SEC Basketball: Each team’s best acquisition out of 2023 transfer portal

Jalen Cook – 6’0 Guard – LSU Tigers

Jalen Cook makes his return to the SEC with the LSU Tigers after spending the last two seasons in the AAC with the Tulane Green Wave. He originally committed to the Tigers back in 2020-21 and spent one season with the Tigers before spreading his wings and showing off his production in the backcourt with Tulane from 2021-23.

He’s been a terror in the AAC over the past two seasons, producing 19.0 ppg, 4.2 apg, 2.7 rpg and 1.7 spg across 50 appearances, 48 starts, while shooting 44.2 percent from the floor and 36.6 percent from 3-point land.

Cook has emerged as quite the dynamic playmaker at the guard position over the past few seasons and really emerged in the AAC starring in the lead guard role. He produced a career-high 19.9 ppg, 4.9 apg and 1.8 spg while shooting 34.5 percent from 3-point land and 45.2 percent from the floor in 2022-23, while earning first-team All-AAC honors for the second season in a row.

He finished fifth in the conference in assists, dishing out a career-high 128. He finished fifth in the conference in field goal percentage and his 57 3-pointers placed 16th overall in the conference.  He dished out a career-high 14 assists back on Feb. 7. and achieved a career-high 30 points back on Feb. 26 against Wichita State, a game where he knocked down a career-high eight 3-pointers.

Cook makes his return to Baton Rouge looking to boost the offensive production and then some after the LSU Tigers went 2-16 in the SEC under head coach Matt McMahon in Year 1. With just five players returning from last year’s squad, things should look a lot different for them with six new transfers out of the portal in the fold.