LSU Basketball Week in Review WE 1/25/15

Record last week: (2-0)
LSU 79, @Florida 61
LSU 79, @Vandy 75 OT

Week Summary: LSU had one of their best and most influential weeks of the season as they went on the road and stole two victories away from two of the more intimidating arena's in the conference. The Tigers were able to get good minutes from Darcy Malone and continued to get good play off the bench from Quarterman and Patterson. The Tigers jumped up from 4th in the conference to 2nd in the conference with their 4-2 record.

Streak: Win 2

Top performer: Jordan Mickey added another two double doubles for the Tigers this week. He scored 39 and rebounded 25 in the two games. He also had a respectable 3:5 AST:TO ratio. He made 12 of 19 shots in the Vanderbilt game.

Cause for Concern: The Tigers had 35 turnovers in the two games this week. They came from all over the court too. Martin had 10 on the week to lead the team, but Gray's 7 and Quarterman's 6 were also far too high and need to be cleaned up.

Top Team Stat of Week: After making only 1 of 13 three's in the second half against Texas A&M, LSU was more selective and thus more effective from beyond the arc. On the week, the Tigers hit 14 of 28 (50%) from three. They hit 8 of 13 (61.5%) against Florida and 6 of 15 (40%) against Vanderbilt.

Rankings and Standings: CBS RPI (38), ESPN RPI (37), BPI (36), KenPom (35), playoffstatus.com's NCAA chances (87%)

Breaking the trend: Until this week, Josh Gray had played 20+ minutes in every game at LSU (besides SHSU when he was injured). This week he played only 17 minutes in each of LSU's contests.

Best game by a non Big5 player: In the absence of Josh Gray, Jalyn Patterson continues to take advantage. Against Vanderbilt, Patterson tallied 10 points, 4 rebounds, and a 3:0 AST:TO. He has hit 7 of his last 15 three point attempts over the past 3 games. In the month of January he has a 15:1 AST:TO.

LSU Opponent who made noise: Texas Tech has struggled in Big12 play, however on Saturday, Texas Tech was able to knock off 14-2 Iowa St who was ranked in the top 10.

Interesting Stat of the Week: LSU was the underdog in each of their games this week. This year the Tigers are 4-0 when they are the underdog. They beat the spread by 29 points in the Florida game and 7.5 points in the Vanderbilt game. These two big "unexpected" wins moved LSU's KenPom rating from 59 at the start of the week to 35.

LSU Scorers this week:
Jarell Martin 41
Jordan Mickey 39
Tim Quarterman 27
Keith Hornsby 26
Jalyn Patterson 16
Josh Gray 5
Darcy Malone 4

LSU Rebounders this week:
Jordan Mickey 25
Jarell Martin 20
Tim Quarterman 8
Jalyn Patterson 8
Keith Hornsby 7
Josh Gray 3
Darcy Malone 2
Brian Bridgewater 1

LSU Assists/TO this week:
Tim Quarterman 10:6
Jalyn Patterson 5:1
Jarell Martin 5:10
Josh Gray 4:7
Jordan Mickey 3:5
Keith Hornsby 2:5
Darcy Malone 1:0
Brian Bridgewater 0:1

SEC Standings:


Most Dominant SEC Win of the Week: LSU 79 @ Florida 61. In the largest margin of victory of the week, LSU handed Florida their worst home loss in years. The Tigers had 4 players score 14 or more points and hit 94.4% of their free throws.

Biggest SEC Upset of the Week: Florida was an 11 point favorite over LSU and the Tigers were able to absolutely destroy the Gators. They beat the spread by 29 points.

This week in LSU Basketball:
Wednesday: Home vs South Carolina 6:00pm
Saturday: Away vs Mississippi St 1:00pm