College basketball rankings: LSU crashes Top 25 And 1 as Donovan Dent’s heroics power Tigers past Gonzaga

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The graphics were everywhere — so much so that friends I have who don’t even really follow college basketball too closely would randomly ask things like, “So what’s going on at LSU? Will Wade only has four eligible players. Is that really true?”

Again, it was technically true when the questions were asked. But that was always something a judge somewhere would be able to fix eventually, as long as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey didn’t try to get in the way again. So, eventually, a judge somewhere fixed it. And now LSU has more than four eligible players, and Wade used exactly eight of them Saturday in an 81-80 victory over Gonzaga that served as a reminder that whatever his approach, and no matter how anybody feels about it, if Wade is your coach, you’re probably going to have a successful program.

“We’re just getting started,” Wade told his team afterward inside a celebratory locker room at Spokane Arena. “We didn’t play great. We’re just getting started. They don’t wanna see us when we get good! They don’t wanna see us when we get good! But, for right now, the [expletive] Tigers are back!”What a scene.

Gonzaga was actually up 68-55 with less than eight minutes remaining Saturday. The game wasn’t over, obviously, but it did feel decided. Then Abdi Bashir Jr. sank a couple of 3-pointers, LSU completed a 7-0 run, and, suddenly, in the final seconds, Donovan Dent found himself with the ball and his Tigers only down two points.

DONOVAN DENT GAME WINNER pic.twitter.com/2MCC2NPET9

It’ll forever be the jumper that lifted a team that only had four eligible players at one point in the preseason to a 4-0 record featuring a monster win over one of the sport’s best programs. Yes, like Wade yelled in the locker room, it appears LSU is back. And now it looks like the man who was once most famous for talking wild on a wiretap will likely end this season by coaching in the NCAA Tournament for what would be the ninth time in 10 years for him on the sidelines even though, in that span, he has changed jobs three times and been fired once.

LSU is No. 19 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Gonzaga is down to No. 20. The Tigers’ next game is Wednesday against Louisiana Monroe. Their next test against a power-conference opponent will come a week after that, against Arizona State in Palm Springs.