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Started By
Message
Slightly Nuanced Basketball Take
Posted on 11/19/25 at 12:59 pm
Posted on 11/19/25 at 12:59 pm
Pro: This team has a good amount of individual talent.
Con: right now they are not playing fully to their potential.
Pro: If they eventually gel, they could be dangerous in March.
Con: We have yet to see a CMM team ever fully gel and click on all cyllanders.
Pro: Through 3 games I think Thomas and Sutton (and maybe Mackinnon) are a good enough 1-2 to win some games in the SEC.
Con: Everyone outside of those 2 need to figure out their role on this team and at this point (still very early) they have not.
Pro: This team can score quickly and in bunches.
Con: This team seems very streaky and while they go on runs, they give up runs as well.
Basically I think this team has the pieces to make the tournament and even win a game or 2 if things fall in our favor. I also think this team shows a lot of the same issues that previous CMM coached teams have been plagued by. Will this be the year that the team steadily improves hroughout the season and we reach the tourny for the first time since the General was relieved of his duties? Or will it be another year where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts?
Con: right now they are not playing fully to their potential.
Pro: If they eventually gel, they could be dangerous in March.
Con: We have yet to see a CMM team ever fully gel and click on all cyllanders.
Pro: Through 3 games I think Thomas and Sutton (and maybe Mackinnon) are a good enough 1-2 to win some games in the SEC.
Con: Everyone outside of those 2 need to figure out their role on this team and at this point (still very early) they have not.
Pro: This team can score quickly and in bunches.
Con: This team seems very streaky and while they go on runs, they give up runs as well.
Basically I think this team has the pieces to make the tournament and even win a game or 2 if things fall in our favor. I also think this team shows a lot of the same issues that previous CMM coached teams have been plagued by. Will this be the year that the team steadily improves hroughout the season and we reach the tourny for the first time since the General was relieved of his duties? Or will it be another year where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts?
20
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:03 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:yes
Or will it be another year where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts?
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:05 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:
Basically I think this team has the pieces to make the tournament and even win a game or 2 if things fall in our favor. I also think this team shows a lot of the same issues that previous CMM coached teams have been plagued by. Will this be the year that the team steadily improves hroughout the season and we reach the tourny for the first time since the General was relieved of his duties? Or will it be another year where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts?
Y’all are gonna do this every year he’s here, just cant help yourselves
This post was edited on 11/19/25 at 1:07 pm
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:09 pm to kc8876
The team sucks. Everybody knows it. We can window dress and lipstick this pig all we want, but come cuttin’ time straight to the bottom of the sec we go. It’s clears as day
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:14 pm to jlbasm
He’s not getting fired this year no matter what. Not after the BK firing. MM is the biggest winner through all this mess.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:20 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:Couple of notes:
Pro: Through 3 games I think Thomas and Sutton (and maybe Mackinnon) are a good enough 1-2 to win some games in the SEC.
We’ve played 4 regular season games, not 3. We also had an exhibition against UCF that certain posters can’t stop talking about.
Thomas, Sutton and Nwoko are our best players right now. Rob Miller has a chance to be really good if he can grow and put it all together (he just recently turned 19).
MacKinnon had one good game and has looked not great, bob, in the other games.
So far, the team’s offensive metrics look good, while the defense has been fading. It’s still early, but it is troubling considering the competition - a bunch of Quad 4 games. This is akin to the LSU Football offense struggling against LA Tech and people pointing it out. Doesn’t mean people don’t want to win, but to pretend you didn’t see something just because we won, is ridiculous.
Also, posters bring up AU, UF playing close games too. The issue is AU was in the Final Four last season and UF won the National Championship last season.
Even though every season starts fresh, that doesn’t mean to ignore all history. Those programs have more rope, same with coaches that have proven they can win at this level. That’s not where LSU is, CoachMc would get more leeway had he already proven legitimate success at LSU. The more successful, the more rope.
