Reading tTea leaves

Sounds like a bubble team, and you know what? After the MM era, I'm ok with that.

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Its probably going to come down to how many games Dent ends up playing.

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I think that is reasonable because LSU really doesn't have anyone else on the roster with his skillset.

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Clark is very important too but Dent makes this offense hum.

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He does. But that is only one side of the ball. Where Wade's teams have failed to reach their full potential it's generally been on the defensive end. Wade has proven more often than not he can find ways to get offense out of his personnel. Waters was the guy that made the offense hum in the first two years of Wade's first LSU stint. When he left there was concern of who could fill his role. Smart was a much different player than Waters. But LSU thrived offensively nonetheless. The reason was Wade did not try to make Smart be Waters. Wade adapted his offensive approach to fit what Smart (and the others) did well. Even without Dent I trust Wade to find offense.

For me, it's going to come down to the question I have at the beginning of the season for every Wade team. Will they defend? And, maybe more concerning from the first 3 exhibitions, will they rebound on the defensive end? So far they haven't.

LSU's FG% defense has been good. Opponents have averaged 40%. Where LSU is getting hurt is that teams are averaging nearly 12 more FG attempts per game because LSU has been bad on the defensive glass. That means even if your opponent only shoots 40% on those extra 12 shots, that still anywhere from 5-9 additional points (depending if the extra made baskets are 2' or 3's). That doesn't sound like much, but when you are also leaving a lot of points at the FT line, the benefit of LSU's good FG% starts to shrink. It also mitigates good first shot defense. What good is forcing the opponent to miss if they are just going to get a OR and score on the possession anyway.

LSU has been the better shooting teams in terms of FG%. When that is the case you WANT to be the team that takes more shots than your opponent. High FG% + more shots = more points.

(no message)

How? We have tried compliance, it has done nothing except keep this lawsuit alive with constant barbs from the sec.
Sankey hasnt been quiet about this for the last several weeks

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Dent
Luis
Niang
Dioubate
Dessert

Clark
Ruzic
Bashir
Divine
Levy

That’s more than a bubble team. That’s a 2nd weekend team if everyone stays eligible all year and is able to build chemistry.

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That would be great. Just give me a reason to check KenPom and read Jon Rothstein in February and I'm ecstatic.