Coach Will Wade received positive news on LSU commit Donovan Dent on Tuesday.
The UCLA transfer was among the more than 70 plaintiffs granted a preliminary injunction, keeping them eligible to play a fifth season in 2026-27.
Dent was already eligible after being granted a temporary restraining order Aug. 18 in his age-based eligibility lawsuit filed in California, Glancey v. NCAA.
The temporary restraining order was extended after no decision was made at the original Sept. 29 hearing for a preliminary injunction. There wasn’t enough time then for all players and coaches to testify, and the second hearing concluded Tuesday.
It’s expected that the NCAA will appeal.
This latest court ruling also came the same day that the NCAA made 22‑year‑old Italian‑Senegalese wing Saliou Niang and 23‑year‑old French center Brice Dessert eligible to play for LSU, according to a source with knowledge of the program told The Advocate.
Dent will also play alongside fellow UCLA transfer Skyy Clark, who was granted a temporary injunction for a fifth year in a Kentucky lawsuit, Wells v. NCAA, Oct. 16.
While Clark was among the original plaintiffs in the same California eligibility lawsuit that Dent is a part of, he signed a request for partial dismissal without prejudice Aug. 13, according to court documents.
Attorney Emily Staker of Christine Brown and Partners told The Advocate that Clark’s attorneys, The Texas Trial Group, which represents plaintiffs in the Kentucky and California cases, likely advised him to participate in only one lawsuit.
“You can’t take two bites at the apple,” said Staker, a Washington state‑licensed attorney for seven years. “You can’t lose one case and just go file in another state with the exact same facts necessarily, unless there’s some material difference in law and application.
“I’m wondering if they said, ‘Hey, it’s going to be frowned upon if you’re basically in two courts at once. We need to pick one court and just go with that.’ That’s my impression of the situation. They don’t want him to be accused of forum shopping and have his claim dismissed, so they withdrew him from Glancey.”
A Kentucky judge granted Clark, along with over 30 other athletes, a request for a temporary injunction, grandfathering athletes from the high school class of 2022 into the NCAA’s five-for-five eligibility model. This reversed an Oct. 2 decision by the Kentucky Court of Appeals that dissolved the case, leaving the athletes ineligible.
Wade’s roster is almost complete as he waits for the NCAA to decide on the eligibility of 24-year-old Israeli center Gilad Levy, who was the last player to commit to the program Aug. 25.
There is more certainty for LSU’s team since it’s also no longer trying to add RJ Luis, a former St. John’s star who signed an NBA contract in 2025 and was granted a preliminary injunction. Even though he was among the 15 players who were practicing with the team since Sept. 2, Wade said at SEC media day last Tuesday that Luis is not on the roster.
“We’re going to follow all the SEC protocols with him,” Wade said on a virtual call. “I think it’s been pretty clear what the SEC protocols are on all that. He didn’t travel with us to McNeese, and he hasn’t been rostered.”
CBS Sports reported on Aug. 26 that the SEC finalized extensive punishments to penalize any program that uses a player who signed a pro contract (as well as not formally withdrawing from the draft) in professional leagues such as the NBA, WNBA and NFL.
Unlike Luis, Niang remains eligible even though he was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 58th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The SEC will abide by the NCAA’s ruling because the 6-foot-7 wing’s decision to enter the draft came before he enrolled at a school, according to CBS Sports.
The newly eligible international players and Clark didn’t play in LSU’s exhibition games against McNeese State Oct. 8 and Central Florida last Wednesday. They all should be able to participate in the Tigers’ last exhibition game at Florida State at noon on Saturday.
Dent, a 6-foot-2 point guard, played in LSU’s two exhibition games. He had 12 points on 2-of-8 shooting, five rebounds, one assist, one block, one steal and zero turnovers in a 63-60 win at McNeese State. He followed that up with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, nine rebounds, 11 assists, three steals, three blocks and three turnovers in an 85-81 win over UCF at home. He also made a go-ahead layup with eight seconds remaining.
Wade played only six players in LSU’s second exhibition. 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.”
After the last game, Dent explained why he decided to come to LSU.
“Really, just Will Wade’s culture. He instills a lot of confidence in his players to let you get up and down. He’s one of the best player-coaches I think in the nation. And just the atmosphere of LSU. Like, why not come to Baton Rouge.”
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