It can be both a new season and also a concerning program history/pattern.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:20 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
Pro: You post mainly focuses on offense (which LSU is doing very well now)
Con: It largely ignores defense, which is a clear concern to anyone willing to look beyond the final score
The irony is that 4 games in this team looks a lot like some of Wade's teams. They were efficient on offense even though they couldn't shoot a lick from deep but made up for it by shooting a ton of FTs. However, they couldn't consistently defend worth a damn. The con is that the SEC wasn't quite as good as it is now and Wade's teams were better rebounders with less turnovers.
I don't say that to necessarily compare MM and Wade, just to give some insight into what an imbalanced team can look like. Good enough offensively to simply out-run any opponent, but bad enough defensively that any opponent could beat them on any given night.
Con: It largely ignores defense, which is a clear concern to anyone willing to look beyond the final score
The irony is that 4 games in this team looks a lot like some of Wade's teams. They were efficient on offense even though they couldn't shoot a lick from deep but made up for it by shooting a ton of FTs. However, they couldn't consistently defend worth a damn. The con is that the SEC wasn't quite as good as it is now and Wade's teams were better rebounders with less turnovers.
I don't say that to necessarily compare MM and Wade, just to give some insight into what an imbalanced team can look like. Good enough offensively to simply out-run any opponent, but bad enough defensively that any opponent could beat them on any given night.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:20 pm to In The Know
quote:
He’s not getting fired this year no matter what.
This is a load of shite. Our boosters were willing to put up $50M to make a change with football…. CMM’s buyout will be peanuts.
That being said, he has to make the NCAAT or he is out
This post was edited on 11/19/25 at 1:22 pm
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:22 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
Just realized we're playing at BC next month. Which new england baws wanna meet up on chestnut hill. Abita wy@??
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:26 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:
Basically I think this team has the pieces to make the tournament and even win a game or 2 if things fall in our favor. I also think this team shows a lot of the same issues that previous CMM coached teams have been plagued by. Will this be the year that the team steadily improves hroughout the season and we reach the tourny for the first time since the General was relieved of his duties? Or will it be another year where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts?
I need to see more against real competition before I say we are good enough to make the tournament.
I like the point guard and Sutton looks better than I expected, the big guy from State looks like the physical presence CMM has never had inside but he's got a history of chronic foul trouble and not being able to stay on the court.
Let's play some good teams and I'll have a better gauge to judge whether we have to dudes to make the dance.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:26 pm to jlbasm
Every SEC team has already lost or struggled to beat an inferior opponent this season. LSU’s closest win was 16 points…
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:26 pm to In The Know
quote:
He’s not getting fired this year no matter what.
I don't think that is true.
There was a strong push to get Wade back to LSU. Tate and Woodward shut it down quickly. That played a big part in both of them being pushed out at LSU. The faction that wanted McMahon gone are still around. Tate and Woodward aren't.
The program is already at a decade+ level of apathy. Another bad, or even just unremarkable season will just make that worse. Even with the BK mess, the new administration (pushed by donors) won't sign up for another wasted year.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:34 pm to jlbasm
quote:
The team sucks. Everybody knows it.
This may turn out to be true, but certainly not "everybody" knows it. Multiple ESPN college basketball analysts (including Jay Bilas), for example, have LSU as an NCAA tournament bubble team. Now, these same guys have 10-13 SEC teams in the tourney, so that assessment is not inconsistent with LSU ending up in the bottom third of the league. Given how grueling the SEC gauntlet will be, it is imperative that the Tigers rack up wins in the non-conference. The neutral-site and road games between November 28th and December 13th (Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, SMU, etc.) are especially important. If they can go into conference play at 11-2 or better, they have a reasonable chance to make the Tournament. If they don't, I think everyone would agree that it's time to go in another direction from a coaching standpoint.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:41 pm to TigerMonkey7
quote:
Every SEC team has already lost or struggled to beat an inferior opponent this season.
That's not completely true. Tennessee and Georgia don't fit in that category. Georgia has the largest avg margin of victory in the nation and Tennessee is not all that far behind (neither is LSU). But what all 3 share is that their SOS is among the worst in the nation.
Yes, teams like Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas all have losses whereas LSU doesn't. Those loses have all come against top 10 opponents. Context matters.
LSU is taking care of really bad competition...which is good. But it's hard to really compare them to the rest of the SEC using the transitive property with so few games.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:43 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:
Pro: Through 3 games I think Thomas and Sutton (and maybe Mackinnon) are a good enough 1-2 to win some games in the SEC.
