re: LSU Men’s Basketball...What is their outlook this season?

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The first quote is exactly what I’m talking about.

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Look. I get it. It is a difficult concept for some to understand that two opposing views can both be accurate. A team can be really individually athletic...but be a poor defensive team. You can have guys that are good scoring at the rim...but be poor outside shooters. You can have a really athletic group of individual players...but not be a good basketball team. One can think something may be good but have concerns it may not be as good as you hope.

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Based off two games here and how he’s played in the past it is very clear that Jordan Sears will be our go to guy this year

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I would say Carter is probably the guy they will turn to when they have to have a play. Just like Wright became last season and KJ Williams was the season prior. Carter was, to some extent, that guy last year at Kansas St and while the volume numbers were fine, the efficiency wasn't. Adam Miller was LSU's second leading scorer in 22-23, but (and here's one of those occasions where two things can be true) was horribly inefficient. Thus far Carter has been really good and incredibly efficient (100% from the FT line; 62% from 3). Hopefully that will continue because every team needs a guy they feel good about turning to when they need a play.

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The 3s haven’t gone in so far but he’s proven to be a good 3 point shooter.

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He was last season...at a lower level of competition. College basketball history is littered with guys who moved from mid-major programs to major programs and struggled with the jump in competition/athleticism. For every Mark Sears (Alabama) there are probably 5 Justice Hill's who couldn't consistently compete athletically at the higher level.

Jordan Sears showed in the past he CAN shoot the 3 well. But that was at UT Martin. It's still unknown if he can do it consistently vs. major conf. competition. I agree that two games is not a large enough sample size to draw any definitive conclusions one way or the other. But I'm not ready to say he is or is not going to consistently deliver at LSU based solely upon past production in the Big South and OVC conferences...which I think is reasonable.

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That’s the offense I was trying to tell you about that they were calling Zoom at BYU. It’s all based off the initial zoom action but he’s added some options to it and he goes 5 or 4 out with it. Duke couldn’t defend it in the second half, their bigs kept getting wide open on straight line cuts to the basket.

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Yep. He basically uses a multiple of actions to get into 5 out with the 5 with the ball at the top of the key. Then they go into zoom or staggers away and it's all read based. 5 out into zoom or staggers can result in like 50 different options. What killed Duke was the slips on the down screens bc Duke tried to switch them to avoid having to fight all the way through the DHO on zoom or the 2nd screen on staggers. It was a masterclass by Kentucky.

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It’s beautiful, hate to say that because it’s Kentucky but it just is.

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When it is working it a great offense to watch. I guess the question is how consistent can it work at Kentucky relative to their ridiculously high expectations. BYU has a different type of player than Kentucky in the sense there is less volatility in the roster because of the nature of the school. Relative to the rest of college basketball you don't have a ton of guys leave or come in because of the Morman centric aspect of the school (the strict lifestyle required of the students is not overly appealing to non-Mormons)

The knock on Pope is not that he doesn't know the game. It's that he hasn't been able to win in the postseason. Style of play is one thing. But you still have to have the athletes to compete every night out in the SEC. Can he continue to get those guys? (We know UK will pay top dollar)

We'll see. The SEC has some really good coaches who are good at adjusting and "good" at Kentucky isn't everyone else's "good". Pope knows that as as much as anyone, but that is a hard standard to meet.

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We'll see. The SEC has some really good coaches who are good at adjusting and "good" at Kentucky isn't everyone else's "good". Pope knows that as as much as anyone, but that is a hard standard to meet.

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I agree that the standard there is almost impossible to live up to. Kinda like LSU football. The last 2 coaches we fired won national championships. The offense Pope runs isn't novel or unknown. Coaches know how to guard it. The beauty of great offense is that it has answers for problems the defense can cause. That offense has answers for anything the defense throws at them if they can read and execute it. Much easier said than done though.

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I know you relate to the baseball team a lot better because the demographic makeup of the roster is 145% Caucasian,

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Actually, I relate to the baseball team a lot better because the product sucks a whole lot less than basketball does.

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contact Will Wade to play

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McNeese would beat LSU, Wade is superior to McMahon, so go sit back down, idiot.

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but I can't realistically see a higher ceiling than that with this roster and coach.

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What about this coach?