A young Mwani Wilkinson looked on from the sidelines. 

He was just seconds away from winning an SEC Championship when his veteran teammate Trendon Watford dribbled the ball toward the top of the key. Watford already had 30 points on the night and had consistently silenced the socially distanced, yet energetic pro-Alabama crowd in Bridgestone Arena. 

But Watford and LSU couldn’t get that final shot to fall. An airballed 3-pointer followed by two missed shots at the buzzer saw LSU lose to Alabama in the 2021 SEC Championship 80-79. 

A year later, Wilkinson and LSU found themselves back in the SEC Tournament, but couldn’t replicate the success of 2021, falling to Arkansas in the quarterfinals.

As the team was about to board the bus to begin its trek to the SEC Tournament, the NCAA sent LSU a Notice of Allegations. Rumors began swirling about the program’s future. 

But the level of concern was low. 

LSU was already two years removed from when rumors of recruiting violations first began, leading to an indefinite suspension of head coach Will Wade.  

Wade eventually returned from that suspension–albeit with an amended contract–and coached two full seasons, leaving concerns of a larger probe into or wholesale destruction of the LSU men’s basketball program in the rearview mirror. 

Wilkinson and the team returned to Baton Rouge after their loss to Arkansas focused solely on preparing for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.  

They got off the bus and, shortly after, a team meeting was called. But something was off. One key member of the program was missing. 

It was Wade. 

“The last time we saw him was when we got off the bus,” Wilkinson said, recalling the day he heard the news that Wade would be fired.  

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Following an early exit in the NCAA Tournament, everything that existed within LSU men’s basketball was gone. 

No coach, no players and one huge dark cloud hanging over what had become one of the most successful programs in the SEC. 

Every scholarship player Wade recruited entered the transfer portal following his termination, Wilkinson included. LSU men’s basketball needed something to stabilize the program, or there would be no program. 

New head coach Matt McMahon was able to convince two of LSU’s scholarship players to exit the portal and return to Baton Rouge. One was Justice Williams, a player who was supposed to sit out during the 2021-2022 season, but saw playing time at the end of the season.  

The other was Wilkinson, a player with starting experience who was a steady presence in an ever-changing basketball landscape at LSU. 

The glue guy 

Wilkinson is a rarity in modern college basketball. 

In an age of graduate transfers, super seniors and the transfer portal, he started as a true freshman on an LSU team that featured future NBA and All-SEC talent. Despite not being an elite scorer, Wilkinson started alongside players like Watford, Cam Thomas, Javonte Smart and Darius Days and over players such as Eric Gaines, Aundre Hyatt and Jalen Cook. 

Despite never averaging more than four points per game in a season at LSU, Wilkinson’s defense and versatility kept him on the court. 

“Mwani Wilkinson [is an] unbelievable athlete, great cutter, great defender,” Wade said in a video when introducing Wilkinson as a freshman. 

He started 14 games during his freshman season, becoming known as the “glue guy” on what was an offensive-oriented, high-scoring team. 

Wilkinson averaged only 3.6 points per game that season, but was efficient when he was needed offensively. He shot 78% from the field and could guard almost any position on the floor in a team that lacked defensive-minded players. 

His impact didn’t always show on the stat sheet, but he was often the glue that kept an otherwise unstable defense from collapsing. 

For Wilkinson, being able to learn from the experienced players while still playing an important, but often overlooked role, helped him grow.  

“That was a very, very good season for a freshman to see, having so many pros on our team and being able to see the process that they had,” he said in an interview. 

He played a similar role his sophomore season, this time on a team more suited to his strengths. Wilkinson’s game also was evolving. 

Wade spoke highly of Wilkinson throughout the 2021 offseason, going as far as calling him the most improved player on the team.  

In that season, he started 30 of 34 games, and while still averaging only four points per game, he took on the classic “3-and-D” role.  

His athleticism and defensive ability remained key pieces of LSU’s high-pressure and extremely efficient defense. On the other end of the court, he became arguably the team’s most efficient shooter, shooting 40% from behind the 3-point line. 

More adversity 

With everything Wilkinson and the LSU men’s basketball program went through during the 2022 offseason, adversity became normal. And as one of the only pieces left from what was a conference championship contending team, Wilkinson’s role was more important than ever. 

But he wasn’t himself. 

Wilkinson came into the 2022-2023 season with a torn right labrum, a type of rubbery cartilage that lines the shoulder socket. The injury made it hard to put a shirt on, much less shoot a basketball. 

But knowing what he meant to the team during a period of change, Wilkinson chose to play through it. And for the first 12 games it worked. 

He continued to play his role as the glue guy, averaging 2.6 points per game, but shooting 44% from behind the 3-point line while starting nine of those 12 games. 

The pain never subsided, though, and that led to extended useof his left arm both in basketball and everyday tasks. 

Then, as Wilkinson and his teammates prepared for a game against Texas A&M, something felt off. 

“We’re in shootaround and just out of nowhere my left arm just started hurting and I couldn’t even play,” he said. “I saw a doctor and he said that I tore my labrum in my left arm just from overcompensation and then I had to shut it down.” 

With two torn labrums and a team that went on to finish 2-16 in SEC play, Wilkinson faced adversity like never before in his basketball career. 

“That was my first time ever being injured and having to sit out so it felt like forever,” Wilkinson said. 

But even during a long offseason of rehab where Wilkinson was in pain just lifting his arms, much less doing anything with a basketball, he never let the injury consume him. 

“I was really big on optimism,” he said. “So I just looked at it like I know there’s people somewhere that had it way worse off than I do.” 

“I want a ring” 

As Wilkinson was recovering from his injury, McMahon was once again rebuilding LSU’s roster. After his first season, seven more players entered the transfer portal, including Williams, making Wilkinson the only remaining scholarship player from when Wade was fired. 

McMahon signed players from all over college basketball, and the roster once again looked completely different from the one he built in Year 1. 

Despite all the changes, Wilkinson once again decided to stay at LSU. 

“I just feel very at home here,” Wilkinson said. “A lot of my family is from Louisiana. So I just feel like it’s like a second home. I grew up coming out here before I started playing basketball competitively.” 

McMahon didn’t push him out either. 

He saw Wilkinson’s value to the team and his worth ethic to rehab and come back from a major injury. He valued Wilkinson’s experience and leadership, especially in the early stages of rebuilding the program. 

“He’s been really consistent in his effort and his leadership in practice and that’s been good for our team,” McMahon said before the season. “He is a guy who has won games at LSU before, so we expect big things from him.” 

Wilkinson expects big things too. 

Winning at LSU keeps the desire to compete at the highest level alive. Adversity for him and the team is constant. Having Jalen Cook, the team’s best player ruled ineligible, was another case of that. Losing the second game of the season to Nicholls State didn’t help either. But none of that changed his desire to win. 

“I want a ring, I’m a winner,” he said. “I had three rings in high school, and I still ain’t got a ring yet in college.” 

It was something he was seconds away from his freshman year. Something he might have been a season away from at the end of his sophomore year. 

And despite an ever–changing landscape of LSU basketball, despite being separated from the coach who recruited him, despite two torn labrums and every piece of adversity the program has faced the last two years, the mission remains the same. 

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