Matt Norlander spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Alabama for the SEC's 2026 college basketball media days. He interviewed nearly 20 coaches and players — all of which you can watch on the Eye on College Basketball YouTube page. A few of those conversations are embedded below in this elongated notebook of takeaways, starting with the biggest talking point on the ground at the league's annual press event ...
MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — The biggest story of 2026 SEC basketball media days was the school, and the coach, that never showed up. "Dense fog" Tuesday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, precluded LSU's men's and women's teams from taking off in a timely fashion — and led to a Tigers no-show. The school's private jet was, effectively, ineligible for takeoff. (This plot twist came under expected skepticism, but the meteorologists on the ground in Louisiana were ready to provide viable evidence for the ground stop.) With an exhibition game awaiting Wednesday night for Will Wade's program, adjusting the interview schedule was evidently too difficult for LSU and the SEC to find a quick workaround, despite the approximate 25-minute flight from Baton Rouge to Birmingham.
So, Wade no-showed and eventually hopped on a Zoom call with a handful of reporters as a make-good, then proceeded to get into a verbal clash with one of the reporters on said call, and ultimately left LSU's situation no more clear than it was heading into the week. Oh, and there's still a contentious lawsuit between LSU and the SEC that looms over the conference, with expulsion of LSU from the league still simmering as an extremely unlikely backdrop threat. Nothing like a federal lawsuit to cozy up the vibes before the holiday season, right?
Commissioner Greg Sankey spoke before assembled media on Wednesday and predictably sidestepped the questions he got about the litigation, about LSU, about what his conversations with Will Wade have been like. "I'd like to not be in court, but as I said, those legal filings speaking for themselves," Sankey said from the dais when pressed on the matter. Sankey later agreed to a sit-down with CBS Sports, but there was a condition: He would not, and could not, speak on the still-unresolved case.
The lawyers have asked him to zip it, and he's happy to oblige. But I can offer a bit more, even without Sankey's assistance. We're less than three weeks before LSU has to submit its roster to the SEC for its Nov. 3 game against LSU New Orleans.
It seems Wade wants to take suspense that right up until the deadline ... just like Lane Kiffin did before ultimately bowing to the SEC's rules about not rostering post-enrollment players who materially and definitively pursued a professional career before trying to double back for an additional year in college. In talking to sources, and even judging by Wade's lack of action and his own choice of words on Tuesday and Wednesday, it's clear he wants to and is determined to somehow find a way to roster and play soon-to-be 24-year-old RJ Luis, who we last saw in college basketball with St. John's in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
