memphis are supposedly the two teams with the highest chance of landing the talented rebounding rim defender.
During the quarantine, Wade and the training staff were able to send the players different workout regimens and he said that just by looking at the players that have arrived so far, they've been working hard.
"They've taken care of their business back home. Every week we changed it up and we sent them a basketball and strength and conditioning workouts," Wade said. "I'd always tell them I'm not gonna be able to tell whether you've been doing them until till I see you. For the most part from looking at them they've been doing what they need to do."
