LSU Basketball Set to Welcome New Additions to 2021 Roster at End of the Month

The remaining prospects in the 2021 LSU football class are set to report on May 24 but they won't be the only new student athletes on campus. Over the last month, Will Wade and the LSU basketball staff have been hard at work making high profile additions to the 2021 roster.

With four transfers and four freshmen to introduce to Baton Rouge over the course of the next month, it'll be a busy time for Wade and his coaching staff but it's a core that Wade feels confident can compete for another SEC Championship in 2021-22.

"We feel like on paper we've put together another contender and now we've gotta bring the group together," Wade said.

Team building is one area that knocked all of college sports for a loop during the COVID-19 schedule. Instead of being on campus for the summer and working out as a group and doing team building exercises, players were home for much of the summer and weren't on campus until the early part of July. Even when the players returned, the social distancing and protocols kept the 2020 roster from really connecting during the summer.

In past years, the team has taken trips and implemented difficult early morning workouts in an effort to build team camraderie. Whatever methods Wade uses this go around, it'll be much needed with so many new faces in the program.

"I think it's even more important this time around because of our roster makeup because we have this time now," Wade said. "We're excited about it, we're gonna mix in some basketball and some of the team building and other components that will hopefully make us tight and close and cohesive early on in the season."

Because of the wacky offseason a year ago, not only were those team building exercices eliminated but the leadership component was affected as well. The Tigers had a strong nucleus of leadership last season this team still has work to do in that area because of all the new faces.

Early during the 2020 season, Wade let the players handle the majority of the leadership duties but this offseason, he plans on having both hands on the wheel to ensure this team understands the way the program is run.

"I'm gonna have both hands firmly on the wheel to start and do what I'm comfortable with and as the team evolves, if I need to step back or fade a little bit I'll certainly do that," Wade said. "At least initially I'm gonna be fully involved in the day to day."

This is a roster that is deep enough and has a nice mix of veterans and fresh talent that should be among the favorites in the SEC and have top 25 consideration a year from now. That all goes back to the job that Wade and the coaching staff were able to do over the last month.

Knowing Javonte Smart, Trendon Watford, Cam Thomas and Darius Days were all likely to move on from the program, it became important to add players who have a winning pedigree.

"We obviously knew losing the guys we were gonna lose that we were gonna need to be very active in the transfer portal," Wade said. "We just really sat back and waited so I think our staff did a really good job of honing in on the right guys and went out got the right guys as well.