LSU Basketball: Tigers in the mix for ECU transfer

LSU basketball is one of the programs in the mix to land East Carolina transfer Jayden Gardner.

Gardner is reportedly down to five schools: LSU, Virginia, NC State, Arkansas, and Miami.

According to 247Sports, he’ll make his decision within the next week.

The former three-star recruit spoke to 247Sports this week about his upcoming decision.

Where does LSU basketball stand in the race for Jayden Garnder?

Gardner spoke to 247Sports about all the programs in his top five, and it doesn’t appear that there’s a clear leader for the 6-foot-7 forward, though it definitely sounds like he’s high on the Tigers.

“I just like the sense of urgency of saying how much they (LSU) need me as a player and the impact I would make on the court,” said Garnder this week. “Also how much they can develop me and help me as a player.”

“There’s a lot of mutual interest,” added Garner. “We have had zooms and our first one was Friday and we had one yesterday. The zoom went really well.”

Garnder, who is from North Carolina, is transferring from ECU after averaging 18.0 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game this past season as a junior.

As a sophomore in 2019-20, Garnder averaged 19.7 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game.

The competition isn’t the same in the AAC as it is in the SEC, but I think it’s pretty clear from those numbers that Garnder would be an extremely useful player for Will Wade and the Tigers.

He also has the right attitude to be successful at LSU.

“I’m going to score the basketball, be a leader on and off the court,” explained Gardner. “I’m a team-first guy so it won’t be any hero ball. I’m just us trying to win basketball games.”

Garnder originally signed with East Carolina over overs from Appalachian State, Murray State, Penn State, and VCU, among several others.