Will Wade received positive news on the eligibility status of one of his international commits.
Saliou Niang was cleared by the NCAA to play for the Tigers, a source with knowledge within the program told The Advocate on Tuesday. The 22-year-old Italian-Senegalese is now eligible to play for Wade and the Tigers this 2026-27 season. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, formerly of ESPN. was the first to report the news.
Niang should be able to participate in the Tigers’ last exhibition game at Florida State at noon on Saturday, after sitting out the first two contests.
Niang, a 6-foot-7 wing, averaged 9.0 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 turnovers in 27 games for Virtus Bologna in Italy last season. He also shot 60.8% from the field, 36.8% from the 3-point line and 75.3% from the free-throw line. His team went 23-5 in the Italian domestic league Lega Basket Serie A.
LSU, which has yet to finalize an official roster, has 10 players listed on its site before news of Niang’s eligibility was decided.
Wade was asked about Niang during his first media availability since his hiring in March and said that the win reminds him of one of his former players at LSU.
“Niang reminds you kind of Tari Eason,” Wade said Sept. 23. “Very, very similar to him.”
Eason, a 6-8 forward now on the Houston Rockets, averaged 16.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.1 blocks as a sophomore during the 2021-22 season.
Wade also has three other international players signed for the upcoming season. The only other player that was cleared previously was 20-year-old Croatian center Michael Ruzic, who played in LSU’s exhibition games. He was cleared hours before the Tigers’ game against McNeese State Oct. 8.
Wade is still waiting to get Israeli center Gilad Levy and French center Brice Dessert cleared by the NCAA.
Niang joins a roster that is expected to include fifth-year UCLA transfer guards Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark, Kentucky transfer forward Mo Dioubate, Michigan State transfer guard Divine Ugochukwu, Kansas State transfer guard Abdi Bashir and UTSA transfer guard Austin Nunez.
Wade played only six players in LSU’s most recent exhibition against Central Florida last Wednesday. When he was asked for an update on the eligibility of some of those who didn’t play, he said he won’t comment on the topic, citing the Southeastern Conference’s latest filing in federal court, which quoted him last month.
“I would love to update you, but because all my words are being used against us, I’m not going to,” Wade said in the postgame news conference. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. I’m not. I’m not going to talk anything about eligibility right now just because of the situation that we’ve got. I’m not trying to play coy or anything like that.”
The Tigers open their regular season against LSU New Orleans on Nov. 3 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
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