First, I'm disappointed in the loss today like many are, just as I was against Missouri. This is the third year under Jones and although there's a lot of season left I feel we wasted yet another opportunity to win a winnable game, especially with Florida and Vanderbilt coming up on the road. It's not going to be easy and I am anxious for some improvement in lessening turnovers, rebounding and defense and coaching with a true sense of knowing the flow of the game.

Starting with the players:

The backcourt has been inconsistent, no doubt about it. All of our guards have shown signs of solid play, from dribbling ability, to taking the ball to the goal, to finding the open guy. They've all shown the ability to hit the three. Gray, Patterson, Hornsby and Quarterman all hit at least one 3 pointer in the first half of today's game. Even Martin hit one. It's the inability to hit a midrange jumper that hurts us. We are not a good shooting team off the dribble and that limits us in our ability to hit shots off of screens and picks. I say we're not a good midrange shooting team, but really we don't even look for those types of shots. I think Hornsby's the only guard that tries midrange jumpers, but if any of our guards are going to shoot the ball, it's either going to be a 3-point attempt or a drive all the way to the basket, and we see what happens when we're not hitting either of those.

This backcourt lacks a true leader. It should be Gray, and at times when he's protecting the ball and finding open guys, he's magnificent. He had 10 assists at Ole Miss and looked in the first half like he'd duplicate that effort with 4 assists. However, he only had 1 in the second half and turned the ball over at key points when he was trying to do too much. I really thought Quarterman had taken over the leader roll after Georgia and Ole Miss, but I didn't see that in him today. Give A&M credit for limiting his drives to the basket and predicting Gray's penetration passes in the 2nd half. They were much better at help defense than we were for sure.

Defensively, our Backcourt struggles to keep defenders from penetrating. I thought we were ok first half but Patterson started getting eaten up by his man in the second half and it led to some easy baskets. I expected an adjustment at some point but it never came.

Now to the Frontcourt:

Mickey is great shot blocker and an above avg post defender but he sacrifices position sometimes to block shots and if a team draws him to penetration and dishes off like A&M did today, we are in trouble, because there is rarely any backside help. How many shots did A&M get at the rim today? Too many.

Martin is considered a "big man"/"low post" asset but plays more of a 3 instead of a 4. He rarely posts his man up and that limits our low post options because despite the fact Malone and sometimes Odo play the 5, they are not options for our offense to feed the ball into the post. I think our team realizes it's turnover city when these guys get fed the ball inside so they just don't look for them. That's a depth problem and although Malone's improving we just don't have that 3rd option to go to. Bridgewater got no action today at all so I'm not sure what the deal was with him. Regardless, against taller teams he is a non-factor because he's just too short for his low-post moves to work, and it's a shame because I think he has of all of the Frontcourt players, some of the better moves for a low post player.

Martin and Mickey really need to work on their midrange game if they want to help this team or make it at the next level. They seem to me like bulls in a china shop when they are determined to get to the basket. Every single one of their moves involves a spin of some kind. Sometimes it works but many times it doesn't. I saw Martin get a rebound 3 feet away today, but instead of going straight back up with it he tried to put the ball on the ground and spin into two defenders. Our bigs are not finishing nearly often enough and many times are getting the ball stripped because they're out of control and going against 3 and sometimes 4 guys. Mickey has a hard time under the goal because his first instinct is to bring the ball down to his waist. Someone has to coach that bad habit out of him at some point.

I see some are mentioning Martin as soft. I wouldn't totally agree, but if he used his fundamentals a little more he might seem a little tougher in there because we need these guys to rebound and make good outlet passes and we are giving up possessions after decent defensive stops because of the other team's offensive rebounding. If Mickey's going to go for a shot block then Martin needs to be on the other side rebounding.

Finally, the coaching:

I didn't put the loss at Missouri on the coaching. I wouldn't totally blame the coaching today, but the fact that Jones didn't call a timeout during either of A&M's runs made me furious, because it was obvious he was waiting for the TV timeout. You see at the end of the game, we had 3 timeouts that went unused. The coach can't play for the players, but he can come up with an play or emphasize a play in his game plan that should work when they need it. LSU scored only two points from the 4+ minute mark in the second half. Do we really not have something in the bag, a backscreen alley oop, something that can get us to the free throw line or an easy basket? Also, we never used a zone today. I don't know if we thought we were effective enough at the man-to-man or if we were scared of A&M's 3-point shooting ability but we were getting beat off the dribble too much to control the defensive end. Their dribble penetration caused late help and easy opposite side putbacks. In the first half we were ok but we didn't sag enough in the 2nd half. It's frustrating to know they have it in them to play solid defense but just don't at times, and it kills us and the coaches need to adjust when we're struggling. As for our last 20-something seconds. A&M saw Gray's last second layup against West Virginia. There was no doubt the play was going to be for him to try and get to the goal and dish at the last second if he couldn't. A&M played it perfectly.

Summary:

This team has potential but is not very deep in the Frontcourt. To beat the better opponents it will take better shooting, minimal turnovers and a lot better help-side defense. And, truthfully, with the exception of Miss State, there are no easy games for this team. They seem to play to the competition no matter who they're playing. Martin and Mickey show signs of greatness but there are a lot of holes in their games that come out when you least expect them too. The losing is a combination of turnovers and poor defense. Shooting woes come and go, but defense gets you through those dry spells. And, when there are dry spells, I expect the coaches to come up with a play that's easy to execute and gets the momentum back in our favor. Lastly, Coach Jones needs to be in tune with the flow of the game. You can't let your team shoot 4 bricks from 3-point territory and see the other team score at will on dribble penetration and not call a timeout. After we bumped the lead back up to 9 when it was down to 3 or 5 Kennedy called a timeout sensing the Tigers might be on a run. It was called about a minute after the TV timeout. I'd say it was effective in getting his team back on track...Jones needs to learn to do that.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm excited about the future, but tired of seeing the same mistakes. Players need to play for each other, play for success, and forget the fans, the NBA, etc. If they're doing that great, but I think they realize they let one slip away today and Coach Jones should as well.