LSU, Will Wade land Michigan State transfer Divine Ugochukwu

LSU head coach Will Wade has added another public commitment to the 2026-27 roster, and once again, he dipped into the Transfer Portal.

On Thursday, Michigan State transfer guard Divine Ugochukwu committed to transfer to LSU as part of Wade’s first roster upon his return to Baton Rouge as head coach of the Tigers, he told On3.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore from Sugar Land (Texas) averaged 5.1 points in 16.1 minutes per game this past season for the Spartans.

He scored a season-high 23 points against Penn State in December, and the Spartans went 11-1 in games when Ugochukwu was in the starting five.

Ugochukwu (6-3, 195) spent one season with the Spartans, which began with a role as a backup guard to starting point guard Jeremy Fears before he worked his way into the starting lineup as a shooting guard. By season’s end, Ugochukwu started in 12 consecutive games before Jordan Scott took over the role after Ugochukwu suffered a season-ending foot injury.

Ugochukwu finished his sophomore campaign averaging 5.1 points, 1.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds on 50.6 percent shooting – including better than 44% from 3-point range – in 22 games. 

A former three-star prospect, Ugochukwu began his career at Miami. He averaged 5.3 points, 2.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds on 48.3 percent shooting (17.6 percent from three) in 28 games (16 starts) for the Hurricanes as a true freshman.

For Wade, it’s addition No. 4 to the 2026-27 roster.

The first domino to drop came from Kentucky transfer forward Mouhamed Dioubate, and with Wade spending more than a week with assistant coach Rick Stansbury recruiting internationally, the Tigers beat out Kentucky and BYU for Brazilian forward Marcio Santos, who has been playing professional basketball abroad at Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.

Toss in LSU Football’s commitment from Louisiana native Ahmad Hudson, a Top 25 prospect in both football and basketball on the Rivals Industry Rankings, who will be on football scholarship, but will also join Wade’s roster once he arrives on campus, sources tell me.

While the Tigers have a pair of transfer additions and Louisiana’s top high school basketball prospect secured for the 2026-27 season, expect more names like Santos – who turns 24 to start the season at LSU – to pop up as LSU commitments.

“This year, I’m going to lean a little heavier on the international route… 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,” Wade said.

Stay tuned to The Bengal Tiger and On3 for more on LSU Basketball’s revamped roster as Wade continues to add more names to next year’s team.