re: Level headed thoughts about basketball team.

They started slow on several games this year. It had to catch up to them evidentially. But they will still put in
a good year and it will be fun to watch.

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he looked ok, but doubt he's savior.

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It’s just nice to have another guard. Only having 3 is not ideal.

Wilkinson 31 min 5 pts 2/3 (1/1) 4 Reb 3 Fouls 1 Turnover
He's never going to give you huge numbers offensively. He's out there for defense. He doesn't hurt you offensively, he doesn't turn the ball over and doesn't jack up bad shots.

Days 34 min 11 pts 4/14 (3/12) 2 Reb 2 Fouls 0 Turnovers
We got bad Days again tonight. Missing 3s badly and just kept throwing them up there. He didn't help us rebound enough either...Especially with Reid in foul trouble and off the court, he's gotta be more present there.

Reid 19 min 2 pts 1/7 (0/0) 2 Reb 4 Fouls 0 Turnovers
Nonexistent. Big white boy absolutely dominated him on both ends of the court. Reid is nowhere near skilled enough yet...he finally ran into somebody who could defend the post a little bit, his little hook wasn't working, and he has no backup options.

Gaines 30 min 6 pts 1/9 (1/7) 5 Reb 0 Fouls 5 Turnovers
We got really bad Gaines tonight as well...Turning the ball over a ton, jacking up 7 3s even though he apparently had missed 22 in a row prior to making his last one...that's terrible.

Pinson 24 min 13 pts 3/11 (0/4) 4 Reb 5 Fouls 6 Turnovers
Had some bad fouls early that got him in trouble and off the court. Turned the ball over way too much for the starting point guard. Early in the game, he was throwing up tons of 3s...when he started attacking in the second half he was very effective.

Fudge 12 min 0 pts 0/1 (0/1) 2 Reb 2 Fouls 2 Turnovers
Nonexistent. Gave us nothing.

Eason 26 min 11 pts 5/12 (0/2) 7 Reb 5 Fouls 2 Turnovers
Not his best night, but he was working hard. Picked up most of his fouls late in desperation time. He was getting mugged and wasn't getting many calls.

Williams 24 min 7 pts 2/6 (1/2) 3 Reb 0 Fouls 1 Turnover
Pleasant surprise. Looked pretty calm for a young guard making his season debut.

Totals 55 pts 18/63 (6/29) 37 Reb 21 Fouls 17 Turnovers


Shooting 28% from the floor is completely unacceptable for a big time team with hopes of making a deep run. You will not win many games that way. 21% from 3 and just continuing to fire them at will early in the shot clock...not good enough. 17 Turnovers is way too much, not to mention that they blocked 12 shots...those 12 shots don't count as missed shots or as turnovers I believe, so that would make our shooting percentage or turnovers much higher, one way or another. Empty possessions. Defensively, played hard, slowed them down in spurts, but had too many bad, cheap fouls. Gave them 26 FTs. Some of those were on soft, iffy calls, but a lot of them were very obvious and bad decisions, hacking away instead of being in position.

Auburn out shot us, our rebounded us, had more steals, more blocks, scored on assists more, and had less fouls. They only stat we won was the turnover battle 17-21.

1. It is not the end of the season. A loss here was expected, though LSU being thoroughly out-executed was tough to watch.

2. In part, this is on Wade. LSU was shell-shocked early with the atmosphere and and huge step up in talent. I know Wade is big into the analytics and I have defended him vigorously with his scheduling. But the fact LSU didn’t play a single road game nor a team even remotely close to SEC talent really left them woefully unprepared for tonight, and it showed.

3. The effort was there. The defense (mostly) was there. But this team is only going to go as far as their guard play takes them. I know Murray was out, but he wouldn’t have made THAT much of a difference. This is the weakest group of guards Wade has had LSU. They MUST get better…soon.

The good news is that may be the toughest game LSU plays all year. I thought before the game Auburn was the best team in the league and they didn’t nothing tonight to disprove that. Now LSU has experienced facing a really good team. They’ve experienced a tough road atmosphere. They’ve experienced getting their arse kicked. Now they have to bounce back with two at home

If they eliminate the turnovers on fast breaks they'd get easier shots is my theory


Thus upping their fg%

Days has become strictly a 3 point shooter this season. He’s always been a good shooter but not sure why he has shrunk his game so much

Days is a decent spot up shooter and could benefit a lot from the screen game but WW's offense isn't predicated on creating "open" shots for guys.

I agree with all of this and that the world won't end. Defensively I think we still showed we are legit there, gotta find a way to generate offense. Kessler really stifled us and we won't see his like again as far as a disruptive shot blocker.

The one thing I thought separated the game was second chance points. Don't know what the final stat was but seemed like they crushed us there. Several good defensive stands where we let them outfight us for boards and score after that.

They didn't quit, which is always a good thing. Still will win a lot of games, just not elite yet.

Still an improved team over last year.