The 2017 recruiting class is the cornerstone for Will Wade’s rebuilding of LSU’s basketball program.
The five-man class finished ranked No. 16 in the nation by 247sports.com, and included top 10 point guard Tremont Waters, swingman Brandon Rachal and an athletic post player in Mayan Kiir. The three freshmen are players that Wade expects to contribute in big ways this season.
“I guess one thing that stands out to me through these days in practice is that we have three freshmen who can help us,” Wade said. “You never know how the freshmen are going to be when facing live bullets and when you start going up and down.”
“They bring different things to the table, and will be able to contribute to our team this year. We needed some of those guys to contribute, and I think all three of them will be able to contribute for us at some level which will be a positive for us.”
Waters, although undersized, is expected to be the biggest contributor of the class. The 5-foot-11, 167-pound point guard has impressed the coaching staff and fellow players with his court vision and gifted passing ability.
“He made a pass to [senior forward Aaron] Epps yesterday that was phenomenal,” Wade said. “Epps caught it and had a point blank layup and laid the thing in. Our guys are getting adjusted to that, and he is certainly going to help us as a primary ball-handler.”
With the addition of Waters on offense, Rachal is an equal addition on defense. Rachal has the ability and size to guard players at four different positions if necessary. Wade described him as a “pitbull” on defense, and complimented his defensive iq on the court.
Rachal was ranked as the No. 2 player in Louisiana’s class of 2017, and helped Natchitoches-Central win two state championships.
“He’s a good player, tough kid,” Wade said. “He’s been well coached. He’s well schooled, he knows what he is doing. A very good athlete, he had offers for football at wide receiver. He’s a heck of an athlete. He’s built like a freight train. He just turned 18 this weekend, so he is even young for his grade. He defends, he goes to the offensive glass, a powerful driver, he’s going to draw some fouls.”
“He does a lot of good things that contribute to winning. His box score won’t show how much he contributes to winning.”
The third freshman in the trio is Kiir. The South Sudan native originally signed Wade when he was the head coach at VCU, and quickly followed him to Baton Rouge.
“Kiir plays with an extremely high motor,” Wade said. “He doesn’t do everything perfect, but he plays really really hard and that makes up for a multitude of sins and any mistakes he will make.”
As the team gets closer to the season, Wade knows it is important to figure out the role for each player and how to motivate them, especially the freshmen. The trio are key components in improving on the worst season of LSU basketball in school history.
“Every kid has a code to the lock, you want to figure out the code to the lock. You got to figure out that code to every kid and every one of them is different.”