re: NWST @ LSU MBB Preview; Sunday 12/8; 3:00 CST | SECN

NWST sucks. There's just not a nice way to say it. This is probably the worst team LSU will play all season. I suspect Wade scheduled them here because it comes ahead of a 10 day break between games.

I think quietly the wins over Missouri St. and UNO are going to become "better" as the year goes on. Both were picked to win their respective conferences and both could be tournament teams in March. The encouraging part is not so much that LSU won, but that LSU was able to win fairly easily. One might say "well that's what power conf. teams SHOULD do vs. mid-majors". But unless you haven't been paying attention, mid-majors have been pulling off more than their share of big upsets and close battles against the big boys. (See Evansville over #1 Kentucky. SFA over #1 Duke. Florida getting pushed to the brink by Marshall and Towson; a then ranked Xavier team barley hanging on to beat Missouri St. Auburn having to score nearly at the buzzer to beat S. Alabama; etc, etc) So far LSU hasn't let such teams get a glimmer of hope for an upset.

The second biggest takeaway is that Smart seems to be settling into his role as PG. In the last two games he notched 9 and 8 assist to only 1 and 2 turnovers. Since the Rhode Island game this offense is really starting to roll with not just great individual play, but very good team basketball. LSU is once again one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country.

Hopefully they can keep building and go into LA in a few weeks and get a good OOC win over USC. I still don't think the ceiling for this year's team is quite as high as it was for last year's group. But you could argue that even with the two losses, this year's team is playing BETTER than last year's team at the same point.