LSU Basketball Adds Mississippi State Forward Derek Fountain From Transfer Portal

The LSU men's basketball team continues to transform under first-year coach Matt McMahon as the team announced yesterday that Mississippi State forward Derek Fountain has transferred into the program.

Fountain averaged 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds while playing only 8.4 minutes a game as a sophomore last season.

The 6-foot-9, 225-pounder had a better freshman year. That season he averaged 5.4 points on 48.2% shooting in 19.7 minutes per game. He made a total of 13 starts in his two seasons in Starkville.

McMahon had the following to say about Fountain in a school release:

We are thrilled to welcome Derek Fountain to Baton Rouge. We have been familiar with Derek for a long time and he fits the culture we are building at LSU. We love his versatility at 6' 9" with his ability to shoot the three, rebound, and defend multiple positions.

While the Tigers have lost a lot of players from last season's NCAA tournament team, Fountain is the fifth player to transfer to LSU this offseason. He joins NC State guard Cam Yes, Northwestern State center Kendal Coleman and Murray State guards Justice Hill and Trae Hannibal.

The Tigers are also retaining guard Justice Williams and forward Mwani Wilkinson, both of whom had entered the transfer portal in the offseason. The team also signed three-star high school recruit and former Murray State commit Corneilous Williams.

LSU lost a total of nine players to the transfer portal. They are listed below with the ones with new teams listed in parenthesis.

• Forward Shareef O'Neal
• Forward Alex Fudge (Florida)
• Forward Bradley Ezewiro
• Center Efton Reid
• Center Jerrell Colbert
• Guard Adam Miller
• Guard Brand Murray (Georgetown)
• Guard Eric Gaines (UAB)
• Guard Xavier Pinson

Additionally, forwards Tari Eason and Darius Days have entered the NBA Draft.

Most of the aforementioned changes stem from the team's tumultuous former head coach Will Wade who was fired days after the university received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA.

After the Tigers lost to Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with interim coach Kevin Nickelberry, the program hired McMahon, who was Murray State's coach.