re: LSU basketball exhibition game vs Louisiana College tonight...Tigers win 132-44

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coach also mentioned 2 broken noses happened in practice, one of which might be the reason Collins is in the mask. says practice is intense, guys fighting to win playing time.

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That was interesting. And at the same time...

132-44.

How many points did Van Lith score? (Yeah, I know it was the men playing)

We will have a good team next season if our guys stay . We have a great class coming in and the two frosh for this year are probably gonna be above average players. The sophomores are really high ceiling guys.

Next year will be the year to make some noise and you can probably add some good portal guys if this years team shows promise . As for this season , it will come down to how much the sophomores developed . They are our high ceiling guys along with the Kentucky transfer and the hope that the frehsmaen aren’t misses

If Cook is eligible, this team may be better than a lot of people think .

Box score

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Can we just agree that The Tigers may have the right team chemistry this year?

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WAAAY to early to draw such conclusions after a game against a woefully overmatched opponent. Let's just say it was a solid showing against an opponent LSU should have blown out of the gym. You're really encouraged by the play of Wright and Ward who seemed to pick up where they left off in the Bahamas games. A combined 9-14 from 3 is tremendous...regardless of the opponent. Also very encouraging was the lack of turnovers (11 total) in a game where LSU clearly had a lot of possessions. Even against weak competition last year LSU struggled with TOs early. That's a big reason (IMO) McMahon slowed down the tempo even though he's said he wants to play "fast". Mike Williams with 7 assists is nice to see as he will likely have to play a big role if Cook isn't eligible.

The only negatives where the first half FT shooting and the relatively lack of offensive rebounds for Baker, Reed and Collins (3 total). Granted, LSU only missed 18 FG attempts all game, so there wasn't a lot of opportunity. But you really want to see your bigs rebounding (which is one of my biggest concerns going into the season)

The schedule is a ramp up to the Charleston tournament where LSU will face A-10 favorite, Dayton, in the first game. That will be the first time we can really start to see what kind of team we might have.

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I hate the negativity surrounding the program bc our fans had unrealistic expectations in year one after losing the vast majority of your roster.

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I get what you are saying, but expectations last year were the lowest they had been in at least 6 years...and LSU fell WOEFULLY short of even those low expectations. There is a big difference between struggling with a new HC and largely new roster, and being the worst team in the league with the (tied) worst conference record in school history. McMahon significantly underachieved last year. So it is really hard to blame fans for being skeptical of he and his program at this point. He lost the benefit of the doubt and will have to earn it back.

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This is full rebuild.

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That is really becoming the nature of college basketball in general. Teams like Iowa St, Missouri, Kansas St. all had full rebuilds under new coaches too. Yet, they found a way to have success immediately. Because of the transfer rules and the ability for even just a few new players to completely change the trajectory of a team, it is unrealistic to think "rebuilds" should take years. Is that "unfair"? Maybe. But that's reality.

The flip side of that coin is that just because LSU had a terrible season last year it doesn't mean they can't have a MUCH better season this year because, by and large, this is a completely new roster.

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I'm hopeful to see improvement this year and be back to the tournament in year 3.

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Improvement isn't necessarily linear now because teams generally having to flip their rosters from year to year. It is entirely likely LSU will have 7-8 new players next season. Again, that is just the nature of the sport right now. So to expect this team to improve this season then carry it over to the next may be a bit unrealistic because many of the players on the team now may not be here next season.

McMahon looked overwhelmed last year in his first experience coaching in a major conference. The hope is that he learned a lot of lessons getting his nose bloodied game after game last year, and now he is much more prepared to take on the challenge this year.

Starting to think we should see a starting lineup of Stewart/Ward/Wright/Reed/Baker


Worried about rebounding in the SEC, Baker is going to be a solid big but I don't think he is much of a rebounder, hopefully Wright and Mwani who I think are both good rebounders out of that 3 position should be able to help.


Seeing them shoot 65% from 3 is encouraging, no matter what the offense should be able to get some open 3s, so hopefully we can make up some of the differences in this category.

Fact is LSU was close in lots of games last year and if they could simply hit some open 3's, they could have won 6 more games last year at minimum. I don't think they are that far from being a competitive team in the SEC and if we can just get consistent shooting/scoring this year they will be a better team by far.