LSU has gotten hold of Abdi Bashir Jr., the four-star transfer out of Kansas State that was ranked the 130th best player in the transfer portal this year by 247Sports. He was also the 21st best shooting guard available this spring. Bashir Jr. averaged 13.2 points per game this season while having a 42.1% field goal percentage.
Abdi Bashir Jr. spent just one season with the K-State Wildcats, having been with the Monmouth Hawks for his freshman and sophomore years. At Monmouth, he started 32 games in 2024-25, while with Kansas State, he was only able to start in 18 games. This was due to a foot injury he suffered in mid-January, which forced him to miss the most critical months of the 2025-26 season.
He’s the second four-star transfer the LSU Tigers have gotten their hands on this offseason. The other being Mouhamed Dioubate, who changed from Lexington, Kentucky, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dioubate is an even more impressive catch, being considered the 63rd best player in the portal and the ninth best small forward on offer.
Will Wade is expected to bring in international experience to the LSU Tigers this offseason
Speaking early this month on Inside College Basketball with Jon Rothstein, returning LSU head coach Will Wade let it be known that he expects to recruit a significant number of international professional players for his 2026-27 roster:
“This year I’m going to lean a little heavier on the international route. This will be the last year some of those guys will be eligible. So we’re going to lean a little heavier on the international route. Those kids have a lot of experience. There’s just some natural things that they’ve learned over there that really help college basketball and can translate to us in college basketball. So we’re gonna do that,” Wade told Rothstein.
While the NCAA is not expected to ban international recruitment, it’s expected that the ruling body of college athletics will start to impose more significant limitations on a program’s ability to recruit older professional European players to join college basketball.
Some think that the ability of professional players from other countries to play college basketball is anathema to the spirit of the competition. Will Wade says: Profit while you can.
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