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Who: Northwestern State Demons (1-0) @ LSU Tigers (0-1)
When: Saturday, Nov 16th 7:00pm (ct)
Where: Pete Maravich Assembly Center (13,215, 47th largest D1)
How: 98.1FM, GeauxZone

After LSU’s opening season loss to UMASS, the Tiger’s look to bounce back in their home opener against instate Northwestern State. The Demons gave LSU a battle last season falling just short 95 to 102. LSU struggled to stop Northwestern’s post play with 6’7” DeQuan Hicks (returning) scoring 28 and 6’8” James Hublin (graduated) scoring 29. Anthony Hickey was able to score 21 but was notched out by Shavon Coleman who scored 22 points in the victory.

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Northwestern St takes on Auburn Friday night before a quick turnaround playing the Tigers, however, similar to LSU they play enough people to keep fresh. In their first game of the season, the Demon’s played 10 players fourteen minutes or more. They also shot an astonishing 86% free throw percentage(30/35). However, a hole in their game seems evident as the Demon’s missed all 17 of their three point attempts.

Northwestern State plays fast. How fast? Well, they were 2nd fastest in the NCAA last season. They averaged only 14.8 seconds per possession. LSU averaged 17.3 seconds per possession. It will be important for LSU to recognize that and get back on defense. Whether it’s after a long rebound or after a made basket, Northwestern State will try and catch LSU out of position.

6’8” Marvin Frazier was able to protect the lane for the Demon’s similar to LSU’s Jordan Mickey with 9 rebounds and 7 blocks. It will be interesting to see if the Demon’s can beat the Auburn Tigers Friday night. Either way, Northwestern State will be a test for the Tigers.

Keys to the game:

Foul Trouble
Obvious? Sure. Important? Immensely. LSU committed 29 fouls in their first game. Northwestern St forced 27 themselves. Add on the fact that the Demon’s are a very good free throw shooting team, and this may be the way Northwestern State can pull the upset.

Win the Turnover Battle
In last season’s game, both teams committed 21 turnovers. LSU will need to protect the ball while figuring out how to take it away from Northwestern without fouling. Hickey and Malik Morgan both had 5 steals in last year’s contest.

Johnny O’Bryant
In last season’s contest, O’Bryant only played 19 minutes before fouling out. The pace forced him to make too many fouls. He will be LSU’s biggest advantage as long as he keeps his head in the game and hustles. No fouls around the perimeter JOB! It would also help if he could clean up some turnover issues he has displayed early this season.

Prediction:
LSU 99, Northwestern St 74

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PiscesTiger•136 months

LOVING this team and they're 0-1!!!!!!

Sweet 16 bound!

Tiger Ugly•136 months

Thanks as always SOS. I see Northwestern hammered Auburn. That is bad for the SEC and therefore for us in terms of what we'll need to get into the dance.

The Demons like to run as usual and that's good for us.

For me the most important thing for us is for Coach Jones to get a feel for his players i.e. who to play when and establishing roles.

I think we saw a bit of that come to the fore with Quarterman inserted in when we cut the lead to 1 at UMASS and having a bit of the brook trout look and having 2 or 3 tough possessions in a row.

While the OOC schedule does us few favors in terms of style points for post season it will allow Johnny to define roles and establish the best rotation to best maximize the talent...and we do have that.

Tigers 98-83.

LSUzealot•136 months

quote:
For me the most important thing for us is for Coach Jones to get a feel for his players i.e. who to play when and establishing roles.

wasn't that one of your criticisms of Jones last year? his rotations were poor at times?

Tiger Ugly•136 months

quote:
wasn't that one of your criticisms of Jones last year? his rotations were poor at times?

I thought he did o.k. in that regard for the most part last year given it was his first and given the circumstances.

It's more important this year because there are more pieces in place and more kids who can give significant minutes if used in the right roles and the right times. And I think Coach Jones knows that.

It will be key to get them defined early, because as we're already starting to see, The SEC is struggling again OOC and it does us no favors in establishing a tourney resume.

I think we have a tournament team, but little margin for error due to our OOC schedule and the conference strength.

thunderbird1100•136 months

I may have missed it, but why is Quarterman starting over Hickey again? I just assumed disciplinary stuff first game.

Britgirl•136 months

quote:
t why is Quarterman starting over Hickey again? I just assumed disciplinary stuff first game.

