LSU Basketball Taking Advantage of Football Game vs Auburn in Recruiting
With every big Saturday night SEC matchup in Death Valley comes an electric atmosphere. It's an environment that the football team takes advantage of more times than not on the field but when it comes to recruiting, the atmosphere in Tiger Stadium is one that rarely fails.
But the football program isn't the only sport that takes advantage of having one of the unique sporting venues in the country. Will Wade and the basketball team are expected to have plenty of future prospects on hand this evening and over the next couple of weeks.
This basketball team is anticipating welcoming back a number of the current players on this team next season so the focus hasn't been as much on the 2022 class but rather the 2023 recruiting class. Wade is expecting five or six members of the 2023 class in Baton Rouge for the next two home games.
"Football weekends are always big recruiting weekends for us," Wade said. "We need one more for sure and we'd take a second if it's the right guy, but we're really spending our time... we've got a bunch of young kids coming in these next two weekends with Auburn and Florida."
Young players like Alex Fudge, Jerrell Colbert, Brandon Murray and Justice Williams are making waves in this offseason but with so many transfers and returning talent mixed in, there's going to be a logjam for minutes this season. Take Williams for example, who was initially a 2022 commit but reclassified to the 2021 class and is learning the ins and outs of the college game when he theoretically should be preparing for his senior year in high school.
It's becoming more of a trend for high school athletes to come to college a year early. Fudge did it last year and Williams has done it this year with the Tigers alone. Wade said there are a few players LSU is recruiting now in 2023 that want to move up to 2022. It's the nature of where college basketball is.
"It used to be you pushed yourself back now everybody wants to push up to try and get to the next level as quickly as possible. I think it’s something we’re going to explore," Wade said. "The benefits are what you would think. You’re practicing in a college practice, eating at our nutrition center, access to our strength and conditioning program. There’s just levels to things and you’re able to do things at a higher level."
Certainly there are added benefits with having some roster stability, which Wade believes the Tigers will have this time a year from now, making the focus for basketball on the future.
"I feel like for the first time we're not going to have the drastic roster turnover that we've had," Wade said. "Now, we're going to lose some guys, but we're in a pretty good spot with our roster for the next couple years. We're really focusing more down the road."
