LSU Depth

We do have nice depth, but it’s not too nice, if that makes sense. Obviously, it was a personal, family, community, and team tragedy to have Wayde Sims murdered right before the season. It sounded like he had put in a lot of work and was poised to have a very nice basketball season, besides all the other infinite things his friends, family, and teammates will miss. Also, he would have been the only other 3rd-year-guy besides Skyler who had been with the program since Wade got here. You need guys like that to win championships, no matter their role.

It was also a basketball bummer that Edwards left. We could really have used his 3-point shooting(from last year) and overall competitiveness. I remember Wade said something last year about that and how Edwards was just a winner. Whether it was a game of HORSE, a scrimmage, or any other kind of intra-squad competition, Edwards’ teams always found a way to win. He had a rough start to this season, but I think most of it was due to his injury, which basically ended his season in Baton Rouge.

Make no mistake, I don’t think we are better without either Wayde Sims or Daryl Edwards. At all. But I wonder how long it would have taken Will Wade to figure out lineups, roles, substitutions, etc...if we actually went 10 deep without much drop off. It took him a little while—early in the season anyway—with just Edwards, which probably contributed to our early losses. Please understand, I am in no way saying losing those 2 was any sort of blessing in disguise—especially Wayde, obviously. And I know Will Wade would have eventually figured it out.

And not that it matters anyway, but I wonder how this team would look with those 2 guys. Would it have taken a little longer to figure out our best rotations and maybe we would have lost a couple more early on before it finally clicked? Would we be better now or is it just too hard to play 10 guys in 40 minutes and Will would have wound up settling on a 7-8 man rotation anyway? Would Smart have played less? Would Days have redshirted? Again, not that it matters, and it’s a luxury we’d all obviously have rather had, I just wonder what the team would look like today with Sims and Edwards still here.

Gotta stay out of foul trouble in the tournament.

I think we'd be 27-2 with Wayde. That experience would have helped tremendously near the end of close games like FSU and Houston early in the season. Not to mention the psychological toll that situation may have taken on this young team.