Oct 22, 2026 11:22 PM
Three LSU Tigers stars made the top 10 ranking of the top incoming international players in all of the NCAA.
The LSU Tigers Men's Basketball team is finally put together after getting some great news about many of their international prospects. Will Wade got many of the players he was hoping for, which should help his first season get off to a nice start.
The Tigers went with a few very important international prospects to help build out their roster. There are four international players who could end up seeing major minutes, and three of them are among the best to come from overseas in this cycle.
College Basketball analytics expert Evan Miyakawa released a ranking of the top 25 incoming international players, using his BPR metric, which is meant to signal how many points better (or worse) per 100 possessions a team is with said player on the court.
Three LSU newcomers were listed among the top 1; here is where they ranked (overall incoming player ranking in parentheses):
No. 2 (9) F Saliou Niang
Niang one was one of the two main players that the Tigers had to get eligible. Between he and RJ Luis, losing out of both of them could have been a disaster for this team's depth. Getting just Niang is still very exciting.
The wing is an incredible athlete who is expected to be a stout defender and dangerous when trying to get to the rim. He has a projected +2.62 BPR and +2.34 defensive BPR, totaling a 4.96.
No. 7 (17) C Michael Ruzic
Ruzic has been eligible for a while now and has already been able to make an impact in the exhibition games. It'll be fun to see what he looks like with some added depth, and he doesn't have to play 38 minutes. In the last game, he had 15 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and hit a three.
Having a seven-footer who can space the floor with his shooting will be a big help. His defense is expected to be even better, though. He has a 1.97 offensive BPR projection and 2.27 on the defensive side for a total of 4.24.
No. 8 (22) C Brice Dessert
Dessert is the player who is going to be providing some relief for Ruzic. They are both big seven-footers, but they aren't the same. Dessert is expected to bring more on the offensive side of the ball. He had 8.7 points per game on 80.6% from the field in Turkey last season. He also had 1.3 blocks per game, but the rebounding numbers were lower than they should be, at 3.3.
The 23-year-old has an offensive BPR projection of 2.14, but his defense is a little lower at 1.77, likely due to the rebounding, for a total of 3.91.
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