On Sunday Night, as expected, the LSU Basketball team did not make the NCAA Tournament after a miserable season. As 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament, the NIT's two automatic bids for the SEC had to go to LSU and South Carolina. The LSU Tigers ultimately decided to decline an invitation to the NIT, which indicated several things.
LSU is going to use the transfer portal heavily this offseason after reports trickled out that LSU will up its Basketball NIL Budget to get on par with the other top schools in the SEC. The other thing it signaled was that the LSU Basketball team may be set to lose a ton of pieces to the transfer portal, whether it's by choice or because several players wanted to go elsewhere.
On Sunday Night, Jacques Doucet confirmed the latter reporting that LSU wouldn't have the numbers to field a proper team for the NIT Tournament.
It’s my understanding that @LSUBasketball would have a hard time even fielding a team for the NIT. Don’t have the numbers. And I think we all know it’s time to move to next year. #LSU
— Jacques Doucet New (@WAFB9Sports) March 17, 2025
The news doesn't come as a shock, as the Tigers had an abysmal year, and between injuries and the nature of the transfer portal, LSU is set to undergo a ton of change rather quickly. Realistically, among the players that can return, LSU would love to have its freshman class back along with Jalen Reed but aside from Robert Miller and Vyctorius Miller, no loss would be truly devastating.
As things currently stand, we know that three players will be on the roster next season as Matt McMahon signed Matt Gilhool, Jalen Reece, and Mazi Mosley out of High School. The Transfer Portal will officially open on Monday, March 24th running through April 22nd spanning 30 days but, as we saw during the football transfer cycle, players will announce their plans to transfer before the portal opens.
After LSU decided to pony up NIL money to the Basketball program is was well understood that LSU was going to overhaul this roster during the transfer portal to see if Matt McMahon can win with a better crop of players. When the transfers start to roll out its important to remember that not every transfer is a player leaving the program but, they may have been told to look elsewhere.