BATON ROUGE – LSU men’s basketball Head Coach Matt McMahon announced that Dji Bailey has signed the necessary approved paperwork to complete his transfer to LSU for the 2024-25 basketball season.
The 6-5 guard from Wilson, North Carolina, has played for the University of Richmond for the past four seasons and will be a grad transfer for the Tigers next season. This past year Bailey was named winner of the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Chris Daniels Award, given to the league’s Most Improved Player.
Bailey averaged 10.2 points per game, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game. His field goal percentage of 59.4 percent was sixth highest in a season in Richmond program history and ranked first in the A-10 in field goal percentage (minimum 200 FG attempts).
“We are excited to welcome Dji Bailey to LSU and look forward to his arrival on campus later this month,” said Coach McMahon. “Dji had a terrific season in helping Richmond to the A-10 regular season championship. He was very efficient offensively, leading the A-10 in FG% and also carrying a 2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio. He is a disruptive defender who finished 4th in the A-10 in steals and helped anchor a top 35 defense in the country. Dji’s experience and leadership will be welcomed in our locker room this season.”
Bailey appeared in all 33 games, with 24 starts, in 2023-24 for the Spiders, winners of 23 games and advanced to the NIT. He was second on the team averaging 31.1 minutes per game. His career field goal percentage of 56.4 percent (171-of-303) is fourth highest in program history among those with at least 300 field goal attempts.
He made the game-winning basket at Duquesne on Jan. 16 last season, a driving layup with 13 seconds to play. His career high of 22 points came against LaSalle in February as Bailey contributed to the first A-10 regular season title in Richmond history.
In his fourth years at Richmond, he played in 78 games with 31 starts.
He attended the Greenfield School in Wilson where he led the team to the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 1A state title in 2019. Bailey averaged 17 points, nine rebounds and eight assists per game as a senior.
In 2020, Bailey was selected as NCISAA All-State and the Wilson Times All-Area selection.
Bailey joins transfer portal additions Cam Carter from Kansas State and Jordan Sears from UT Martin; and, high school signees from the early signing period – Robert Miller of Pasadena (Texas) Memorial High School and Curtis Givens III of Montverde (Florida) Academy.