| LSU fans are watching the transfer portal tracker these days like the stock market — and with good reason. The transfer portal is a huge, perhaps outsized, barometer of how the Tigers may do in the upcoming season. We're keeping you updated to the minute on the latest comings and goings with the LSU roster. It's important leading up to the Tigers' Dec. 31 Texas Bowl against Baylor in Houston, but more for what it means for LSU in the new year. Our Wilson Alexander analyzes what LSU is doing in the portal to this point and where it needs to go in advance of year four under Brian Kelly. ----------------------------- Brian Kelly vowed that LSU would be aggressive in the transfer portal this offseason, and halfway through the first window, the Tigers have one of the top-ranked transfer classes in the country. LSU was No. 3 nationally behind Ole Miss and Texas Tech as of Wednesday night, according to 247Sports. It signed top 4 classes during each of Kelly’s first two offseasons, but after dropping to No. 43 last year, the past two weeks have marked a significant jump in LSU’s portal activity. Now, transfer rankings do not always correlate with success. Ole Miss signed the nation’s top-ranked class last year and missed the College Football Playoff, while Oregon had the No. 2 class and earned the top seed. Florida State added the seventh-best class and plummeted to 2-10 this fall. Indiana secured a playoff spot after signing the 28th-ranked transfer class. It’s important to remember that as hype builds around LSU’s additions. What actually matters is that LSU made sound evaluations and found players who fit within the program. Only time will tell if that was the case. With those disclaimers in mind, let’s take a look at what LSU has accomplished so far in the transfer portal, which runs until Dec. 28 and reopens in April. The Tigers have signed seven players. They also hold commitments from Virginia Tech defensive back Mansoor Delane and Florida State receiver Destyn Hill. Replacing the pass catchers LSU has added three wide receivers and a tight end, addressing one of the primary needs of the offseason. The Tigers had talent at those spots, but most of their returning skill players are unproven. After losing Kyren Lacy, Mason Taylor and CJ Daniels, the Tigers needed experience and depth at those positions. Some of LSU’s most impressive work so far has been done at receiver. Barion Brown (Kentucky) and former Nic Anderson (Oklahoma) were considered two of the top players in the portal regardless of position. According to ESPN’s rankings, Brown and Anderson were the No. 7 and No. 11 overall transfers, respectively. Both of them could compete to start next season. In three years at Kentucky, Brown recorded 122 catches for 1,528 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has also scored an SEC-record five touchdowns on kickoff returns. Brown’s speed and quick movements stand out. LSU hopes he can be even more productive playing with a quarterback like Garrett Nussmeier, and Brown will try to improve his draft stock in his last year. Anderson brings a lot to the table. Two years ago, he recorded 31 catches for 798 yards and 10 touchdowns, an Oklahoma freshman record. He has length at 6-foot-4, and he creates explosive plays. Seven of his receptions went for more than 40 yards, and his average depth of target was 16.1 yards. Though he will be draft eligible, Anderson can play three more seasons, potentially making him an important part of the offense for a few years. The thing with Anderson will be staying healthy. He dealt with injuries as a true freshman, and he missed almost the entire 2024 season with what Oklahoma coach Brent Venebales described as a quadriceps injury. Then there’s former Oklahoma tight end Bauer Sharp. He needs to continue to develop after beginning his career as a quarterback at Southeastern Louisiana, but he has potential at 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds. Kelly described him as physical, and he led the team this year with 42 catches for 324 yards. He has to become more consistent, especially in the run game. Meanwhile, Hill added to LSU’s depth. He has potential as a former top 150 recruit in the 2021 class, but he only has six career catches. It took Hill two years to get to Florida State after he signed. After playing in 2023, he missed this season because of an injury. With three years of eligibility, LSU can work on his development. With these additions, the Tigers have a group of receivers that should be able to stretch the field when everyone’s healthy. That will be a point of focus in the offseason after LSU struggled to consistently connect on deep shots during Nussmeier’s first season. Experience on defense LSU has landed four defensive transfers, and all of them have starting experience on the Power Four level. Delane started 29 games over three seasons at Virginia Tech. ESPN ranked him as the ninth-best transfer in the country. Florida edge rusher Jack Pyburn has nine career starts, including the last eight games of this season. Nebraska edge rusher Jimari Butler has