BATON ROUGE – Two members of the LSU men’s basketball team received their college diplomas at the spring commencement exercises held on the LSU campus on Friday and Saturday.
Receiving degrees are fifth-year seniors Derek Fountain and Trace Young.
Fountain spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at Mississippi State before joining head coach Matt McMahon’s first squad in 2022-23 for his junior season.
That season, Fountain appeared in 31 games with 23 starts. He averaged a career best 8.0 points per game and 5.5 rebounds with 1.2 steals for the season. He posted his career high of 26 at Alabama, making 6-of-9 field goals, with two treys and 12-of-15 at the free throw line.
In his senior season in 2023-24, he appeared in all 33 games, starting 12, including eight-of-the-last-nine. He averaged 5.3 points, 4.2 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game. He shot 51.9 percent from the field (68-of-131) with 13 made three-pointers.
In his final season in 2024-25, he played in 24 games with one start, averaging 2.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, playing an average of 14.5 minutes a game. His season high of nine points came against his former team in a game at Mississippi State (3/1), making 4-of-4 field goal attempts, including a three-pointer.
The Holly Springs, Mississippi native received his graduate degree in education technology from the College of Human Sciences and Education.
Young began his basketball career at Colorado State in 2020-21 as a reserve walk-on. Young spent three seasons with the Rams before transferring to LSU for his senior season in 2023-24.
That season, he saw action in two games – vs. Arkansas and Mississippi State, playing a total of 2:26 minutes in the two games.
In his final season and second with the Tigers, he played in nine games, totaling 11 minutes. For his career he played in a total of 33 career games, tallying 2 points and one rebound.
The Dripping Springs, Texas native received his degree in Business Marketing.