Israeli point guard Yam Madar, who has been playing professionally across the Middle East and Europe since 2018, has committed to Will Wade’s LSU. The player is reportedly getting a $5 million NIL deal to bring him over from Hapoel Tel Aviv to Baton Rouge.
Coach Will Wade has stated before that he expects to bring a significant number of reinforcements from overseas professional leagues to quickly get the Tigers to a playing standard. He also wants to make use of the window for international recruiting, before the NCAA regulates it more harshly.
Madar was a second-round pick on the 2020 NBA Draft, where the Boston Celtics picked him as the 47th overall pick of the event. He has played in Israel with Hapoel Tel Aviv during two stints, first from 2018 to 2021 and now again since 2024. He also played for Serbian professional club Partizan (2021-23), Turkish team Fenerbahçe (2023-24), and German side Bayern Munich (2024).
He’s a EuroCup (2025), ABA League (2023), and Turkish League (2024) champion. The ABA League is a regional Balkan league played between teams from the former Yugoslavia. He was the Israeli League Most Improved Player of 2020, and has earned EuroLeague Rising Star (2023) and All-Israeli League Second Team (2021) honors.
Will Wade’s comments on the use of international recruitment at LSU this offseason
The move to recruit Yam Madar shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, in the first week of May, coach Will Wade was adamant that he would use the international recruiting route to quickly bring experience to the LSU Tigers this offseason.
He said the following to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein:
“This year, I’m going to lean a little heavier on the international route,” Wade said. “This is the last year that a lot of kids over there are going to be eligible, some of the older kids… because of the clock issues, this will be the last year some of those guys are going to be eligible.
“Those kids have a lot of experience, there’s just some natural things they’ve learned over there that really help in college basketball and can translate to us in college basketball.”
This move just seems to confirm what Wade had already stated. International players are a great way to get experience into a team, and as long as it’s allowed to recruit them, he won’t apologize for doing so.
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