Posted on SEC rant, how can LSU def efficiency be so bad? Above 100 would be worth at

131?
I saw 226 yesterday.

Just did it in my head quickly and if u take my post above, arkansas would be best , I think.

Hey guys - I posted this - this is only for February. LSU for the entire season sits at:

#36 Overall
#9 Offense
#148 Defense

Here is the link

LSU Profile - Torvik

Watford plays lazy way too much... he thinks he is some kind of superstar and should get every call when he goes into the lane and instead of playing D he is too busy crying . If every player on this team played with the same intensity that Smart plays with we could be very tough out.

Wade's approach/philosophy on the defensive end is just flat out awful. He prioritizes trying to force steals/deflections over just guarding in the half court. LSU is in the top 20% of the country in steals...and they are still TERRIBLE defensively.

They don't work to stay in front of the ballhandler. Everything is reactionary rather than beating offensive players to the spot. The 1-3-1 press is a joke and has been all 4 years. If an offense is disciplined and wiling to make the easy pass they can get a layup without much effort. LSU will inexplicably double-team off the backside constantly trying to force a steal from behind....while leaving shooters WIDE open and throwing their rotations into a mess because of it. That, and you have at least two guys on the team (Thomas and Watford) who play with no effort whatsoever on the defensive end. Thomas doesn't defend and Watford (almost always the last guy back on defense) spends the entire defensive set shouting and pointing to his teammates which guys to guard...while not guarding anyone himself.

But the long and the short of it is no matter what he says or how many times he says it Wade simply does not prioritize defense. If he actually did LSU would be FAR better than the 130 ranking in defensive efficiency they have averaged (to date) over the course of FOUR years.

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I’ve said it for a few years now. LSU has to get an assistant coach who can teach these players defensive fundamentals. Wade obviously can’t. Just having the players understand basic fundamentals like closing out, footwork when guarding the ball closely, footwork for help side defense, and how to block out would work wonders for this team.

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It's not that Wade "can't". It's that he doesn't prioritize it the way other coaches may. Greg Heair was here for 3 years and came from a program that was usually excellent on defense (Wichita St.). Yet, LSU wasn't consistently good defensively when he was here.

Wade comes from the Shaka Smart tree where the emphasis is to play fast and try to force deflections/steals that lead to turnovers and transition offense. Many times they will overly-gamble for steals...to their detriment if/when they don't get them. Wade calls it "Chaos" and it simply hasn't worked at LSU. Rather than just play strong defense with a lot of effort that results in turnovers as a byproduct of that play LSU tries to force them. When it works it's great. But many times for every steal they are allowing 5, 6, 7 good shots in return.

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There is only so much a coach can do, who would you want to bench from the best offense in the SEC and put in? A Walk on?

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This is one of the most ignorant, outright stupid, comments I've read on this board and I've read a lot.

What the F do you think Coaching is????????

I bet this same poster was defending Miles and his offensive philosophy. There is only so much Miles can do. I mean, defenses are putting 9 guys in the box. Our O-line can only block so many. lol

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I bet this same poster was defending Miles and his offensive philosophy. There is only so much Miles can do. I mean, defenses are putting 9 guys in the box. Our O-line can only block so many. lol

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Exactly!

Get all of the assistant coaches you want. When the HC firmly believes his philosophy is right (despite statistical evidence to the contrary) there is nothing those assistants can really do.

To be fair, Wade has won a lot more than he has lost (just like Miles). But the parallel is that each HC may have teams that fail to reach their potential (both coaches recruited very well) because the HC refuses to make some obviously needed adjustments.

After last season's awful defense and hearing Wade discuss that fact and the need for change ALL offseason I was CONVINCED LSU was going to be much better defensively this season. Unfortunately, the reality is they aren't. They are 2nd to last in the SEC in Defensive efficiency...just like last season. They are (currently) 145 and falling backwards. Maybe the only reason they aren't worse is because they didn't play the usual number of bad teams who (though LSU would win) would sink the rating even lower.

If Wade doesn't acknowledge that fact his tenure will be much like Miles's. A lot of good. Some really good. But also a lot of frustrating "what if?"