re: Damn. I was really hoping we'd make the tourney this year

LSU will have to prove they are an NCAA tourney team. Right now, they don't look like one. They are weak on fundamentals, & very inconsistent. JJ is a good recruiter but appears to be weak in game management & instilling player discipline. NIT is my expectation for this club.

I think the team will bounce back. Holidays are over and now they will be getting back to a more normal schedule.

That should help. We will find out Tuesday.

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LSU will have to prove they are an NCAA tourney team. Right now, they don't look like one. They are weak on fundamentals, & very inconsistent. JJ is a good recruiter but appears to be weak in game management & instilling player discipline.

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JJ has done alot of good things and has overall been better than I expected. However, I agree...outside the second half against Butler and maybe pulling that press out of his arse last year against Seton Hall, I've never found myself thinking his bench coaching/gameplanning had much positive affect on games and at times felt it was negative.

I also agree that there's been a bit too much selfish and undisciplined play, and yesterday in particular it was more on the veterans.

Glad he finally sat some kids. Nothing gets their attention like playing time. But I'm thinking it should not have to come to that this far into the season.

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NIT is my expectation for this club.

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NCAA has been my expectation all along. This team has NCAA tourney level talent. They shoud be held accountable to that IMHO. Now we've just squeezed our margin of error down to next to nothing for the rest of the year thanks to this terrible and inexcuseable loss.

Before last night's loss it was looking like a 10 seed for LSU. Now it looks like they have to finish 14-4 with at least 1 win in the SEC tourney or 13-5 with 2 wins to feel safe about getting a bid. They do have a good BPI though so maybe they get in anyway. Can't have anymore bad losses though and they have to hold serve at home.

lack of intensity kills this team. the only player that plays HARD from start to finish is Jordan Mickey. If everyone plays with his intensity this will be a very dangerous team.

There are ebbs and flows in a basketball season. There were multiple people saying "Elite 8 or bust" after UAB. Now we apparently are NIT at best. We have always been a bubble team that IMO would sneak in the dance. This was a tough, tough loss that will have a strong chance of being a "bad loss" come tourney time. That said, let's wait till we (and Rhode Island, for that matter) get some conference games under our belt before we abandon ship. We will have many chances to prove our worth in SEC play, we just have to take advantage of them.

All of that said, this team is a semi-preview of how good we will be consistently, year in year out under Jones. I wish we could pack the PMAC for Tennessee but I fear our casual fans may have been scared off again.

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I don't think the players have done a great job executing the offense (Coach Jones has to see that & help correct it). There are some question marks about his bench planning though (although minor ?'s IMO).

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After reading Jones's comments on benching JOB, it leads me to believe that he told the kid to take it to the basket & JOB kept shooting outside shots.

If that was the case, what else can a coach do?

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I disagree with you on gameplanning. I don't think the players have done a great job executing the offense (Coach Jones has to see that & help correct it). There are some question marks about his bench planning though (although minor ?'s IMO).

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I think there is some of that. But ultimately, some responsibility for repeated lack of execution has to fall on the staff. We're nearly halfway in an there was no sense of purpose on offense last night and this rebounding issue to me is just not acceptable.

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But not NCAA tournament level guard play. I've said this since the beginning of the season. Just not enough depth at the guard position.

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Bottom line is that you have to be among the top 45 to get in this thing. I think the guard play combined with all else we have is enough to be counted among that number. Just have to get them playing to their strengths and knowing their limitations, and that ain't happening consistently enough. I think players and staff share in that responsibility.