College basketball rankings: Donovan Dent's late heroics power LSU past Gonzaga and into the Top 25 And 1

LSU delivered the signature win of college basketball's young season Saturday night, storming back from 13 points down in the second half to defeat Gonzaga 81-80 at Spokane Arena and crash Sunday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily rankings at No. 19. Gonzaga slid to No. 20.

The Tigers, now 4-0, looked finished when the Bulldogs built a 68-55 advantage with less than eight minutes remaining. Abdi Bashir Jr. then knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as LSU put together a 7-0 run, and in the final seconds Donovan Dent took possession with his team trailing by two and sank the jumper that won the game.

Afterward, inside a celebratory locker room, coach Will Wade made it clear he believes the performance was only a starting point. "We're just getting started," Wade told his players. "We didn't play great. We're just getting started. They don't wanna see us when we get good!" He closed by proclaiming that, for right now, the Tigers are back, adding an expletive for emphasis.

The victory carried extra weight given how unusual LSU's preseason was. Graphics circulated widely on social media noting that, according to the program's official roster, the Tigers had five coaches, 11 support staff members and only four players. The posts were so prevalent that even casual followers of the sport were asking what was going on in Baton Rouge.

That roster count was technically accurate at the time, but it was always something a judge could address, and eventually one did. With eligibility restored, Wade had more than four players available and used exactly eight of them in Saturday's win over one of the sport's premier programs.

The result also served as a reminder of Wade's track record. Whatever his approach, and however anyone feels about it, his teams tend to win. He now looks likely to finish this season having coached in the NCAA Tournament nine times in 10 years on the sidelines, a span in which he has changed jobs three times and been fired once.

Dent's shot will be remembered as the moment that lifted a program that briefly had just four eligible players to a perfect record headlined by a monster victory over Gonzaga. The Tigers' next game is Wednesday against Louisiana Monroe.

LSU's next test against a power-conference opponent comes a week after that, when the Tigers face Arizona State in Palm Springs. In the rankings shuffle, LSU moved in while Texas A&M dropped out.