re: Game Thread: LSU 71 South Carolina 68 - FINAL

Only caught the second half, definitely not that pretty.

I thought our ball movement against a good South Carolina zone D was impressive. Unfortunately we dont have lengthy guards who can pull up with minimal space or drive the hoop with aggression.

I think once Johnny gets a couple talented, bigger guards in his lineup this offense will be rolling

After watching the first 5 or 6 games the guys seemed more confident and knew their role. Now it appears they all run around scared to death to make a mistake or miss a shot. It reminds me of a two quarterback football team where the guy on the field is looking over his shoulder to see if he was going to get pulled or his replacement was warming up on the sidelines.
Even a veteran like JOB is back to being a turnover king. The first of the year, I saw he had improved his passing but now he's back to, "I'm gonna drive or shoot if I get the ball".
Knowing this team is fairly talented, it is like getting a tooth pulled watching these guys. I too am happy with the win but we have to learn how to put teams away when we get that 10-12 point lead.
Then it becomes shooting free throws(22-35 won't get it) which we did poorly in the last 3 minutes. Both Hickey and Stringer seem to be so tentative when shooting 3's right now. Although without Stringer's two late 3's we don't win.
Still a young team but it will get a lot tougher as more and more team defend us with the zone.
It'll get better.

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It's the road in the SEC, I'll take a win like that any day of the week over a pretty loss

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This isn't football. It's SEC basketball. The only way your comment would have any relevance is if we were playing Kentucky at their place.

Again, I've been an extremely vocal Jones fan, but he's been pretty suspect with his timeouts. He needs to utilize them more.

However, I am extremely pleased with the progression of our freshmen and displeased with the guys you backed to set unreasonable NCAA expectations. I know Stringer's brother is vocal about his displeasure with Jones, but wow Stringer looks just awful. He and Hickey have actually become liabilities. O'bryant would be okay if he wasn't trying so hard to please NBA scouts.

SEC road win. I'll take it!

Stringer and Hickey have always had a tough row to hoe with being so small. As the big guys have gotten more and more talented with 6'6" and 6'9" guys having guard skills, it is harder for the little guy to have a place in the game. That said they are both very good players who make the best of what they have got. Shooting three's is something that very few players can do consistently. Some games they drop and some they don't.

As for the freshman, they have not exactly been consistent either. While it was great to see Martin play so well, it is only one game. Can he do it on a consistent basis from now on? Mickey is great and I have said so before the season started when there were doubters. But even he stunk it up the first half. Quarterman has shown some progress but still has a way to go. He was 1 for 5 today and missed a layup and another easy shot. Stringer who you think is a liability was 2 for 4 and it was probably his two three's late in the game that won it for us.

Our liabilities, Stringer and Hickey, had no turnovers. JOB had 6, Coleman and Mickey 4 each, Morgan and Martin2 and Quarterman 1. Cut those in half and we win going away.

The defense continues to be bad. Twice we let a guy drive coast to coast without anyone even attempting to slow them up. Quarterman and Malik Morgan lost their man on defense time and time again. The interior defense was fair and we did win the rebound battle but we were a lot bigger than they were.

The main thing I would question Coach Jones about is why he kept Martin on the bench in the closing minutes when he had been shooting free throws well.

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As for the freshman, they have not exactly been consistent either. While it was great to see Martin play so well, it is only one game. Can he do it on a consistent basis from now on? Mickey is great and I have said so before the season started when there were doubters. But even he stunk it up the first half. Quarterman has shown some progress but still has a way to go. He was 1 for 5 today and missed a layup and another easy shot. Stringer who you think is a liability was 2 for 4 and it was probably his two three's late in the game that won it for us.

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Pretty spot on IMO.

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Our liabilities, Stringer and Hickey, had no turnovers. JOB had 6, Coleman and Mickey 4 each, Morgan and Martin2 and Quarterman 1. Cut those in half and we win going away.

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This may be true, but Hickey scored well below his scoring average. I don't know about 'liabilities', but Hickey & Stringer have had their offensive struggles recently. We need all guys to score pretty consistently with the absence of a 15+ point scorer. Luckily, Martin brought it yesterday.

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Stringer and Hickey have always had a tough row to hoe with being so small.

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One would think CJJ knew coming in there were some games and matchups where having Hickey and Stringer on the court at the same time for lengthy stretches would be problematic.

I honestly think he and the staff felt Quarterman would be further along at this point and that Morgan might be a bit more consistent at this stage as well.

Otherwise, I think he would have gone JUCO for some immediate help there.

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If it was easy, Arkansas would be a top 20 every year.

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Yeah, Piggies have only two road wins the past two years I think, and both against pitiful Auburn.

Would like to have seen us play better, but at least we finally pulled our weight on the boards.

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The only thing that would worry me there is Coleman not handling the ball well and making a lot of turnovers. But if he can handle that?

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I think he could. He's had a few drives to the basket where he has handled the ball through traffic very well. Obviously, that's only a small sample size, but I think he could get a few minutes at the 2. Not sure how much they'll want to put Martin at SF unless they call plays to use him. He can be an good piece and score for us (look at this game), but him dumping the ball into the post won't help.