re: A Detailed Look at LSU with and without Xavier Pinson

Excellent post, tadelatt. It is not possible to overstate the importance of Pinson's minutes in our offense and in our player rotation.

Lmao. I didn't read all that, but considering how part of this board thinks he would completely turn us around, I'm guessing he would have been a unanimous 1st team all American...possibly player of the year.

you’re up there for worst poster on this board.

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PGs make the world go round. If you ain’t got one ur fricked.

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yes, PGs are very important, but don't coaches have a plan B -- in case their star PG gets in foul trouble, gets hurt, etc?

You can't just say we lost our PG, so now we're dead.

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And we saw what Auburn looked like without their starting PG this weekend.

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And yet the found a way to win. That’s what good teams do.

Meanwhile we’ve lost 6 of 7 including two games against two of the worst teams in the SEC.

Pinson or not, we have no business getting run out of the gym by Ole Miss and Vandy. That is unacceptable.

I think it is silly to think his loss hasn't had an impact on the team. But it is also silly to think him being out is the sole reason this team is in a tail spin and that his return (if he returns) would solve all of LSU's problems and transform them from a team currently playing their way out of the NCAAT to one that is a Final Four contender.

LSU offense was struggling before his injury. IIRC, it was in the 70's in terms of offensive efficiency (and trending downward). Turnovers were a big reason for that (still are) and Pinson was really struggling in that department. In the 3 SEC games alone he had 6 (Auburn), 4 (Kentucky) and 4 (Tennessee). He was operating at roughly a 1:1 Assist/turnover ratio prior to his injury. That's not great for your PG. In the first 3 games of SEC play he was shooting 27% from 3 (roughly 31% or so overall). Even at the time of his injury his offensive +/- (if you are into advanced stats) was the lowest since his freshman year at Missouri (though his defensive +/- was far and away the best in his career to that point)

The unfortunate thing is his injury came in the Tennessee game which was arguably LSU's best offensive game of the season. Was the team starting to click at that point? Or was it just an anomaly relative to the first 14 games of the season? Unfortunately, we can never know the answer to that.

So the bottom line is that while his loss was NO DOUBT a huge blow, it is hard for me to say that alone was the difference between LSU ultimately being a top 10 team vs a team not fighting to get back on track to make the NCAAT. This team was one that was probably overachieving a bit vs. relatively weak competition (Yes, the OOC schedule wasn't great...the current SOS ranking of 188 reflects that) that was due for a bit of a regression once SEC play started. Unfortunately, their PG was hurt which has aided in that regression probably being sharper that anyone would have hoped.

This LSU team has always been a solid, but very unbalanced team (just like they were the last two seasons, just with opposite strengths/weaknesses). However, their defense was so good they were able to win games even though the offense was struggling. The defense now has either been figured out or is simply falling apart...which has made them powerless vs. ANY team they play. They only had one avenue to success this season (before and after the Pinson injury), great defense. Now that avenue looks to be closed and you are seeing the results. That is not "negativity". It's just objective reality. The recent results are speaking for themselves

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Excellent post, tadelatt. It is not possible to overstate the importance of Pinson's minutes in our offense and in our player rotation.

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True, now explain why we are getting twenty plus points behind against below average SEC and Big 12 teams. That’s the biggest problem, our pour defense.

Pinson being out doesn’t completely explain our defensive woes.
Something else is going on and that’s what we need to fix.

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You can throw in all the stats you want, but Pinson is not a “floor general”. I love these stat heads that dig and dig hours to find something to fit their argument. Ok, I’ll play your little stat game. X has played 17 games this year. Let’s take a look at his stats vs SEC opponents. Games: 4 FG%: 37.9 3Pt%: 25% FT%: 66.7% Points: 8.8 Rebounds: 2.8 Assists: 3.8 Turnovers: 4.2 Yeah, keep lying to these people trying to convince them he’s a gamechanger.

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Just watch the game, Pinson is clearly a game changer, the team plays much different with him out there.

With Pinson on the floor at PG his teammates rely on his direction which allows them to play more freely and confident. So, not only has your starting PG been out but most of the starters are battling through their own injuries and game by game Wade is trying to manage minutes taking everything into consideration.

There’s people on this board who will never be a fan of Wade for reasons we can’t understand and asking them to put the last 3 weeks into perspective is a complete waste of time.

It’s been a rough 3 weeks for this team and most teams go through their own tough stretches like LSU is currently enduring. Sure Wade deserves some criticism for how it unfolded but the insanity calling for Wades firing is asinine. We also have to deal with all of the “Wade sucks at game day coaching & Wade is a terrible X’s And O’s coach” threads that litter the first 3 pages of this board.

Actually, no he's not.