re: LSU vs MVSU 110-45 final LSU wins in a nail biter. Carter surpasses 1000 career point

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Florida played Stetson today. Several SEC schools played/will be playing SWAC/MEAC level teams in their final non-come game. LSU is not alone here. In fact, it’s more of the norm.

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I get that, and there's nothing wrong with it for that last game before SEC starts.
Problem we have is we did it 3 times in a row. We will have gone 2 weeks without playing a game basically before SEC starts, b/c those last 3 games did nothing to help the team get better. They'd be better off practicing each other than playing those games. And the attendance at the games was pathetic, which isn't surprising b/c who the hell wants to go watch a beat down against a bunch of scrubs.


6 of our 13 games were against opponents who could lose to high school teams. I'm not saying every game needs to be against a quality oppoenent, but you can't play half of your games against an opponent who is so woefully beneath you, you beat them by 30+, and its even more pathetic when you don't beat them by 30+.


Instead of ULM (348), play Troy (118)
Instead of Alabama State (266), play South Alabama (130)
Instead of Charleston Southern (282), play College of Charleston (126)
Instead of Northwestern State (211), play McNeese (89) although I'm sure they are scared of playing Will Wade.
Instead of Stetson (358), play Jacksonville State (140)
Instead of UNO (331) for your second to last game before conference play, go play on the road against a quality opponent, like Wichita State (107), or even La Tech (94)
Then come back home and play your last game against a cupcake team, but instead of Ms Valley State (364), play Southern (224)




Wade had us playing a schedule more like that. You would look at our schedule with Wade and say, "why are we playing ETSU and Liberty and College of Charleston" Oh b/c they are ranked 36, 67, 74 in the NET

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Problem we have is we did it 3 times in a row. We will have gone 2 weeks without playing a game basically before SEC starts, b/c those last 3 games did nothing to help the team get better. They'd be better off practicing each other than playing those games. And the attendance at the games was pathetic, which isn't surprising b/c who the hell wants to go watch a beat down against a bunch of scrubs.

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Stetson was an NCAA Tournament team last year. I'm assuming McMahon (nor anyone else) thought they would be THIS bad this season. The scheduling before and after Christmas can be a bit tricky. Coaches are going to give the players off a few days for Christmas to go home. Thus, I think there is probably some concern as to where their heads may be both before and right after the break. I'm not saying a coach should never schedule a quality opponent before/after Christmas. I just understand why a coach may be hesitant to do so. As far as if the games made the team better, I'm not in a position to say it did or did not. I'm a big believer that confidence is one of the best performance enhancing "drugs". If the games gave players confidence and allowed them to get more accustomed to playing together then it's hard to say the games had NO impact. Yes, they were very weak opponents. But LSU did to weak opponents what good teams should do...completely dominate them (except for the first half vs. UNO). Yesterday Georgia had to scramble to make up a huge deficit vs. S.C. State (MEAC team) to eek out a close win (although SC State is much better than MVSU).

I'll agree, overall, McMahon's non-conf. schedules haven't been great. He's been reliant on playing too many regional mid-major opponents rather than expanding the range to play team from other areas of the country. He was also a little bit unlucky this year with K-State, FSU, and UCF struggling a bit more than expected. But I will say this about the concerns with end-of-OOC scheduling. McMahon hasn't done a lot of things great at LSU, but one thing he has done pretty well is have his team ready to go to start SEC play. Over the past two seasons he is 3-1 in the first week of SEC play. That includes a win over a (then) top 10 Arkansas team and a dominant road win over an A&M team last year that made the NCAAT. The only loss was a close loss at Rupp Arena where LSU was very much in the game from beginning to end.

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Valley has played an insane schedule

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Thus is the reality of being a SWAC team. In addition to playing a brutal non-conf. schedule, just about every game for the first two months of the season is on the road. And they aren't taking chartered flights and staying in nice hotels. They are traveling all over the country and, in most cases, getting blown out. The only home games they get in the first two months is if they can schedule a non D-1 school. You essentially spend the first two months of every season getting your arse kicked just so you can have enough money to even have a team.

If you look at the top 20 of the KenPom SOS ratings is it littered with SWAC teams: Florida A&M (1), MVSU (2), Jackson St (4), Alcorn St (6), Texas So (9), Southern (12), Prairie View (13), Grambling (20)

We have to get to a point where we provide value to good teams scheduling us. Right now we provide no upside so good teams don’t want us. If we beat them it looks bad, if they beat us it doesn’t help them much. We need to have a strong season to start getting good teams to want to schedule us moving forward.