Thoughts on the game:

LSU hasn't shot free throws that poorly in a long time and it really put them in a tough spot. That was their main problem.

FT shooting was awful

Victor can't defend without fouling. Hasn't been able to all year and the stats bear that out

TQ was horrible

This team is just a bad defensive team all around. Unless they magically figure things out on that side of the ball they are going to struggle against good teams. 94 fricking points for USC? That isn't even a good offensive team!!!

Simmons is great, but Blakeney is catching fire. Get him the damn ball!!

There's a huge difference in shooting them in practice vs in a hostile environment on the road. It's a lot more than just practice.

FT shooting is about mechanics and practice. JJ needs to hire Eddie P to teach his team.

It is hard to remember an LSU team in recent years that was great at FT's

Chris J stayed after practice until he made 100 free throws consecutively! Any wonder why when he stepped to the line it was money in the bank?

It has to be a point of emphasis.

Yes the refs were some of the worse we have seen- but we make our free throws and we win that game

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FT shooting was awful

Victor can't defend without fouling. Hasn't been able to all year and the stats bear that out

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COACHING!!!

It isn't there. Really good teams make FT's a priority and someone on that staff if they even have the skill set to coach it has to coach up Victor. My doubt is that there is anyone on that staff who even knows where to begin.

Similar to Patterson, Blakeney was making nearly everything - get the ball to the hot shooter!!!

2 absolutely infuriating plays that are unacceptable as a damn PG

Hornsby wide open in the corner, and Quarterman lobs the ball to him allowing the defense to recover instead of a wide open corner 3

Blakeney wide open in the corner, and Quarterman takes a few dribbles and tries to make a hook pass instead of just getting him the ball the 5 seconds he was calling for it

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. Refs established early that breathing would warrant a foul.

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Can't argue but both teams experienced foul trouble and we shot 57% on free throws and they shot 75%. We held serve when Victor and Ben went out so I don't think that was the factor everyone feared it might be.

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Patterson was hot and should have seen more minutes.

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Yep 5 minutes was all he got. Given the costly turnovers by Q and Gray at the end and our poor defense throughout the entire game I think he certainly should have seen the court more than 5 minutes.

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Victor has a bad habit of putting his off hand into a shooter's midsection leading to a lot of fouls.

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And he did not play very well last night overall. Missed a couple of chippie put backs right at the rim.

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TQ just did not have it and played sloppy.

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Yep and still fancies himself a shooter. That brick 3 when we were down 4 late was as good a s turnover.

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Ultimately we had a legitimate chance to win and free throws and sloppy play made the difference.

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I would say free throws, consistently poor team defense and sloppy play....in that order.

I know there will be a lot of rationalization that this is on the road in the SEC and USC is undefeated at home,yada..yada..yada. But IMHO we had the better team, a lot to play for and really needed a win like this for our thin tourney resume. Disappointing loss in a game we could have won.

But still 7 games left, we'll just have to finish strong. I think we can afford two more losses and still make it in without sweating too much. Anything more and it's gonna be shakey.

Geaux Tigers!!

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We're a fast paced team who had our 3 best players in foul trouble in the first half. 55 fouls in 40 minutes is terrible for a team that likes to run

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I think we did just fine offensively when Q wasn't making stupid decisions that had nothing to do with pace.

Defense and missing free throws lost us this game not the refs and foul calls. Want to win....play some frickin defense. We played little or none.

With the play of our 2 PG's last night, it was amazing that we were in the game at the end.
Our PG's simply have low BBall IQ's. TQ can be great when he's on, but mind numbingly bad when he isn't.
There were more than a few times we had Shooters(AB and KH) wide open for shots with just a simple pass. Yet, TQ tries to do too much and creates a turnover.
Gray may have been even worst last night, just completely out of control.

And the defense struggled, but they were also getting called for fouls if they got close to SC.

As bad as everything was, if we hit our FT's at even 70-75% we win that game.

Going forward, your pretty much stuck with TQ. You just have to hope the Good one shows up on a given night. A PG sets the tone for a team and ours are schizophrenic.
If CJJ made 1 huge mistake last night it was not just letting Ben be the PG in the last 5 minutes. But, with Victor fouling out that was tough to do.