re: 1989-1990 LSU Basketball: What do you remember the problem being?

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Wrong. Very seldom ran plays for Oneal his freshman year. 90% of all the plays ran through Jackson or Roberts, neither of whom played much defense. They should have run more high low with Shaq. and Singleton making backcuts. Those two rarely failed to score or draw fouls down low. Way too many outside shots were thrown up by that team.

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This really epitomizes the in-game criticisms of Dale Brown. As we all know, he was an outstanding motivator and recruiter. He genuinely cared about his players

The problem with Brown was not completely his "x's and o's", but his inability to understand the in-game situation. Many times his great players had complete free-reign on the offensive end (Jackson was the most glaring example). It really was close to a "just roll the ball out and our guys will outplay your guys approach". Defense was optional other than lets just try to block everything. LSU could be up by a nice margin and they would continue to put up quick shot after quick shot. There was no, "let's play how the situation dictates." If the shots were falling and continued to fall then it was lights out. If not, LSU could shoot/play themselves OUT of games they had no business losing.

If you remember, LSU was embarrassing Ga. Tech to start the game. They were up in the first half by 17 points!!! (22-5) with about 12 minutes to go only to have Tech come back to make the score 41-40 at half. LSU rarely played smart, situational basketball. It was full steam ahead all the time.