Three NCAA tournament bubble teams that could win it all - LSU, WI & CAL

Welcome to Germany. Hial

LSU will meet Oklahoma in the Elite Eight.

We goin to the ship.

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I like that line.

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How about this one?
If the Sooners are a title contender, so are Hawaii, Memphis, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia

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All it will take is one game of poor shooting, and LSU is bounced from the tournament.

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Just like every other team in the tournament .. no?

Nice to think about, but this team usually goes as quartermann goes. And for him to be on for 6 games.....would be a miracle. He will most likely get us to the sweet 16 and single handedly get us eliminated there.

For LSU to even have a prayer at making a run to the Final Four they would have to get much, MUCH better on defense. This is a very bad defensive team (115th in defensive efficiency). A look at the KenPom ratings over the years will show you that rarely do teams with defensive efficiency ratings outside of the 30's make the Final Four. The ones that do usually are in the top 5-10 in offensive efficiency (see Wisconsin). Just for reference, LSU was #2 in defensive efficiency in 2006 when they made the Final Four.

I don't worry about LSU scoring points. It may not always be pretty, but they find ways to get the ball in the basket. The worry is closing out games on the defensive end. You saw the yin and yang of that last week. Two close games with about 9 minutes to go. Against USC they couldn't get a stop down the stretch to save their lives. USC scored on something like 12 of their final 15 possessions in the game. Against A&M they were able to hold A&M to just 6 points (outside of the 5 A&M scored with ~20 seconds left when LSU had a 10 point lead) in the last 6:30

If LSU commits on defense, they are a very tough out for any team in the country. If they don't, then they are prone to collapses at the end of games.

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This is all relative. I mean, that takes into account 8 games in which Darcy, Elbert, Epps, Bridge, and Sampson were getting SIGNIFICANT minutes.

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If you separate those 8 games you see that LSU's opponents shot worse on avg. in those first 8 games (~44%) than they have in the the games since (~47%)

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We also played Oklahoma, Houston, and North Florida who are all in the top 21 in the country in offensive efficiency. 2 of which we played without key contributors.

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True, but LSU's overall opponent offensive SOS is 85th (10th in the SEC). They are 221st in opponent's FG%; 207th in opponents 3pt %. 271st in opponent's PPG (though you have to take into account the fact that LSU plays a faster game that most) Those poor ranking encompass a lot more than just the first 8 games or just 3 games against good shooting teams.

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Recently we have played much much better defensive

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Maybe the same, but I wouldn't say "better". In the last 6 games both UGA and A&M shot over 50% at LSU. South Carolina had it's 3rd best shooting night of SEC play against LSU (even without the FTs). LSU played good defense against Auburn (last in FG%) and MSU. They also played good defense against OU until the last 9 minutes when they could not get a stop to save their lives. That was the difference in the game.

Is LSU capable of having a good defensive game here and there? Absolutely. However, the numbers don't lie after 25 games (17 with Hornsby/Victor in the line up). This just isn't a good, or really even an average defensive team.

I doubt it. Not with our coaches. I think jones has improved but not enough.