Major Eligibility Updates For LSU Tigers Targets Saliou Niang, RJ Luis and More

The LSU Tigers Men's Basketball team has been one of the more controversial units of the sport, as Will Wade has employed an interesting roster construction strategy. Because of how they have built the team, they are still trying to figure out who they will have, with just a couple of weeks until the campaign begins.

Tuesday brought major updates for a few of their top targets: Saliou Niang, Brice Dessert, Skyy Clark, Donovan Dent and RJ Luis. Most of those updates were positive, while one will be disappointing for many.

Starting with the positive, Niang, Dessert, Clark and Dent have all been ruled eligible through a few different means. 

Niang is an elite athlete and should be one of the top defenders in the nation. The Tigers are ecstatic about the prospect of college teams having to deal with both Niang and Mo Dioubate each night. Now, that becomes a reality for them.

The 22-year-old could be one of the best players in the SEC this season and will certainly be looking to make a jump to the NBA after this season, where he has already been drafted (2nd round, No. 58 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2025).

Dessert is a near seven-footer who put up 8.7 points per night on 80.6% from the field per night over in Turkey last season. He will provide some much-needed relief for Michael Ruzic in the frontcourt.

Dent has already been assumed as he has been competing in the scrimmages, but he and Clark received their eligibility again from an injunction in California. The UCLA Bruins teammates from last year will continue together for LSU, as they are expected to be the starting backcourt. 

The less-than-ideal news was that RJ Luis won't receive eligibility and the Tigers are no longer trying to get him eligible, per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. Luis was always going to be the hardest one, as he was not only drafted, but both signed and got traded in the NBA. It makes sense as to why LSU wanted him, but now they will give up their pursuit.

Even without Luis, this is a great batch of news for Wade and the Tigers. They won't have everyone they wanted, but this should still be a very good team on paper. At the very least, this should be a competitive group. It'll be interesting to see who all suits up in the final exhibition game this weekend.