The second Will Wade era of LSU basketball tips off tonight as the Tigers head to McNeese for an exhibition game. Wade, though, told the Baton Rouge Rotary Club yesterday that only about eight of his players will play as others wait for eligibility rulings from the NCAA.
“I felt like this was a necessary, calculated risk to go about this with this year’s roster. We feel good that a lot of them are going to get eligible. We feel like almost all of them are going to be eligible,” Wade stated.
LSU’s roster has returning fifth-year seniors and former international pros who are still going through the NCAA eligibility process. Wade says some of his players have former overseas teammates who have gained NCAA eligibility already.
“It’s going to be hard to deny our kids, when their teammates are eligible and we know their contracts; and their contracts are more than our kids’ contracts. I tend to feel pretty good about our chances. We just don’t know how long that process is going to take,” Wade said.
All the proceeds from the trip to Lake Charles will go to the McNeese basketball program. Wade says he owes everything he has to the people of Lake Charles for sticking their necks out and saving his career by hiring him after he was fired by LSU.
“When your down-and-out, and you need somebody to believe in you; and those folks believed in me. And so this is a small way that we can repay them; they’re going to make quite a bit of money off of this for their program,” Wade explained.
Tip-off is set for 6:30.