Will Wade beats out Kentucky for the sharpshooting Brazilian big man, adding professional EuroLeague experience and versatile floor-spacing to a rebuilding LSU Tigers frontcourt ahead of next season.
LSU Tigers head coach Will Wade told fans that he had more players than publicly known earlier this week, and now that is beginning to be proved.
The Tigers secured their second public commit on Wednesday as Maccabi Tel Aviv's Márcio Santos joined the program, per Jonathan Givony. This is a recruiting win for Wade and co., as Santos was also being pursued by the Kentucky Wildcats.
Santos, a Brazil native, has averaged 7.3 points and 2.6 rebounds on 51.1/33.9/78.3 shooting splits and 15.0 minutes per night across 71 professional games. His EuroLeague performance, shooting 40% from three over 37 games, is the most exciting thing about his game.
The 23-year-old is an excellent shooter for being 6-foot-9, 254 pounds. He'll rotate between being a stretch four and five for LSU. This is adding some versatility to the front court after the addition of Mo Dioubate at forward, more of a defensive addition.
While not the most overwhelming stats from his time over in Israel, it's important to realize that this is someone who is going to be far more physically advanced than a lot of college players and should be able to use that strength to his advantage.
This is the approach that Wade is taking in building out the roster for this team. He's opting to go for more floor-ready players from overseas rather than picking up scraps in the transfer portal. Santos fits the profile of what Wade has made the expectation.
The roster has now grown to two players and should continue to see a few more players trickle in soon. The expectation is to sign seven or eight players for this season, rather than paying a full roster.