LSU loses recruit Godfrey

The LSU basketball team is down to 10 players — and hurting even more for help in its interior game — as 2012 signee Calvin Godfrey will not enroll this semester, the school announced Monday on the first day of fall classes.

A university news release said Godfrey did not meet the necessary academic requirements to enroll at LSU.

Godfrey signed with the Tigers out of Howard College in Big Spring, Texas, after beginning his college career at Iowa State, where he was dismissed from the team in 2011 after an arrest for marijuana possession.

At 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, Godfrey would have provided LSU’s post game a much-needed boost.

LSU lost senior big men Storm Warren and Malcolm White, plus 7-foot junior Justin Hamilton, who left the Tigers a year early and was taken in the second round of the NBA draft. Sophomore Johnny O’Bryant and senior Eddie Ludwig, who played on the wing last year after playing inside as a freshman and sophomore, are the only LSU players with significant experience playing the post.

Seven-foot-2 center Andrew De Piero returns, but the former walk-on has logged only 12 career minutes.

Godfrey averaged 12.6 points and 7.0 rebounds in 31 games last year, helping Howard to a 23-8 record. He signed with LSU in May.

Fellow recruits Malik Morgan, Corban Collins and Shavon Coleman, a teammate of Godfrey at Howard College originally from Thibodaux, are on campus, LSU spokesman Kent Lowe said. International prospect Shane Hammink, the son of former LSU standout Geert Hammink, was expected to arrive in town Tuesday and begin classes Wednesday.

Even though Monday was the first day of classes at LSU, the Tigers have until Aug. 29 (the last day students can add classes) to address the loss of Godfrey and add to a roster that includes only five players who were on scholarship last season.