This weekend, the LSU Basketball team took a disappointing loss at home to the Vanderbilt Commodores and during the week the Tigers lost to Missouri. The losses are disappointing as it felt like LSU was building positive momentum and both were beatable opponents. If you're looking for any silver lining from this weekend it's that the Tigers had Top 25 recruit JJ Andrews on campus for the game.
2026 Top-25 recruit JJ Andrews tells me he hears from these schools the most frequently (in no particular order):
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) January 6, 2025
Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, Marquette, NC State, and Oklahoma. https://t.co/uGGUdKuggx pic.twitter.com/d1oYhtLlQr
According to On3's Industry Recruiting Rankings, JJ Andrews is the 25th ranked player in the Country, the 5th ranked point guard, and the top player in Arkansas. Given that Andrews is from Arkansas, it'll be tough for LSU to go out and pull him out from under John Calipari.
Matt McMahon has been put in an incredibly difficult spot on the recruiting trail in part because of what LSU values. LSU is a football school and after that point, Baseball is the next biggest priority along with Women's Basketball. NIL is the name of the game now and its incredibly difficult to land these top recruits when you can meet NIL demands. At the end of the day it's good to see that Matt McMahon and his staff are pushing hard for top recruits but, the money needs to be there as well in Today's game.
Based on how we've seen the LSU Basketball team perform in the early portion of SEC play, it's clear that the Tigers need an influx of top tier talent. Matt McMahon has landed a solid recruiting class in the current cycle but, if LSU is going to compete with the top teams in the league LSU will need to start pushing for the high end recruits the other programs are prioritizing. After seeing Five-Star In-State recruit Chris Cenac leave the state it should be clear to LSU that the Tigers need to make a push for that level of talent.