Con: Everyone outside of those 2 need to figure out their role on this team and at this point (still very early) they have not.
You can't exclude Nwoko. You can't. He looks like a beast in the paint and looks like our best player so far.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 1:58 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
quote:
Pro: Through 3 games I think Thomas and Sutton (and maybe Mackinnon) are a good enough 1-2 to win some games in the SEC.
I think Nwoko's contributions may also impact some games. He is averaging 20.3 PPG (tops on the team) and 6 rebounds while playing an average of 18.8 minutes per game. Compared to Sutton, who averages 15.8 PPG and 9.8 rebounds while playing an average of 30 minutes per game.
Best free-throw shooting I have seen in some time as a team. Of course, it is still very early.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 2:00 pm to jlbasm
You need to contact Ken Pomeroy. He seems to disagree with this assessment, at least so far.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 2:03 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
If you think what you just put in writing is “nuanced” then I hope you had a nice trust fund set up
Posted on 11/19/25 at 2:07 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
Offensively, I think we’re going to ask a lot of Dedan in terms of making sure everything is clicking and that’s fine, because he looks the part. My only concern is that we still don’t have a guy you can just tell, “Go get a bucket,” the way we could with Cam Carter last season. That probably caps our offensive ceiling a bit, but even with that, this feels like it could be our best offensive team under CMM so far.
Defensively, there’s still a lot of work to do. We’re not offering much resistance, and teams are getting into their offensive sets way too easily.
We need eight dependable players. Right now I only see five: Dedan, Sutton, Reed, Miller, and Nwoko. Thamba has been fine, but he’s really a 10-minutes-per-game SEC guy. Same for Reece, I think he's been fine for a freshman but he's giving you at best 10 minutes in the Sec. For us to hit our potential, we need at least one of Max or King to be good and neither has blown me away in the early parts of this season. I’m not sure why we aren’t giving Zipper or Mosley some run in these early games just to see if they have any juice.
Defensively, there’s still a lot of work to do. We’re not offering much resistance, and teams are getting into their offensive sets way too easily.
We need eight dependable players. Right now I only see five: Dedan, Sutton, Reed, Miller, and Nwoko. Thamba has been fine, but he’s really a 10-minutes-per-game SEC guy. Same for Reece, I think he's been fine for a freshman but he's giving you at best 10 minutes in the Sec. For us to hit our potential, we need at least one of Max or King to be good and neither has blown me away in the early parts of this season. I’m not sure why we aren’t giving Zipper or Mosley some run in these early games just to see if they have any juice.
Posted on 11/19/25 at 2:09 pm to Bert Macklin FBI
I don't think there's any doubt this is CMM's best team, though that is one hell of a low bar.
They are a great FT shooting team.
The PG is a very good offensive player.
Nwoko will be able to match up physically with anyone.
Sutton has shot the ball at a clip that would make him one of the best 3 point shooters in America. IMO that's not sustainable.
They have some guys that can protect the rim but I see major problems for this team coming when matched up with athletic guards that can play.
I question the head coach's ability to motivate and foster a mentally tough mindset from a team.
Luckily the SEC isn't nearly as strong as last season but it's a steep uphill climb for this group to make it to the NCAA tournament IMO. The non con schedule is so horrific that a loss to anyone other than Texas Tech would be a hard loss to overcome resume wise unless they perform way better in conference than I'm expecting.
They are a great FT shooting team.
The PG is a very good offensive player.
Nwoko will be able to match up physically with anyone.
Sutton has shot the ball at a clip that would make him one of the best 3 point shooters in America. IMO that's not sustainable.
They have some guys that can protect the rim but I see major problems for this team coming when matched up with athletic guards that can play.
I question the head coach's ability to motivate and foster a mentally tough mindset from a team.
Luckily the SEC isn't nearly as strong as last season but it's a steep uphill climb for this group to make it to the NCAA tournament IMO. The non con schedule is so horrific that a loss to anyone other than Texas Tech would be a hard loss to overcome resume wise unless they perform way better in conference than I'm expecting.
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