re: Basketball: LSU 80, Marquette 81 | Final | Next: vs. NC State, Tues 4:30 PM

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What are we going to do on defense/rebounding?

Any team with two decent big men would destroy us.

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Looking at the box score you wonder "how in the hell did LSU lose this game?"

MU was only +3 in total rebounding (-6 in offensive rebounding); They were only +6 in points in the paint despite having a decided advantage there; LSU was +5 in second chance points; LSU also had the edge in FTs at 72% vs 58%; Finally, LSU was +10 in turnovers!!!!

The difference - Marquette was MUCH more efficient than LSU on the offensive end. They had 3 more FGs while taking 15 less shots. ~ 1/3 of LSU's FGA were 3's. Not surprising with a guard oriented line up, but unfortunately they didn't go down (30%). That was a game where you really missed Hornsby's consistency from deep (rarely does he have horrible shooting nights). Blakeney and Sampson were a combined 2/13 from deep. That's going to happen with young players. It would have been huge to have Hornsby there who you can almost book giving you at leas 2-4 3's a night. LSU also didn't exploit the TO advantage as much as you'd like. Only +5 in points off of TOs despite forcing 22 turnovers. They took some ill-advised shots

If Victor is the player everyone hopes he is, then you can start to clog up the lane a bit on defense. LSU isn't going to win many games in SEC play if Malone and Bridgewater are forced to play extended minutes.