re: LSU basketball transfer portal watch

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By the way, if we shoot better, then we won't need to get as many offensive rebounds. If we defend better, even if they get extra shots, our opponents should still score less.

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I am really not worried about the rebounds. Our weak spot last year was at the guard positions as Hill and Miller averaged a single rebound in over 30 minutes a game. Miller got more very late in the year as he focused more on it, but overall it should be easy for the new guys to get more rebounds.

Add to that, we played a 3 guard lineup most of the year. While Hays was OK at rebounding, he only got 2.5 in 23 mpg. With Mwani healthy and Ward emerging, I expect more of a traditional lineup with better rebounding. Even if Wright plays as a 3rd guard at times, we know he is an excellent rebounder.

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Weakness last yr was perimeter shooting from everyone on team

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KJ and Fountain shot well. But obviously the new guys give us better shooting.

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Fountain shot well? What are you smoking.

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Fountain did shoot welL. He shouldn’t be the primary scorer, but he shoots well enough to contribute.
He shot 54.7 from 2

He shot 34.8 from 3

He shot 77.9 from the FT line.

He had a eFG% of 57.2%. Any eFG% over 50% is good. That’s better than KJ, who has about a 55% eFG.

I expect that Fountain will primarily shoot 2 pointers next year, because so far we have at least 4 better 3 point shooters in Mwani, Baker, Cook and Stewart. Fountain needs to go get rebounds.

Wanna say he shot around 38% from 3 his freshman year

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Weakness last yr was perimeter shooting from everyone on team

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While not great, the 3 point shooting by LSU was much better than the shooting inside the arc. LSU missed a ton of shots at the rim last year. In fact, they were last in the SEC in 2 point FG% (in conference games) and 335th overall. Compare that with the 3 point shooting which was 10th in the SEC.

LSU has a lot to improve upon next season and while 3 point shooting is on that list, it's not the #1 thing that led to last year's horrible season.

The other side of that was that we were I believe second or third in the SEC in shots in the paint but were dead last in making those shots. Just found it interesting.

Stats are deceptive, because Adam Miller was shooting the most 3 pointers by far, and his percentage was bad at 31.6%. Teams didn't have to go out to guard him. The only reason our percentage wasn't atrocious is because KJ was about a 41% shooter. However, when KJ was outside, we had very little size inside. With multiple good shooting guards, we should be able to rebound and get easier shots in the paint. I know Baker will step out to shoot like KJ, but he can take our 4th most outside shots, rather than our 2nd most. If our guards shoot better, it will pull the defense out, so we should get easier shots in the paint.

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Stats are deceptive, because Adam Miller was shooting the most 3 pointers by far, and his percentage was bad at 31.6%. Teams didn't have to go out to guard him.

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Teams guarded him a lot out there. That's a big reason is % was so low. He took a ton of "bad" 3 pointers. Coming from the post and curing off a screen to shoot a contested 3 is not an easy shot. Yet, Miller took a lot of those along with several well beyond the arc. I'm not saying Miller is Steph Curry. But his shot selection was big reason for his struggles. Contrast that with KJ who rarely took a "bad" 3. The number one goal of offensive execution is getting good shots. LSU didn't get nearly enough of them. Even "good" shooters look like "bad" shooters if they are constantly taking tough or contested shots.

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With multiple good shooting guards,

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I think (hope) the biggest change is you are going to see guys who are better at creating their own shot and not having to be reliant on the offense to free them up. LSU's player and ball movement were terrible last season. Perhaps that is because McMahon was too reliant on guys to create on their own that could not do so consistently.

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I think (hope) the biggest change is you are going to see guys who are better at creating their own shot and not having to be reliant on the offense to free them up. LSU's player and ball movement were terrible last season. Perhaps that is because McMahon was too reliant on guys to create on their own that could not do so consistently.

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The biggest issue I saw, before I gave up on them and stopped watching, was that the point guard play was so atrocious it simply canceled their ability to get open shots. Somebody would be open, the ball didn't get to them.

You would think Cook would fix that. You'd think Stewart would also help to fix that. If we finish with Girard, he can help as well.

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If we finish with Girard, he can help as well.

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Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
Syracuse transfer Joe Girard tells me that he will visit Clemson this weekend.
10:05 AM · Apr 20, 2023

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That doesn't seem ideal. But it's also not terribly unexpected with the addition of Stewart. Cook, Stewart, and Girard were all starters on their previous teams. Cook and Girard were multi-year starters. I doubt ANY of them will want to got to a place to simply be a 6th man or role player. They want to start. With Cook and Stewart already on board, he may feel the backcourt is now crowded and he wants to look at places where there isn't as much congestion.

That is one of the downsides of the transfer market. Everyone wants to get the best players. But many times those best players don't want to go somewhere that will come with a reduced role. There are not a lot of Tari Eason's out there who were 6th men at one school and ok with taking that same role at another.