re: LSU moves up from 61 to 54 in NET after Miss. Valley St win

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When was I crying, you weirdo?

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I don't know. Maybe you can point out my "victory lap"?

I was making fun of the crybabies who were melting over playing bad teams over the holiday break and you jumped in to defend them.

First 2 conference games are huge.

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Without Ward or Reed it's going to be extremely difficult. This is the best the SEC has ever been more than likely and I wouldnt call this one of our best teams in the last decade or so. Probably just behind the 3 Wade teams that made the tourney (and in much easier SECs).

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Ward hasn't been on the team all season. While I was disappointed to see him go too, the reality is the combined effort of Bailey/Miller probably give you more OVERALL than what Ward gave you. Yes, he was a far better catch and shoot 3 point shooter than either of those guys. But that was pretty much it. Miller/Bailey give you much more from a defensive, rebounding and versatility standpoint. Fans always focus on offense in basketball. In reality, LSU has been WORSE on defense in McMahon's two years than offense. At minimum, I think the contribution you are seeing from Miller/Bailey offsets the loss of Ward.

Reed was a loss because LSU doesn't have another frontcourt player with as good of an offensive skillset. That hurts a team who was already shaky in halfcourt offense. But I think some are over-exaggerating the impact of his loss. LSU is a better defensive team with Chest/Collins in the frontcourt. They are currently top 30 in the nation in block %. While he was a skilled offensive player around the rim, he was not a great rebounder for his size and his scoring/effort was always inconsistent. Even this year. The unfortunately thing was after a great performance in the Greenbrier tournament there was hope that consistency was finally starting to occur. However, there was zero certainty that would continue. By NO MEANS is it a good thing to have him out. But I'm not sure I agree with some that seem to suggest it took this team from a surefire NCAAT team to one that can't compete. In other words, if LSU struggles in SEC play it won't be simply because they are without Reed. It will be MANY other reasons beyond just that.

The loss of Reed doesn't mean LSU is "done" with no chance to recover. It just means they have to adjust and play differently. IMO, that difference is playing "faster". Use the athleticism of Chest/Collins to your advantage. Apply backcourt pressure to speed up the opponent. Make it an up-and-down game. Asking Chest/Collins to consistently execute in the halfcourt in a similar role as Reed is not going to work. They don't have his skill set. Be in attack mode. Let guys try to force TOs. Let Chest/Collins play aggressive at the rim from the backside. Hell, just get the ball on the rim and let both attack the offensive glass. One of my biggest criticisms of McMahon is he is often reluctant to change his approach. Rarely do you see him try to change defenses in a game. Rarely do you see him try to speed up the tempo by extending his defense when an opponent looks comfortable in the halfcourt. It's almost an attitude of "this is how we play. If it works and we win, great! If not, oh well, we'll try again next game."

Matt McMahon is a scheduling GENIUS

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Ward hasn't been on the team all season. While I was disappointed to see him go too, the reality is the combined effort of Bailey/Miller probably give you more OVERALL than what Ward gave you. Yes, he was a far better catch and shoot 3 point shooter than either of those guys. But that was pretty much it. Miller/Bailey give you much more from a defensive, rebounding and versatility standpoint. Fans always focus on offense in basketball. In reality, LSU has been WORSE on defense in McMahon's two years than offense. At minimum, I think the contribution you are seeing from Miller/Bailey offsets the loss of Ward.

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Except the problem here is we're still a better team with Ward than without entirely. Even if his role got reduced some, he is a 3 point sniper on a team only shooting 32.6% from 3 after playing a lot of cupcakes too. So that would be a net add to this team even if his role was to come in off the bench even and hit a few 3's at a high rate every game. He was a bit of a momentum guy last year and when he got going, the whole offense got going too. He can hit over 40% from 3 and thats still a huge asset to have. You can say Vyc Miller kind of has that role to some degree, but he isnt shooting it that well from 3. Ward is still a definite loss to this team without any doubt.

As far as the first 2 years under McMahon, we actually have been very balanced from a offense/defense point of view overall. kenpom has the offense at 152nd in year 1 while the defense was 176th. Last year the offense ranked 99th and the defense ranked 99th exactly too. So neither the offense or defense has been better than one another really in either of his years prior to this one.

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Reed was a loss because LSU doesn't have another frontcourt player with as good of an offensive skillset. That hurts a team who was already shaky in halfcourt offense. But I think some are over-exaggerating the impact of his loss. LSU is a better defensive team with Chest/Collins in the frontcourt. They are currently top 30 in the nation in block %. While he was a skilled offensive player around the rim, he was not a great rebounder for his size and his scoring/effort was always inconsistent. Even this year. The unfortunately thing was after a great performance in the Greenbrier tournament there was hope that consistency was finally starting to occur. However, there was zero certainty that would continue. By NO MEANS is it a good thing to have him out. But I'm not sure I agree with some that seem to suggest it took this team from a surefire NCAAT team to one that can't compete. In other words, if LSU struggles in SEC play it won't be simply because they are without Reed. It will be MANY other reasons beyond just that.

