The 2020–21 LSU Tigers basketball team represented Louisiana State University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team's head coach was Will Wade, in his fourth season at LSU. They played their home games at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a member of the Southeastern Conference. They finished the season 19–10, 11–6 in SEC Play to finish in 3rd place. They defeated Ole Miss and Arkansas to advance to the championship game of the SEC tournament where they lost to Alabama. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated St. Bonaventure in the First Round before losing in the Second Round to Michigan.
Previous season The Tigers finished the season 21–10, 12–6 in SEC play to finish in a tie for second place. They were set to be the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament with a bye to the quarterfinals. However, the SEC Tournament and all other postseason tournaments were cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Offseason
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure Skylar Mays 4 G 6'4" 205 Senior Baton Rouge, LA Graduated; selected 50th overall by the Atlanta Hawks Emmitt Williams 5 F 6'6" 230 Sophomore Fort Myers, FL Declared for the 2020 NBA draft James Bishop 10 G 6'2" 190 Freshman Baltimore, MD Transferred to George Washington Marshall Graves 12 G 6'4" 195 Senior Ponchatoula, LA Graduated Marlon Taylor 14 G 6'6" 210 Senior Mount Vernon, New York Graduated Caleb Starks 20 G 6'3" 205 Junior Lafayette, LA Walk-on; Transferred to Tarleton State Courtese Cooper 21 F 6'9" 220 Sophomore Elgin, IL Transferred to Southern Utah
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous School Josh LeBlanc Sr. 11 F 6'7" 230 Junior Baton Rouge, LA Georgetown Bryan Penn-Johnson 22 C 7'0" 260 Sophomore Long Beach, CA Washington Shareef O'Neal 32 F 6'10" 225 Sophomore Los Angeles, CA UCLA
2020 recruiting class
Preseason
SEC media poll The SEC media poll was released on November 13, 2020.
Media poll 1 Tennessee 2 Kentucky 3 LSU 4 Florida 5 Alabama 6 Arkansas 7 Auburn 8 South Carolina 9 Ole Miss 10 Missouri 11 Texas A&M 12 Mississippi State 13 Georgia 14 Vanderbilt
Preseason All-SEC teams The Tigers had two players selected to the preseason all-SEC teams.
First Team
Trendon Watford
Second Team
Javonte Smart
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=|Regular season
!colspan=12 style=| SEC Tournament
!colspan=12 style=| NCAA tournament
Schedule Source
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll
References