Marreon Jackson

Deep three's

He released a final four choices and LSU wasn't on it.

I was told it isn't over.

We'll see.

Wade is also in the final four for Myreon Jones, who would be a perfectly good get as well.

But can he play d?

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But can he play d?

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While some are obviously better than others, ALL players can defend if it is a point of emphasis for the coaching staff. Loyola-Chi., Tennessee, Wisconsin, Rutgers, St. Bonaventure, Ole Miss were ALL top 25 defensive teams. Does anyone think those teams had markedly better athletes than LSU?

It is one thing to be a better offensive team than defensive team. It's quite another to be absolutely horrible defensively. Which LSU has been under Wade. You have to get to #70 in the KenPom rankings before you find a team (Davidson) who is worse defensively than LSU was this past season. And that was an IMPROVEMENT from last season!

This isn't a "fire Wade" post, but recognition that his LSU teams (while very good) are probably leaving a lot of meat on the bone simply because they don't defend. LSU scored the 3rd highest point total all season against a really good defensive team in Michigan...and still lost by 8 because they allowed Michigan to shoot 54% from the field and 40% from three. The best overall FG% Michigan had shot in the year 2021!

Point being, it doesn't matter who they sign. If there isn't a TRUE emphasis on defense (as opposed to just empty talk) it won't matter.

What’s crazy is when Wade got here defense was a big emphasis. I remember him talking about how he was reteaching the team everything about defense, even to the extent of their feet angle when they are guarding someone. They also used to spend time during practice diving at loose balls so he can teach them the proper way to do that. Now we don’t play defense and we just watch the other team dive for the ball.

I’m not sure if he just lost interest in that or what, but it doesn’t make sense for use to be so bad. You aren’t just a shot blocker away from being a good defensive team when your numbers look like that.

why is wade in love with low percentage shooters

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I think a lot of it is the past three years the team has been predicated on having star-quality players like Waters, Reid, Smart, Emmitt Williams, Watford and Thomas.

And none of those guys were very good defensive players. They were scorers, and they had scorer mentalities.

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FWIW, I think Waters was named the DPOY in his 2nd year. That said, almost all big recruits come in the with "scorer's mentalities" because they usually were one of the best players on their HS teams. It is also one thing to be a better offensive player than defensive. But it is quite another to be not just average, but downright bad defensively as a team. When it occurs over the course of 4 years, with multiple different rosters, it's not just a collection of bad defensive players. It is a system/philosophy deficiency. We're not talking about a team that was just outside the top 40 in defense. We are talking about a team that was outside the top 100 defensively. I don't care how much of a "scorer's mentality" players have. If defense is an emphasis of the program even those guys should be better than 123!! Which, admittedly, was better than the 170+ rating they had the year before. I don't think anyone, myself included, is thinking LSU should be a top 10 defensive team. But I don't think it is too much ask that they be significantly better than 123!

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The past two recruiting classes he's emphasized long, quick athletes who aren't scorers so much as they're - at least theoretically - defensive players.

We'll see if that translates into a different-looking team next year. My guess is that it will.

It needs to, because unless some of these kids completely break out the way Ronald Dupree and Tim Quarterman did in their 2nd years in the program, points aren't going to come in bunches like they have the past few years.

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One would think and hope that was the case, but regardless of players LSU has done just some awful fundamental things on defense. They were awful in transition last season because they either (a) didn't get back with any effort and/or (b) where confused as to who to pick up in transition. Watford would spend 75% of the defensive possession pointing out guys for OTHER people to guard...without actually guarding anyone himself. Thomas just didn't defend and Wade didn't seem to care. The 1-3-1 "press" was a disaster because it almost always led to a wide open shot with minimal effort. And many times they would have the post seemingly guarded pretty well, only to have someone unnecessarily coming off the ball to double-team to try to force a steal. In the process they would leave a guy wide open when they had the play defensed well.

I think it all comes down to the fact that Wade overvalues deflections and steals, and how those occur. Teams like Texas Tech and (in the NCAAT) UCLA get those deflections. But it is more of a byproduct of their overall defense. With LSU it seems like they are selling out for deflections at the expense of everything else. Whatever the reason, the philosophy CLEARLY isn't working.

20% over smart should seal it

Let's face it, though, Waters' prowess on defense came from him doing a great job playing the passing lanes and grabbing loose balls.

As an on-ball defender, he really wasn't all that great.

As for the rest of those star-quality guys, none of them were obtainers of loose balls with much regularity.

It's going to be interesting to see what a team which has to rely on hustle and attitude rather than the ability to score on their man with alacrity, will do for Wade. I think it'll look a lot like his VCU teams which were pretty damn good.