started 16 times. He started 10 of the 11 games he played in this year. Florida cornerback Ja’Keem Jackson started the first two games this fall before suffering an injury. Finding experience on defense was essential for LSU, which has to replace seven of its 11 starters from the regular season finale against Oklahoma. Four of those departures are upfront, so Pyburn and Butler are key additions. They presumably will become part of the defensive end rotation and compete for starting roles. Pyburn is violent at the point of attack, making him a solid run defender and good at setting the edge. That’s a plus, but he’ll need to improve as a pass rusher to stay on the field in passing situations. Meanwhile, Butler has better pass rush technique, helping him record 7 ½ sacks during his career. They both have one year of eligibility remaining. Delane could be one of the most impactful transfers in LSU’s class. He has recorded 146 career tackles, seven tackles for loss, six interceptions, four forced fumbles and 16 pass breakups. LSU believes he can play corner, nickel or safety, making him a versatile piece of a secondary that will look much different. At the very least, LSU will change one safety, one corner and the Star from this year’s team. It could end up changing the entire secondary, depending on how competitions go throughout practice. Jackson, a former top 55 recruit, will factor into the cornerback battle along with sophomore Ashton Stamps, freshman PJ Woodland and five-star DJ Pickett. A future starting QB? It’s possible LSU found its quarterback of the future in Mississippi State freshman Michael Van Buren. A former four-star recruit, Van Buren completed 54.7% of his passes for 1,886 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for five scores. Those stats won’t amaze you, but he had several encouraging moments going through an SEC schedule on a bad team. He’ll be in the middle of the quarterback competition in 2026. What’s left to add? With 10 more days for players to enter the transfer portal, LSU still has work to do. It must retain the other key players from its own roster, and it needs to add a few more transfers at key positions. The Tigers still have holes at offensive line, safety and defensive tackle. They’re also expected to search for another tight end. There are options. This week, LSU hosted visits for former South Florida safety Tawfiq Byard, former Virginia Tech offensive lineman Braelin Moore and former Texas defensive tackle Sydir Mitchell. LSU has also been linked to Purdue edge rusher Will Heldt and Washington State’s Fa’alili Fa’amoe, one of the best offensive tackles available. ----------------------------- Leaving the transfer portal for now and heading over to the hardwood, the LSU women's basketball team is in Chicago today for a game against Illinois-Chicago, a promise coach Kim Mulkey made to Chicago native Aneesah Morrow. Reed Darcey has the following report: ----------------------------- The last game Aneesah Morrow played at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena doubled as her final contest at DePaul — and the last time she took the floor before she entered the transfer portal to enroll at LSU. On Tuesday, Morrow returned to that venue, and this time, the trip marked another important moment in her career. The No. 5 Tigers’ win over Seton Hall was the final game she’d play before she returns to her hometown of Chicago — the city where she grew up, established her basketball identity and blossomed into a college hoops star — to face Illinois-Chicago in LSU’s first true road matchup of the season. The Tigers are billing that game, set to tip off at 7 p.m. Thursday on ESPN+, as a homecoming trip for Morrow. “I don’t know how to describe the feeling,” Morrow told The Advocate in October. “It’s gonna be fun.” LSU will face Illinois-Chicago just 12 miles north of Morrow’s alma mater Simeon Career Academy, a Chicago-area high school known for graduating basketball stars. Derrick Rose played there. So did former Duke star Jabari Parker and NBA journeymen Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn. But on the women’s side, the school has yet to produce a star quite like Morrow. No active Division I player has more career rebounds than the LSU senior, who’s now pulled down at least 15 boards in four straight games. Morrow grabbed 19 on Tuesday against Seton Hall, moving into the 26th spot on the NCAA’s all-time rebounding leaderboard. If she maintains her nation-leading 14.1-board average this season, she’ll not only set a career high in rebounds, but also finish her career with at least the fourth-most boards in NCAA history. Only three active players have grabbed at least 1,000 career rebounds. Of those three, only two — Morrow and Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee — have also scored at least 2,000 career points. Morrow has snared at least 15 rebounds in seven games this season. According to the Stathead database, no other Division I player has more than three such outings. She’s also scored at least 20 points and grabbed at least 15 boards five times