This basketball team is dangerous

Until young players struggle with a veteran mid major team as early as tonight

Tonight will tell us a lot. So will Liberty game.

I like this team a lot too. While some on here complain about Wade's teams not shooting a little better from 3 point land, the real improvement that has been needed is on the defensive end and in the rebounding department.

Wade's teams always score points...defense and rebounding is what will separate this team from others.

I love the flow and cohesion of this team too.

Boot Up!

quote:

---

Texas State with a convincing win over UIW which means....?

---

Texas State is a big jump in competition from first game. Their defense is legit and they have a TON of experience.

I love the enthusiasm, but lets pump the brakes just a bit. ULM isn't a very good team and Days will probably never have the type of shooting night he had on Tuesday again. It was a 5 point game with about 8:00 to go in the first half until Days hit back to back 3's to blow it open. LSU was a bit inconsistent and out of sorts on offense early. But Days's remarkable night gave the other guys the freedom to settle in.

This is a slight step up in competition. Texas St. won the Sun Belt (regular season) last year and returns 4 starters from that team. They are picked to finish 3rd in the conference this season. Whereas ULM was picked to finish last.

Texas St. plays a COMPLETELY different style than LSU. They want to slow the game down to a half-court crawl. It will be interesting to see if LSU can speed them up (which is LSU's game).

I think LSU wins. I think they win by double-digits. But I doubt it looks close to what they did vs. ULM. Texas St. is a good defensive team that isn't just going to give the wide open looks ULM gave...especially to Days.

Yeah when a team slow plays us and we’re forced to run half court we could have a few issues. When we can run and gun and turn them over, we’ll feast. Same as usual.

Yea beating the shite out of ULM is fun and after about 8 minutes in the game they looked really crisp.


But They are going to start playing some decent mid major teams in the next few weeks, if we start cooking them to then I will jump on the train.

quote:

---

What worries me the most is we don't have elite guard play. Pinson has played off the ball for the majority of his career and Gaines is still young. I think both are capable but currently unproven. Ball handling depth drops significantly after these two players. Essentially we only have two players on this roster that are "ball handlers".

---

To be fair, you probably could have said the same thing last season. After Smart, who did LSU have at PG? Really no one. Even then, Smart was more of a "score first" PG.

It was ONE game, but both Pinson and Gaines had 7 assists. This team is going to have to share the ball to create offense much more than the last two teams. At least after one game it seems both "ball handlers" are more than willing to do it. So I think you could argue LSU is in a BETTER spot in terms of "ball handling" depth than they have been. The concern is at the other guard position where you only have a true freshman starting.

I was particularly impressed by Pinson the other night. Not so much with how he played. But how he seemed to happily accept a secondary role in the game. He is a 3 year starter who left one solid SEC program to come to another. Presumably he did so to have a bigger individual role. Most notably on offense. He had 4 assists before he even took a shot. In the first half he had 6 assists and 3 points. ALL while watching a fellow senior, Days, (who is also looking for a bigger individual role) go off offensively.

I think you are really overlooking how good Days will be this year. He came back to be our lead guy and I could see him putting up 20 points a game this year. He might not shoot 8-9 from 3 every night but I expect to see a couple 25-30 point games from him this year. He has an outside shot and we know he can pound inside as well. We will see what he will look like tonight but I would expect 20-25 points, 3-4 assists and 6-8 rebounds.

quote:

---

To be fair, you probably could have said the same thing last season. After Smart, who did LSU have at PG? Really no one. Even then, Smart was more of a "score first" PG.

It was ONE game, but both Pinson and Gaines had 7 assists. This team is going to have to share the ball to create offense much more than the last two teams. At least after one game it seems both "ball handlers" are more than willing to do it. So I think you could argue LSU is in a BETTER spot in terms of "ball handling" depth than they have been. The concern is at the other guard position where you only have a true freshman starting.

I was particularly impressed by Pinson the other night. Not so much with how he played. But how he seemed to happily accept a secondary role in the game. He is a 3 year starter who left one solid SEC program to come to another. Presumably he did so to have a bigger individual role. Most notably on offense. He had 4 assists before he even took a shot. In the first half he had 6 assists and 3 points. ALL while watching a fellow senior, Days, (who is also looking for a bigger individual role) go off offensively.

---

Alt, I agree with you, I thought Pinson filled in great and didn't seem to force anything. Seemed to be content with handling a more pass first role. It was nice to see 14 assist between the two guards.

At this point last year, I viewed Smart, Thomas, Gaines, & Cook as guards who felt comfortable in the PG role. You are right, as the season progressed Wade stuck with Smart for the majority of the minutes.