BATON ROUGE – LSU Coach Matt McMahon has landed his first player from the transfer portal for the 2025-26 season with the signing of Michael Nwoko, who played last year at Mississippi State.
Nwoko, at 6-10, is coming off a 2024-25 season where he started 32 games for the Bulldogs and averaged 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He shot 52.5 percent from the floor during the course of the season (83-of-158).
He will be a junior at LSU next season after starting his career in Miami during the 2023-24 basketball season.
“We are very excited to welcome Michael Nwoko to the LSU Basketball program,” said Coach McMahon. “He is an athletic and versatile forward who plays with a physicality and toughness. Michael will provide a presence finishing plays, scoring in the post, rebounding the ball at a high level and shot blocking ability. We look forward to his arrival on campus this summer. “
In two games against LSU last season, Nwoko scored a combined 14 points with 11 rebounds. He scored 18 points against Pittsburgh and Central Michigan.
At Miami, Nwoko appeared in 29 games as a freshman, averaging 2.7 points and 2.0 rebounds.
Nwoko hails from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and graduated from Prolific Prep in Napa, California as a four-star recruit by ESPN.com, On3 and 247Sports.com. He averaged 12.0 points and 6.0 rebounds during his senior season of 2022-23. He was a nominee for the McDonald’s All-American Game. His Prolific team compiled a 35-2 record and won the Grind Session Championship.
As a high school junior attended the Burlington School (North Carolina), helping his team to a 32-7 record and a state title.
He was the second-leading scorer for the World Select Team at the 2023 NIKE Hoop Summit game where he posted 17 points and eight rebounds. He played for Canada at the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Tijuana, Mexico and the 2023 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary.
He posted 12.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game at the U18 event and shot 28-of-42 from the field and was named a top 15 player to watch at the U19 event where he averaged 12.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.