Todd Golden Blasts Will Wade for Recruiting Pro Basketball Players to LSU

Todd Golden isn’t necessarily making friends with the new kid returning to the block in the SEC after the Florida head coach blasted Will Wade and LSU for recruiting professional basketball players.

“We have to have a better solution prior to the season,” Golden said while appearing on The Field of 68 podcast. “It's that simple.”

“I do think the reality is that, with our meetings next week, this is definitely going to be a topic of discussion. I think Commissioner Sankey has a pretty powerful voice. I think Garth Glissman does a fantastic job in our league, continuing to help us be the leader.”

Golden’s voice now holds much more weight after leading the Gators to a National Championship two years ago and putting together another stellar season this year. His comments come after LSU landed a commitment from former St. John’s star RJ Luis, who signed a two-way contract in the NBA last offseason.

“This is, like you said, not what college basketball is meant to be,” Golden continued.

“Again, we need to help these young guys coming up out of high school. We are already about to deal with five for five, which I think is going to be a massive change, similar to when these guys got the COVID year, four or five years ago.”

LSU also landed Saliou Niang, who was the No. 58 pick in the NBA Draft last year and played professionally in Italy this season, although never signing an NBA contract.

“That's going to really hurt these seniors to be in high school right now, trying to get these guys into the college game.”

Wade and the Tigers have gone the natural route of adding in the transfer portal as well with the commitments from Kansas State transfer Abdi Bashir Jr., Kentucky transfer Mo Dioubate, and Michigan State transfer Divine Ugochukwu.

“So, just allowing these significantly older guys, I can understand 20- or 21-year-olds coming over. I like the idea of having that 19 to 24 window. I think that makes a lot of sense. But again, 25 and 26-year-olds is not what college basketball is meant to be,” Golden added.

LSU continues to look for talent overseas where the age range of players they have been recruiting are from 23 years old to 25 years old.

Will Wade will continue to push the recruiting limits and try and build the best team possible for his return season with the Tigers, but he’s not making any friends around the country in the process – and he’s probably fine with that.

Add us as a preferred source on Google