LSU basketball plays an exhibition game in less than three weeks against McNeese, and coach Will Wade still has no earthly idea if he can field a team. College basketball's first official practice is Monday, and potential starters are still in limbo about if they'll actually be able to play. That's the insanity at play with college basketball rosters right now.
The NCAA has held stedfast that it will not release a blanket waiver to the hundreds of seniors who are suing for a fifth year of eligibility in the wake of the new five-for-five eligibility model. The NCAA has racked up numerous legal victories in recent weeks, too. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay to overrule a Colorado judge's ruling that granted a blanket fifth year of eligibility to the entire Class of 2022.
Numerous state-by-state cases have popped up with athletes seeking temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions to block the transfer portal rules and gain another year of eligibility. Slowly but surely, the NCAA has racked up stays in Ohio and Georgia, essentially throwing a roadblock into the paths back to college basketball for numerous real-deal difference-makers, while the slow-moving appeals process runs its course. All eyes are on the preliminary injunction hearings that are on the docket in the next couple weeks.
We're rapidly approaching the grim reality that some fifth-year seniors will be eligible while others aren't due to the allegiances of a local judge. It will shape college basketball's contenders (or pretenders) this season. Tamin Lipsey is Iowa State basketball, and the four-year starter is chasing a fifth year of eligibility after going undrafted in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Lipsey agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Indiana Pacers, but the deal was not executed, eliminating one round of red tape to return to college basketball. There's a way to go here in the world of temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions and appeals, so let's focus on the on-court impact. Without Lipsey, Iowa State looks like a rock-solid Top 25 club.
The defense projects to be outstanding — think top-five in the country — after T.J. Otzelberger landed a sneaky-strong portal class that is loaded with plus defenders, headlined by ex-Bradley point guard Jaquan Johnson and Northern Iowa transfer Leon Bond III, who were two of the best defensive players in the Missouri Valley last season. Returning center Blake Buchanan and Northwestern transfer forward Tre Singleton are expected to form a plus defensive frontcourt for the Cyclones, too.
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