Matt McMahon considers whether teams have ‘figured out’ LSU

There is room for improvement and I do think McMahon will figure some things out offensively. But we need to get players like Wilkinson and Hayes healthy so they can contribute as well.

Both can knock down shots. Wilkinson is a very good 3 point shooter and can defend at a high level which this team needs help defensively and rebounding on both ends of the floor. Obviously Cam Hayes is a streaky shooter who can create his own shot or take it to the lane. Both those players need to get back on the floor.

Agree on all fronts.

That’s a fine piece of journalism with a typo in the opening statement.

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It has not been an idea start to conference play for LSU.

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Tldr: teams have figured us out and the team lacks the talent or depth to play any different.

McMahon is learning how quickly the coaching adjusts at the level. It reminds me a bit of Wade’s first season. They opened SEC play with a close loss to UK, an upset win at A&M, then a dominant win at Arkansas. After that LSU lost 5 of their next 6 games and didn’t win another road game the rest of the year.

Not having Hayes last night was big because he’s the only guard who can consistently create his own shot away from the rim. Hill is just outmatched and teams have quickly adjusted to Hannibal. Now we see if McMahon can adjust.

At minimum, it would be nice for him to show more emotion on the sideline. You can’t watch your guy (Fountain) get hammered to floor with no foul called and say absolutely nothing to the officials. I’m not saying you need to be a raving lunatic and get a technical foul. But at least show your guys you are going to fight for them.

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The half court sets on offense are terrible. I’ve seen High Schools run better plays. Bad shot after bad shot

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6 games ago the Rant thought he had the greatest offensive sets ever seen at LSU. Certainly far better than Wade's offense, which was in the top 30 nationally 4 of his 5 years at LSU.

The reality is the half court offense he runs is not terribly novel. Opponents know what is coming (and generally that is the case for most teams...this isn't football with multiple unique plays). The issue is opponents are getting more precise in taking away what LSU wants to run. Almost every "set" is ideally designed to get KJ or Miller a shot. The unexpected variable in the first two games was Hannibal getting to the rim at will. Opponents are now taking that away off the high screen. LSU will now have to adjust.

One question I have is why not allow Fountain a little more freedom behind the arc? He shot 38% at MSU in his Freshman year. Particularly when you have Miller (32%), Hill (29%), J. Williams (10%) seemingly with a green light? I guess it is because LSU desperately needs Fountain inside to rebound. But if he can show a little bit of a threat from deep it might create a bit more space to get KJ in the post and open driving lanes. At least stretch the defense a bit

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Not sure there's any more tricks in the bag to fool anyone. The roster just sucks, bottom line.

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It's basketball. There are always tricks in the bag.

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Not sure there's any more tricks in the bag to fool anyone. The roster just sucks, bottom line.

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I don't think it's quite that dire, but I would say that I believe most folks had this team pegged as an NIT or even right below that to start the year.

I still think if you look at all the rosters in the SEC - the conference in which we compete - I've said before - I think we probably have about the 8th best roster, SEC media days picked us to finish 8th - I think that's about right and I think we will finish when all is said and done.

Now we can bemoan the roster all we want but in the last two games I think we performed below standard for the roster we have - relative talent considered. I can break down why I think that to be the case but I think many have better than I can so I'll stand with that for now.

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“Figuring out” implies the opponent has done something to stop lsu. Florida didn’t stop lsu from MANY MANY wide open shots. We just can shoot. Teams could back all defenders into the paint to stop lsu. We could be given wide open shots (except for KJ) behind the arc, and we’d miss them. We just can’t shoot.

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Just because a shot is wide open doesn't mean it is a "good shot". A big part of playing good defense is forcing guys the defense wants to shoot to taking those shots. For instance, teams, like Florida, want to run KJ (and to a lesser extent) Miller, off the three point line because LSU wants those guys taking those shots. Opponents are fine with leaving low % shooters like Hill, Hannibal (good finisher at the rim, but below average shooter) and others if that is the byproduct of them taking away the shots LSU wants. The opponent plays the percentages and figures if they give a bad shooter several open shots he'll miss way more than he makes. So they are willing to live with the one or two he does make.

This isn't football. You aren't going to shut an opponent out and you can't tackle them to keep from shooting. So good shot defense is contesting good shooters and giving open shots to the bad shooters you WANT to shoot.

Last night Florida did a decent (not great) job of contesting shots by Miller and KJ, while limiting Hannibal's driving lanes. To combat that LSU needed to find other scoring options and have some weaker shooter shoot above their averages. That didn't happen.