Santa Clara transfer Carlos Stewart commits to LSU
LSU Basketball is fresh off landing Baton Rouge natives Jalen Cook and Jordan Wright from the NCAA Transfer Portal and now landed another. Santa Clara guard Carlos Stewart committed to the Tigers, he announced.
The sophomore wrapped up his second season with the Broncos, starting all 33 games this season. In 31.6 minutes, he notched 15.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
As a true freshman in 2021-22, the 6-1 former Dunham School standout averaged 5.4 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. He’ll have two years of eligibility remaining.
Among the schools to reach out included Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and many others.
Nevada center Will Baker is LSU’s other transfer portal addition so far.
Forward Corneilous Williams (West Carolina), guard Cam Hayes, guard Justice Hill (Loyola Marymount), guard Justice Williams, center Shawn Phillips, center Kendal Coleman (Cal Baptist) and guard Adam Miller are the departures for LSU this offseason.
Matt McMahon took over LSU last spring and the Tigers sputtered to one of the worst seasons in recent history. LSU finished just 2-16 in Southeastern Conference play with a 14-19 overall record.
LSU led off SEC play with a home win over Top 10 Arkansas, but then lost 13 straight league games before beating Vanderbilt at home Feb. 22. LSU beat Georgia in the SEC Tournament before falling to the Commodores on March 9 to end the first campaign under McMahon.
“I think clearly disappointed in the overall result of the season,” McMahon said after the loss to Vanderbilt. “You asked me, one of your first questions when I was blessed to get to take to job, What are your goals? My goal is the same every year: I want to help our players and team max out and become the best we’re capable of being. Whether that’s 15 wins, 18 wins, 31 wins… I don’t think we were able to get that accomplished this year. That’s clearly my responsibility. But there’s the reality, also, I’m well aware. I’m not an excuse-maker. I don’t blame anybody or complain.
“The reality is we didn’t take over the 22-win LSU team that went to the NCAA tournament. We took over a program in crisis, zero players, zero signees. Really had to start at ground zero and try to put a team together and do our best moving forward. Unfortunately wasn’t able to get it done at the level I would have liked to in January and February. Take quite a few positives from the year.”
