re: I’m damn proud of this LSU basketball team……

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Plenty of basketball teams have won a lot of games with an 8 man rotation, you want 7 to 8 guys carrying the majority of the minutes

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Yeah, you want to narrow it down to something like by the end of the year. Maybe mid conference schedule. Or even at the beginning of the conference schedule if you have to. But OOC, you play a lot more guys. To preserve the legs of your top guys, but also those 7,8,9 guys typically aren’t figured out going into a season and they compete for last spots in the rotation, making them all better.

So we don’t have the benefit of that, of resting our main guys some and the sharpening of the back end of the rotation by competing and see who rises to the top. 6 available players is obviously not sustainable. But neither is 7 or 8 for an entire season. Thread poor dudes are going to be absolutely gassed come January and February. Maybe sooner.

Wade took a big gamble with this roster construction. Which is fine. I’d rather gamble on a team that could make the tourney and maybe win a couple of games if it all went right than cobble together some mediocre team whose ceiling was maybe getting to the NIT. But those guys took a gamble on Wade too, believing that they’d be on a team that could compete. Unfortunately for everybody, it looks like the gamble is not going to pay off. I just hope these guys who are busting their arse for 40 minutes for scrimmages don’t get burnt out when the Ls start coming and kind of check out mentally and physically. Which could be really easy to do. And what leverage does Wade have over them if start to develop bad attitudes? Not play them? He can’t. There’s no one else to play. I’m not suggesting they will do this, not attacking their character, which seems to be high after the past couple of games/scrimmages. But it would be human nature for young guys giving their everything to get a little frustrated by not seeing it pay off. This will likely be Will’s toughest season as a head coach. I’m anxious to see how he handles it. And excited as well. This could be one of the most memorable and fan embraced teams in recent LSU history. No matter what their record ends up being.

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To me, at least with this current iteration of the roster, this looks like a Wade team. LSU is shooting a high % from 2. They are getting to the FT line a lot. They are decent on the offensive glass. The TOs are fairly low. But the common negatives are there too. The defense is somewhat shaky. The defensive rebounding is awful. If those trends continue, but the FT shooting remains poor (which is unusual for a Wade team) then this group will have some issues with consistency.

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I'll start with saying the fatigue was clear. This team is going to get killed on the boards and in transition, especially late in games until the internationals get cleared.

Very impressed with Dent (even considering the FTs).

Ruzik is good, and is a complete players. Once Dessert is cleared and Ruzik can either rest his legs or play the 4, watch out.

Bashir can score a ton, but he brings nothing to the table defensively, and isn't athletic enough to penetrate. But let him spot up and take 3's and he can score a ton (if he's hot).

Ugochukwu is a solid on ball defender but is undersized.

Dioubate got banged up again and he struggled with rebounding against UCFs size. Definitely shows that he is undersized for a 4.

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Well they’re all 25 years old playing 18 year olds

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It would be easier if you just said you had no idea what you are talking about, rather than displaying such for the board to see.

First, no one on LSU's roster is 25. Second, every major college basketball roster now is largely comprised of several 4th and 5th year players.

This was UCF's starting lineup

Malone - SR
Bol - JR (22)
Johnson - 5th year SR (22)
Dean - RS senior (24)
Pacheco - SR (22)

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I swear some of you are just negative for no reason.

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They aren't negative for no reason. Just woefully ill-informed. That's kind of the general theme for basketball threads. You have a consistent handful that are informed coupled with random chime-ins who know very little about LSU basketball and essentially nothing about the landscape of college basketball as a whole.

Then again, I guess it shows you the power of the medial and laziness of the populace. The media would have everyone believe LSU is playing a roster of 25, 26, 27 year old pros while every other school is doing things the "right way" by running out starting lineups of 18, 19 year old Freshmen and Sophomores.

The big takeaway I had from last night is we have athletic guys who actually hustle and move the ball around. It’s far from perfect right now, but it was very encouraging seeing that effort last night.

UCF is traditionally as solid team and will probably be one of those teams that hangs around the bubble all year and our 6 guys beat them. Once Dessert and Niang are cleared, this team will be very good.

We have not had a player like Ruzic in a ling time. Hopefully we can keep him here for a while.

iaboute had 7 rebounds so I wouldn't say he struggled with the size. He did miss a lot at the goal last night but he was grabbing at his thigh for a portion of the night. If he can do that while battling an injury or cramps then he will be fine. Also hit his FT's at the end of the game including hitting a big putback. Can only imagine these guys get better with Niang, Dessert and Sky getting eligible and being able to get some rotation and get these guys some rest during the game.

Only complaint or question I have right now about Ruzic is his screens. Will Wade praised him afterward but during the game I noticed his screens a lot of the time seemed kind of weak. He was in the right position but almost looked like he was scared to touch the guy. Or hesitant at least. This may be because they were concerned about him getting into foul trouble with no real backup, or could be a result of euro league being less physical. I'll trust coach wade but other than that he looked outstanding

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Well they’re all 25 years old playing 18 year olds

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Basketball conditioning is the toughest of the big three sports, by far.

Wouldn’t it be easier to play a full game if they were all 18 ?

Ruzic is 19.
Like wtf are you an LSU fan?

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Dessert and Niang should be ready by next game no? I saw they were added to the roster (not on the website yet).

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That’s the word right now, yes.

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Well they’re all 25 years old playing 18 year olds.

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Ah yes, I see the retards couldn’t help themselves.