Bball is losing for two reasons.

You forgot to add the murray injury, him only shooting 5 shots all night is a problem

Basketball is losing because we can't do one of the basic needs to win basketball games.....shoot. We have athletes but no shooters.

Undisciplined defense.
Ole Miss made, I think, four shots in the second half. The rest of their points were at the line.

I like that this team is putting an emphasis on defense, but they tend to pick up too many needless. cheap fouls.

LSU had 19 offensive rebounds last night and took 23 more shots than Ole Miss. Had more assists and steals. But Ole Miss shot 31 free throws. 23 points at the line; almost a third of their total points.

I like to blame the officials as much as anyone else, but I’ve seen some of the fouls this team commits. Some are good hustle fouls and some are pointless.

Imo it is not really having a set group on the floor long enough to get into the flow of the game.

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1) Pinson is hurt. He is number 1 because he’s a huge part of #2.

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Deductive reasoning would say Thisnis it.

Our record before his injury and after says it all.

Not only did we win but we beat good teams

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1) Pinson is hurt. He is number 1 because he’s a huge part of #2

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The offense was struggling BEFORE Pinson was injured. Him returning to full strength would definitely help. But it is not going to suddenly turn a poor offense into a very good one.

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2) defense. Yes, defense. We know we are not a scoring team, however we were doing well due to great defense. Since he’s been out, practically all our losses we have allowed over 70 points. Prior to that we were allowing less than 65 points.

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LSU is a better defensive team with Gaines at the point rather than Pinson. But over the last 4-5 games teams have started to figure out how to attack LSU's defense. First, because LSU switches everything, regardless of matchup, teams are able to use screens to get mismatches. All last night OM was able to get Reid out top guarding the point with one of LSU's guards having to front OM's Center inside. Those mis-matches require other guys to help, which impacts rotations. In that situation even average offensive teams, with a little ball movement, can find open shots. Credit OM. They hit many of them

Second, LSU fouls constantly. Bitch about the refs all you want. But if you have the same problem over the course of, now, 22 games you start to look for the constants. The officiating crews change from game to game. LSU's team doesn't. The aggressiveness has led to good defense...but it has also led to teams getting easy buckets at the FT line where you can't "guard" them.

The reality of the situation is that LSU is probably regressing to the team they have always been. The 12-0 start was against relatively weak competition and created higher than anticipated expectations. Remember, LSU was picked to finish 6th in the SEC. Wade is a good coach. But his flaw at LSU has always been that his teams lack balance. That is, they are generally elite on one end of the floor and really poor on the other. This year is the same story, but with a different flavor. Unlike the first 4 seasons where LSU was great on offense and terrible on defense, they are now great defensively and terrible offensively. That makes you susceptible to lose to anyone if your strength fails you that night (as it has vs. OM, TCU and Tennessee recently). You don't have the other side of the ball to fall back on. Balanced teams can struggle a bit on one end of the floor, but make up for it on the other. LSU is not a team that can do that. If their defense is not completely locking the opponent down they simply don't have the offensive firepower to compensate for it...with or without Pinson.

I think folks, myself included, need to temper expectations. This is likely a 6-8 seed team. A team that with a good matchup can make a run to the second week of the NCAAT. But a team that doesn't have enough balance to truly be a contender.

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You forgot to add the murray injury, him only shooting 5 shots all night is a problem

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Brandon looked disinterested and very slow last night. He is a guard but his game speed was more like a big man last night. Not sure if he was injured or just not into game.
Hopefully he grows up and gets back to playing fast soon.

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Brandon looked disinterested and very slow last night. He is a guard but his game speed was more like a big man last night. Not sure if he was injured or just not into game.

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His wrist/hand seems to be more injured than it may seem. He got hit there on a drive when he lost the ball out of bounds. A few possessions later (I think) Fudge threw him a hard pass and Murray made just a half-hearted effort to catch it...which led to a turnover. After the play he was looking at Fudge and pointing to his hand saying "I can't catch it".

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Has nothing to do with the level of competition the first 15 games? Lol

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We were 2-1 vs ranked teams In those games.

Keep showing your arse.