Bball is losing for two reasons.

You forgot to add the murray injury, him only shooting 5 shots all night is a problem

Basketball is losing because we can't do one of the basic needs to win basketball games.....shoot. We have athletes but no shooters.

Defensive pressure needs to be the same in the backcourt as it is in the front court

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defense. Yes, defense

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Teams now practice against the switch defense that we’re getting everyone with earlier. They have plans and plays to beat it. We haven’t adjusted.

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1) Pinson is hurt. He is number 1 because he’s a huge part of #2

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The offense was struggling BEFORE Pinson was injured. Him returning to full strength would definitely help. But it is not going to suddenly turn a poor offense into a very good one.

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2) defense. Yes, defense. We know we are not a scoring team, however we were doing well due to great defense. Since he’s been out, practically all our losses we have allowed over 70 points. Prior to that we were allowing less than 65 points.

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LSU is a better defensive team with Gaines at the point rather than Pinson. But over the last 4-5 games teams have started to figure out how to attack LSU's defense. First, because LSU switches everything, regardless of matchup, teams are able to use screens to get mismatches. All last night OM was able to get Reid out top guarding the point with one of LSU's guards having to front OM's Center inside. Those mis-matches require other guys to help, which impacts rotations. In that situation even average offensive teams, with a little ball movement, can find open shots. Credit OM. They hit many of them

Second, LSU fouls constantly. Bitch about the refs all you want. But if you have the same problem over the course of, now, 22 games you start to look for the constants. The officiating crews change from game to game. LSU's team doesn't. The aggressiveness has led to good defense...but it has also led to teams getting easy buckets at the FT line where you can't "guard" them.

The reality of the situation is that LSU is probably regressing to the team they have always been. The 12-0 start was against relatively weak competition and created higher than anticipated expectations. Remember, LSU was picked to finish 6th in the SEC. Wade is a good coach. But his flaw at LSU has always been that his teams lack balance. That is, they are generally elite on one end of the floor and really poor on the other. This year is the same story, but with a different flavor. Unlike the first 4 seasons where LSU was great on offense and terrible on defense, they are now great defensively and terrible offensively. That makes you susceptible to lose to anyone if your strength fails you that night (as it has vs. OM, TCU and Tennessee recently). You don't have the other side of the ball to fall back on. Balanced teams can struggle a bit on one end of the floor, but make up for it on the other. LSU is not a team that can do that. If their defense is not completely locking the opponent down they simply don't have the offensive firepower to compensate for it...with or without Pinson.

I think folks, myself included, need to temper expectations. This is likely a 6-8 seed team. A team that with a good matchup can make a run to the second week of the NCAAT. But a team that doesn't have enough balance to truly be a contender.

I feel like he made a mistake starting Pinson last night and giving him extended minutes to start the game. Pinson should have just been playing a minute or two in relief of Gaines. Ole Miss had the stretch where they shot lights out, and our defense seemed little slow, and we just couldn't complete comeback. Any one think fatigue could play a factor with this team considering the intensity of the denfense?

Also, don’t want to sound like a “conspiracy theorist”, however, the refs absolutely hates LSU and Will Wade. Last night Ole Piss went to the line 31 times !!! LSU ? 13 !! And it’s like that every game !! Hard to make up when the opposing team is shooting 18 more “free” throws than you.

Pinson isn't really a scorer so this logic is flawed. Did we play better with him on the court yes but if we can't hit buckets it won't matter.

Also ill-advised shots.... whenever we are up on close in points, we should not be taking 3 pointers, instead should be rotating the ball.

Too many 3 point attempts without the set up.