re: Rudy Macklin after watching the Men's BBall team practice today...

quote:

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What should be top on JJ's agenda for things to improve on is drawing up scoring plays for "inbounding the basketball" underneath the basket. It was painful watching us last year inbound the ball and throwing if 3/4 court to prevent the 5 second count.

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Yes, that definitely has to improve. LSU shouldn't consistently have THAT much trouble inbounding the basketball.

More that anything else though, Jones and Co. have got to become better in just simple situational awareness.

1. How many times last season did small runs by opponents unnecessarily turn into game-breaking big runs simply because Jones refused to use a time out? Hell, I've seen Cal, Donovan and other call quick TOs after only a 4-5 point run just to prevent the opponent and crowd from getting fired up. College basketball has way too many timeouts anyway. Use them!

2. (And this is just as much on the players as well) But there were more than a few times last year where LSU had a comfortable lead, but continued to unnecessarily push the tempo and take quick shots late in games. The two UF games were the most glaring examples. I can vividly remember the crowd around me going absolutely nuts as LSU kept rushing, taking quick 3's and turning the ball over all while having a big lead with less than 5 minutes to go. UF was dead and LSU just kept letting them hang around by making unnecessary, dumb plays. After about 4 minutes of this Jones FINALLY told the team to slow down the tempo.

3. Have the team understand the situation. LSU struggled with Turnovers last year. I would bet over half were simply a result of trying to rush things things when they didn't have to. I love that they play with pace, but have some understanding of when to force things and when to hold back.

4. Watching them play against a zone defense was ugly. The ball stayed on the perimeter and never moved with pace. With the players LSU has, they shouldn't have THAT much trouble with the zone. Gray is quick enough to get inside anytime he wants. TQ can see over the top. Simmons (with his ability to pass and score) should wreck havoc by getting into the middle of the zone. Far to many times guys just threw passes with no apparent purpose. After throwing the pass they just sat and made themselves easy to defend.

5. Show some emotion, good and bad. As others have said, Jones has proven that he's good enough to give his guys the ability to beat really good teams (6-1 vs NCAAT teams last season). But you can see his energy level on the bench is higher when LSU plays those good teams. I watched the "Ice Dome" game again the other night. That was the most energy I've every seen Jones display. He was passionate, angry, encouraging, etc. He helped will his guys to the win that night. But you can't just do that against the good teams. If you act as if you don't give a shite against lesser teams, that's how you get beat by Mizzou, State, AU. No one is saying he has to be an a-hole like Bobby Knight, or a miserable dick like Frank Martin, but I don't know of any great coaches who just stare blanking on sidelines for long stretches on end.

LSU is not far off from being a really, really good program. The "x's and o's for the most part are fine. There just has to be much more emphasis on the little things that make all the difference between being someone like Billy Donovan (a consistent winner) vs. a Leonard Hamilton (a guy who's teams are good enough to pull of huge wins against anyone, but also undisciplined enough to lose to anyone as well)