Basketball team philosophy or identity.

West Virginia does win. The Kentucky teams that won played up tempo. Kemba Walker and UConn. Also the last Duke team that won played an uptempo style.

It's not just uptempo. It's press defense, forcing turnovers. We played that way last time we went to the final four, if you didn't know.

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It's press defense

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No one on LSU knows what this is. One of the laziest defensive teams I've ever seen.

That should be the personality of LSU basketball always. We have great athletes always do we get our basketball players from the same talent pool as our football players and what's our football teams identity? Defense!! We should be pressing and trapping all game long. Look at the dominant sec teams in the past 20-25 years petito's Kentucky teams and Nolan's 40 minutes of hell teams. When the sec has scary dominant basketball teams they press and trap.

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The Kentucky teams that won played up tempo.

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I think most would agree Cal's two best teams at UK were '12 and '15. Neither team played particularly up-tempo. The 2012 was ranked 147 in adj. tempo; the 2015 team was very slow, ranking 271 in adj. tempo.

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Kemba Walker and UConn

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Nor really. They were 221 that year in tempo.

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t's not just uptempo. It's press defense, forcing turnovers. We played that way last time we went to the final four, if you didn't know.

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The 2006 LSU team was outstanding defensively, but they were by no means a team that played press defense. They didn't have the manpower to do it. Only 6 guys logged a ton of minutes for them.

Under Jones, LSU has wanted to play uptempo (they do) and they have wanted to pressure the ball on defense in the half court (they have generally been one of the SEC leaders in turnovers forced each year under Jones). The problem is they are incredibly inefficient on both ends of the floor if an opponent won't allow the game to turn into a track meet. Hell, the reason LSU was able to go to WVU and win a game was because WVU played LSU's style of game, the same philosophy you are touting. Read anything Jones says, he wants to play EXACTLY the way you are suggesting (absent the full court press). LSU just isn't good at it because unlike WVU, LSU's game under Jones is unorganized chaos.

The best teams in college basketball are ruthlessly efficient. Villanova, Virginia, Wisconsin, Butler, don't play a particularly "exciting" style of basketball. It's not uptempo at all, and they aren't trying to force a million turnovers. They are trying to make opponents always take tough, contested shots. Jones' philosophy IS to create a ton of turnovers so his team can get out and run on offense. The problem is they are so worried about creating a TO that they are rarely in good position when they don't force at TO.

WVU's style works for them because Huggins is a great coach who absolutely demands disciplined play. However, there is no one "style" that is better than the other. The good teams just execute whatever their style of play is to perfection.

A just a neutral observer, Virginia's style of play bores the hell out of me. But do you think their fan's care? I'm sure they think their team's games are incredibly exciting. Winning is exciting. If you only want to watch uptempo basketball regardless of the result, then go to the PMAC tonight. LSU is going to play it. They may give up 95 points in the process, but the style of play won't be boring.