this year. No other player has hit those marks more than twice. Morrow is also one of 15 players who have posted 20 points, 15 rebounds and two steals in a game this season. She’s now done it four times — twice as many as anyone else in the country. “I just want you to watch how hard she plays the game,” coach Kim Mulkey said Tuesday. “I want you to watch how she can get in there and rebound with people that are much taller than her. I want you to watch how she never fatigues and gets tired. “She’s a joy to coach because that’s how she is every day in practice. And I know sometimes she has to get frustrated with her teammates because I don’t think all of them practice as hard as she does.” This season, Morrow has now posted 11 double-doubles, the most in the country. Her most recent outing, a 24-point, 19-rebound performance, helped power LSU to its 13th win, a game in which the Tigers took better care of the ball. Their tally of 13 turnovers was tied for the third lowest they’ve recorded in a game this season. Before the win over Seton Hall, LSU had coughed up at least 20 turnovers in three of its previous five games. The Tigers’ offense will soon face tests against stiff Southeastern Conference competition. They have six future opponents ranked in the latest edition of The Associated Press poll — five more than they had last season halfway through December. But first, LSU will travel to Morrow’s hometown of Chicago to play the penultimate contest of its nonconference slate of games. “Growing up there my whole life and staying there for college,” Morrow said, “it was a great opportunity for me to be able to show children that they can go to college within the city and make a name for themselves and continue to pour into that city.” ----------------------------- Finally, our Toyloy Brown tells about the progress new LSU men's point guard Curtis Givens has made early this season: ----------------------------- Curtis Givens was attracted to having to “having the keys to the car" for LSU men’s basketball. The freshman point guard borrowed the metaphor from coach Matt McMahon who uses the phrase to refer to running the LSU (9-2) offense. The third-year coach, a former point guard at Appalachian State, empowers his lead initiators, including his backup point guard, to orchestrate the attack. “What really stood out to me was how coach McMahon was just a point guards’ coach,” Givens told The Advocate. “He lets us run the offense and be the quarterback, be the coach on the court. So it's just, it just really means a lot just for a coach to just let you play so freely and let you play your game.” Givens played his brand of basketball in LSU’s 99-53 win over Stetson at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Tuesday. He had 12 points, six assists, two steals and one turnover. “I just went out there and played with ultimate confidence and let the game come to me,” he said. Givens' productivity was a welcome sight as he has shot poorly since his strong 15-point outing in the season-opening win over UL-Monroe. He is averaging 3.8 points on 28.8% shooting from the field in 12.2 minutes per game. The fast pace of play at the collegiate level has been the biggest adjustment from high school for Givens, a four-star recruit from Montverde Academy in Florida. The faster speed is especially true for the Tigers who want to be uptempo as much as possible. Growing pains are not a surprise for McMahon who said the role Givens is currently playing is not an easy one for a young player. “For Curtis, he's playing probably outside of quarterback, the toughest position in sports, being a point guard, and doing it as a true freshman,” McMahon said at a media availability last week. “So I think defensively, he's been really solid. I think he's a guy when you start judging shooting numbers, when your role at a certain point is two to four shots a game, and you start going 0 for 2 to 1 for 3 ... you group it all together, it's tough to evaluate that and put too much stock in the low percentage there.” McMahon said he’s confident in Givens’ shooting ability and knows the decision-making chops that he wants to see are there and are not always indicative of the final stat line. Playmaking can be equally honed on the court as well as the film room, which Givens credited for helping his development. The last and most important ingredient to his progress is his mentality of remaining steady at all times. “I try to keep a consistent routine, try not get too high and try not to get too low, stay even-keeled," the Memphis native said. "Just understand that there's gonna be ups and downs during the season but stay the same through it all.” Lagniappe: Givens along with teammates Cam Carter and Trace Young represented the basketball program who partnered with Raising Cane’s to donate 100 custom bikes and helmets to members of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Louisiana for a holiday event on Wednesday. ----------------------------- Thanks, folks, for reading and subscribing and keeping a nice shine on the car. Until next time, Scott Rabalais | 
