LSU Basketball landing Dedan Thomas Jr is more than a massive basketball addition

The transfer portal has been in full swing with over a thousand college basketball stars entering the transfer portal picking new schools. This transfer cycle was far and away the most important cycle for Matt McMahon's tenure at LSU. After losing Vyctorius Miller, Corey Chest, Tyrell Ward, and Mike Williams III to the transfer portal the need for a statement to be made became even bigger.

During LSU's disaster season where the Tigers went 3-15 in SEC play, the program made the decision to invest more money in the program via NIL rather than potentially moving on from Matt McMahon. When you pour a ton of money into the program via NIL, you don't make that move to land solid players, you make the decision to add true difference makers.

On Monday Night, the LSU Basketball program landed the Nation's 8th-ranked transfer as UNLV Point Guard Dedan Thomas Jr committed to the Tigers.

The move is massive for the LSU Basketball team as the Tigers add one of the best players available. This season at UNLV, Thomas Jr averaged 15.6 points per game, 4.7 assists per game, and 2.0 rebounds per game. Thomas comes in and can instantly replace the scoring loss of Cam Carter and the loss of Jordan Sears who ran the offense.

While Dedan Thomas Jr will likely be the Tigers' best player next season, the addition means way more than it does on the court.

LSU needed a massive momentum shifter for the program which landing Dedan Thomas Jr signals. In the race for Thomas, LSU beat out the elite of the elite in Kentucky, Florida, and Syracuse which is a massive boost for the program. Rarely on the basketball recruiting trail would you ever see LSU beat those schools out for a player but, LSU's influx of NIL capital brings LSU to their level.

There were concerns over whether or not LSU's investment into the program would even be enough to get on the same level as the other top schools both in the SEC and Nationally. LSU now sends that strong message and with Dedan Thomas Jr on board, recruiting gets a lot easier for the LSU Basketball program.

The first transfer you look at is elite UCF Guard Keyshawn Hall who has a zoom meeting with LSU on Tuesday as it'd give LSU an elite pairing of scoring guards. The Tigers will also be in play for Charlotte Guard Nik Graves who fits the same billing.

The Tigers still have plenty of work to be done in the transfer portal if this team is going to go from 15th to the top half of the league but, LSU needed to add a star in the transfer portal which they can now check off the list. It'll be interesting to see how quickly LSU ramps up its recruitments as you'd ideally like to have the core set in place and signed as soon as possible.

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