Not disciplinary at all.
Quarterman has been practicing with the "1st team" for most, if not all, full practices. It's my belief that this is to bring him and JJ's other recruits along as much as possible, to play the game he wants played. Coaches intended this. They like Quarterman's personality also. He's young, new and maleable.
Anthony has kind of a chip on his shoulder that doesn't endear him to his coaches.
However, he was given the task of teaching the offenses/defense to the "2nd string" - Malone, Hammink, Odo, Morgan, Hornsby (red-shirted) and the walk-ons.

I watched some scrimmages they had against each other. Intensely competitive and the 2nd team won some of those games.
John Odo, grinning as always, told me they won with their defense.

I think you'll see Anthony coming off the bench a lot as a spark plug, and he'll get a lot of minutes. He also might start sometimes, but it'll be down to a questions of match-ups each game.
We have that luxury this season - yay!

tigers32•136 months

Over time, I've come to like the switch at PG. I'm not sure we can afford to have such a small back-court. Quarterman's height and length really help us IMO. I think Quarterman & Stringer can switch on screens w/o missing much of a beat. Quarterman's offensive game is an issue though.

thunderbird1100•136 months

quote:
Quarterman's offensive game is an issue though.

That's what has me worried. Hickey is a better player at this point. Quarterman has size but I dont think he's ready for the limelight starting quite yet. I tried telling folks who thought Quarterman could play the 2 (simply because of his size) he is NOT a shooter. Almost all of his scoring in high school came driving to the hoop.

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Tom Bronco•136 months

Agree about JOB. He always seems to have one ill advised foul out on the perimeter. Considering how valuable he is to our effort, he needs to be smarter on fouls. And yes, he still tries to dribble too much and loses the ball but he also is getting through those double teams more consistently and scoring.

LSUzealot•136 months

I'm ready to see Mickey swat DeQuan's shite in the 3rd row. He won't make it to 20 tomorrow.

Ignignot•136 months

quote:
I'm ready to see Mickey swat DeQuan's shite in the 3rd row. He won't make it to 20 tomorrow.

:dude:

I'll be up in 318 next to 2335, if he comes, jackass is thinking about going to the SELU game instead.

tigers32•136 months

That block in the UMASS game was magical.

oompaw•136 months

The way McConathy platoons his players and keeps them fresh, he can last the whole game which helps him to keep them close.

Should be a fun game to watch.

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oauron•136 months

quote:
SouthOfSouth

You bringing back the SoS rating?

nosaj•136 months

I'm so torn! lol

Fork Em Demons and Geaux Tigers!

T1gerWonder•136 months

:geauxtigers: I will be there

TDsngumbo•136 months

:geauxtigers:

oauron•136 months

Would love to have Jarell for this game, but happy to be in the PMAC. JOB should have a huge game against their center.

MintBerry Crunch•136 months

ForkEm Demons

Also, Geaux Tigers.

LSU 96 NSU 83

tigers32•136 months

Good write-up as always South. I'm surprised Northwestern St. has to play at Auburn then turnaround and come to Baton Rouge the next night. Should be an advantage for LSU.

I hate that Martin probably won't play in this game. It would've been great for him to get some real game minutes against our next few opponents before heading to Orlando.

SouthOfSouth•136 months

Martin will not play.

I am pretty confident we will see Malone though. Should be a fun game.

Britgirl•136 months

Should be a fun game to watch. Fast paced. Hopefully this season we'll have the depth to keep fresh legs on the court at all times, making it possible to match or exceed the Demon's pace.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Shane Hammink's play so far. He might be an important sub for a few minutes.

Looking forward to seeing Darcy in action, but I worry about his lack of speed, whilst pretty good for a big man, he seems to tire easily. Gotta get used to the speed of the US college game. Great game to test him out.

Although I expect Tim to start at PG again, we definitely need Anthony's speed and ability to push the ball up the court. His role as 6th man currently, is set-up to provide a spark off the bench and I think he'll be in to finish the game.
After the UMass game, JJ might let Tim acclimatise to the college game a bit more slowly than he wanted.

Great pre-game write-up as usual SoS.

I don't usually make score predictions, since I seem to jinx the team, but I think LSU by 10.

Hope lots of fans come out for the season opener.

:geauxtigers:

tigers32•136 months

quote:
Martin will not play.

My bad...didn't see the other thread on his injury. Still, it's good news he might be back next week. As long as he doesn't rush his return.

quote:
I am pretty confident we will see Malone though.

Was going to ask about this. I didn't get to see the UMASS game so Saturday will be the first time I see the team. Seems like a good game to see live considering how each team plays.

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