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Reed is a pretty big loss from the point of he was the only big bodied guy we really had in the front court who can give us those tough physical minutes consistently (offensively and defensively). Chest plays above his size for sure, but he's still not 6'10 245. Fountain has still barely been getting minutes for the most part even with Reed out and Robert Miller's time has reduced as the season has gone on. Collins is a very slender guy who plays above the rim, sure, but what happens if he starts having to deal with a 6'9-6'10 big physical SEC body moving forward? Thats the big question there. Chest can only do so much.

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The loss of Reed doesn't mean LSU is "done" with no chance to recover. It just means they have to adjust and play differently. IMO, that difference is playing "faster". Use the athleticism of Chest/Collins to your advantage. Apply backcourt pressure to speed up the opponent. Make it an up-and-down game. Asking Chest/Collins to consistently execute in the halfcourt in a similar role as Reed is not going to work. They don't have his skill set. Be in attack mode. Let guys try to force TOs. Let Chest/Collins play aggressive at the rim from the backside. Hell, just get the ball on the rim and let both attack the offensive glass. One of my biggest criticisms of McMahon is he is often reluctant to change his approach. Rarely do you see him try to change defenses in a game. Rarely do you see him try to speed up the tempo by extending his defense when an opponent looks comfortable in the halfcourt. It's almost an attitude of "this is how we play. If it works and we win, great! If not, oh well, we'll try again next game."

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I just dont see how this team can play without those 2 and make the tournament. The overall talent just doesnt seem there at this point relative to the rest of the league. If we were in previous year(s) SEC, sure, I could see this team maybe close to .500. This year's SEC? I mean we better not slip up much against the Vandy/Mizzous coming up is all I have to say. You're leaving them basically zero room for error and there's a lot of teams MUCH better than ours in the conference this year. Just the way the year is shaping up.

Ward is a huge loss. Most talented returned by far, he wasn’t just a spot up shooter though he was excellent at it and never turned the ball over, 24 TOs in 31 games last season, which is key for a team that has turnover issues.

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Except the problem here is we're still a better team with Ward than without entirely. Even if his role got reduced some

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Two months ago I would have 100% agreed with you. Now, I don't think so. Nothing happens in a vacuum. If Ward stays and starts is LSU as good defensively (probably not). Does he make LSU a better rebounding team (probably not). Does Miller emerge as quickly with Ward playing 25+ minutes? Again, probably not. It was a surprising blow when it was reported that he left the team. But 13 games in we probably see why. McMahon felt Bailey provided more overall, and Miller was going to be deserving of minutes. The added three point shooting would be welcomed...but I don't know if it would overcome the tradeoff to get it.

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As far as the first 2 years under McMahon, we actually have been very balanced from a offense/defense point of view overall. kenpom has the offense at 152nd in year 1 while the defense was 176th. Last year the offense ranked 99th and the defense ranked 99th exactly too. So neither the offense or defense has been better than one another really in either of his years prior to this one

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Yep. They have been balanced. Equally bad. But cumulatively the defense was worse. LSU has been a solid defensive team this year. That's allowed them to hang in games with, yet again, an inefficient offense. Ward was not a good defender. I'll take significantly improved defense over a couple more 3's per game.

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Reed is a pretty big loss from the point of he was the only big bodied guy we really had in the front court who can give us those tough physical minutes consistently (offensively and defensively). Chest plays above his size for sure, but he's still not 6'10 245. Fountain has still barely been getting minutes for the most part even with Reed out and Robert Miller's time has reduced as the season has gone on. Collins is a very slender guy who plays above the rim, sure, but what happens if he starts having to deal with a 6'9-6'10 big physical SEC body moving forward? Thats the big question there. Chest can only do so much.

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I never said Reed's loss wasn't impactful. It is. It's just that some seem to have waived the white flag because of it. He was a solid player capable of good games. He was potentially becoming a consistent player before the injury. But it wasn't like he was an All American that was carrying the team every night out. He still was equally as likely to completely disappear from a game as he was to go for 17/10.

I'm just tired of the constant excuses...legitimate or otherwise. Now it seems like some (perhaps not you in particular) have decided that this was a top 1/2 of the SEC team before Reed's injury (probably not true), but now may as well not even show up because they can't compete (also not true). Injuries happen. Personnel issues happen. If you are a good coach and good team you adapt. If you aren't, you say "woe is me. Maybe next year."

Well he’s a guard so he was handling the ball a good bit and after Cook quit he was our second option behind Wright. The game just wasn’t fast for him at all and pressure didn’t affect him. He was a 5* recruit so it stands to reason that certain aspects of the game were simple for him.

Right, I didn’t mean he was handling it as much as Hannibal but in our hand court sets Wright was option 1, he was 2 after Cook quit so he was touching the ball a lot. Another big reason he didn’t turn it over was that he didn’t waste dribbles. Some of our guards over dribble a lot, he didn’t. He was just a very high efficiency player and it sucks we don’t have him.

Appreciate the stats and observations on MBB, Alt26.

Personally, I do not see LSU winning 3 of our first 4. This team cannot afford to underperform in any category and expect to win most SEC games.

Do we play even a single team in the SEC where our talent is equal to or above our opponents'?