LSU basketball pulling no punches with non-conference schedule

Will Wade is a coach who is very confident in the team he’s constructing back at LSU in year one.

The Tigers are off and running with putting together their non-conference schedule and the latest reports are very exciting about the level of competition that is being scheduled. 

To say the purple and gold won’t be dipping their toes into the shallow end is an understatement. A few weeks ago, it was reported that the Tigers had scheduled Houston for a non-conference battle this upcoming season. 

Kelvin Sampson’s crew has been one of the most consistent teams in the country the last few seasons, going to the national championship and sweet sixteen in back-to-back seasons leading into 2026-27. The Cougars figure to be great again so that will be an exciting one to anticipate. LSU played Houston back in 2018 on its run to winning the SEC with Tremont Waters, Naz Reid and company. 

Now, a separate scheduling report has the purple and gold squaring off with another prominent program in the college basketball landscape. The Tigers will be heading up to Spokane, Washington to take on Gonzaga according to a report from The Spokesman Review. Mark Few’s Gonzaga teams are yet another powerhouse in the sport, going to the national championship game in 2021 and has made it to the NCAA Tournament for 26 straight years under his leadership.

LSU will also compete in the Acrisure Series in Palm Springs according to CBS Sports Jon Rothstein, putting the Tigers in a bracket that includes programs like Southern California, South Carolina, Arizona State, Stanford, Colorado, Utah State, Grand Canyon and St. Louis. We don’t yet know who LSU will be playing in the SEC-ACC challenge either but that’s another non-conference game that likely won’t be an easy one on the schedule. 

Clearly Wade wants to send a message that LSU wants all of the smoke in year one. He clearly has a team he believes will compete at a very high level. There are certainly benefits to scheduling teams like Houston and Gonzaga in the non-conference. Even if a team like LSU loses those games but it’s competitive, it helps in the long run of your NCAA tournament resume. 

If the Tigers win some of those more difficult non-conference games then it really helps in the postseason picture come March. This is a roster that has been heavily invested in both at the international level and to a lesser extent the transfer portal. 

We wrote about it this week but this summer for LSU, in addition to getting the transfer additions on campus, is also working behind the scenes to get these international prospects on board as well. Saliou Niang, Yam Madar, Marcio Santos, Brice Dessert and Michael Ruzic are the players who LSU is trying to get eligible from overseas. The Tigers are also attempting to get RJ Luis eligible after signing a two-way contract in the NBA but that one will be tricky. 

Either way that particular situation plays out, it’s clear that Wade is extremely confident in what he’s built during this first season back with the program. These won’t be walk in the park kind of matchups and it’ll ultimately be an early sign of how this team can handle the pressure cooker of an 18-game SEC schedule. 

LSU will not be well liked anywhere it travels for basketball this upcoming year but with this scheduling, Wade is clearly saying ‘bring it on.’