re: LSU 84 @ Ole Miss 73 Final

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Poa is actually our best PG. She does not score much but she defends, draws the charge and does not turn the ball over.

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She's a black hole offensively. Today she has 3 turnovers, 3 fouls, (all blocking fouls trying to draw charges, but has also drawn a couple successfully), and has almost no ability to score the ball. Can't fault her effort or energy on defense though, that's for sure.

LSU has plenty of scoring with Reese, Williams, Johnson, Morrow, and Van Lith. Every one of those could be 20-30 points per night players if they were on a team that didn't have 5 go-to scorers. Morrow had a pretty bad game and Van Lith turned it over a ton against the size and length of Ole Miss...She did show some of her scoring we all saw in the tournament last year when she had to just create something out of nothing. That's where she really excels. Two players having subpar days offensively and we are still scoring 80+. They continue shoot over 50% from 3 and they'll be tough to stop. In my worthless opinion, Flaujae and Mikaylah are the keys to the offense. They both have the ability to drive to the basket and finish, as well as shoot the ball. They have a complete offensive game. They both forced quite a few turnovers and got us going in transition as well. When they're going, LSU is tough to stop even if one of two of the other starters are having bad days.

The only thing that will eventually catch up to this team is lack of depth. Get caught in foul trouble like they did today against a team that's a little big better and they can get in a bind quickly. Tons of talent at the top...not much depth. Would be nice to see Bartlett, Velez, or Kent prove that they can give some meaningful minutes when we get in a bind. We are down to just 11 players on the roster at this point. 5 starters, Poa, Del Rosario are the only players to play the 2 SEC games so far. Losing Samyah Smith killed our depth with the post player rotation as Del Rosario clearly isn't quite ready to play at this level. Who knows what all was really going on with Kateri Poole, but she was the other guard we had off the bench we could trust.

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Who knows what all was really going on with Kateri Poole, but she was the other guard we had off the bench we could trust.

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You are correct that we don't know what happened, but it appears Poole did not want to come off the bench.

KVL's problem is not her size, there plenty examples of great under sized point guards (we have one coaching our team). She just does not know the position yet. PG is a lot about feel.

Our starting 5 looked gassed at times. We really only have Poa with experience from the bench (for defensive purposes). If you take out Van Lith, you take out scoring. Rosario just stands there, slow feet, will take time to catch up to college games where everyone is bigger and faster. Playing 5 almost the entire game may catch up with us eventually. SEC schedule is long and brutal. Strength and conditioning is going to be important the rest of the year.
I am baffled about Bartlett. She has been at LSU for 3 years and top 50 star recruit out of HS. She will not be a starter, has not worked her way to at least being the top 1-2 off the bench. Does anyone have any idea what is going on with her? Is she really not that good? What is her story? I was hoping this year would be her year to step up.

Exactly because POA is the true PG we need for THIS line up. I'm not saying POA is better than HVL talent wise but she's the better fit for THIS lineup as she looks to run the offense and dictate the pass and get everyone else involved.
And most importantly she isn't a liability on defense! Teams are scheming to attack HVL on the defensive side now. They're running plays to post her or clear her to one side in iso situations. Colorado did it, VT did it, and OM just did it.

Kim is gonna have to use her scholarships moving forward, she left 3 wide open for this year that maybe could have gone to another transfer or two to aid the bench depth. Smith injury put a wrench into things, and while Poole wasn't great that is experienced Depth and another ball handler that LSU lacks right now.

The starting 5 can compete with anyone, but they are human and will get tired at times playing so hard and long.

Gotcha. I agree with you. I don't think it'd her size. I think they said that because teams are starting to go at her and post her up.

Today was the first time I saw HVL hunt her shots this year and it was good for LSU's offense because her offense is key to a post season run.

The reality is she just isn't a natural ball handler despite how hard she and Mulkey work on it but if she can get going offensively as well that is going to be a big boost for this team as we progress through the season. At times when the offense stalled today she was able to generate her own shot which was nice to see.

The team collective has to work on the press and clean up the D (mostly the transition D). I didn't think the refs were all that great and contributed to all of that chaos

Didn’t HVL want to learn the PG position?

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I didn't think the refs were all that great and contributed to all of that chaos

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Officials knew the game was on national TV, Mulkey in town so a lot of eyeballs, and they wanted to be sure and insert themselves and make themselves part of the game.