Real problem from Tuesday nights beat down.

I found that turnovers that lead to easy transition buckets and being slow out of the gates on offense for the second game in a row were far more worrisome than the defense as a whole.

Yadda yadda yadda wade can’t coach defense yadda yadda yadda

Your definition of "contested" is a bit odd. Alabama...a team that WANTS to shoot at least 30 3's a game had several shots in rhythm. Just because an LSU player went flying by on a very late contest or half-assed put their hand up when a guy is already reaching the height of his jump shot doesn't mean that shot was "contested".

LSU's defense can be described as poor positioning, coupled with little man awareness because they are ALWAYS ball-hawking, combined with half-assed effort to get in position early to cut off what the offensive player wants to do.

Go watch good defensive teams play (Houston is an example). Their guys are connected. They aren't constantly crowding a ball handler trying to poke the ball away. And the guys away from the ball are almost always aware of both the ball and the man. If someone needs to help off their man another guy knows immediate he has to fill he helpers spot and hell get in postion to do so. They also do a good job of knowing where the passes are going to go. They are already moving to get in position BEFORE the offensive player makes the catch. Coaches call that "doing your work early".

Contrast that with LSU. Often times they are unnecessarily over aggressive which, occasionally, gets them a steal, but most of the time gets them out of position. Then, guys away from the ball are far too often completely unaware of the man they are guarding. They are just watching the ball. So by the time the pass is made LSU is reacting rather than being in good position early. Often times they are late...if they react at all.

Unless they press..which they aren't particularly great at...there is a ton of standing around. LSU isn't active on defense. They aren't getting in position early. They are just watching the ball hoping to get a steal so they can quickly transition back to offense.

Alabama took advantage of LSU's poor defense in the most emphatic way we have seen in probably three years. But it sure as hell wasn't the first time LSU has played terrible defense. It's just they got laughably exposed on Tuesday. Not everyone will be able to do what Bama did. In fact, maybe no other team LSU plays this season will. But they far too often allow weak offensive teams to expose them.

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LSU is good enough to play their game and not have to constantly alter their gameplan to offset the other teams strenghts. Tweak things, yes. But LSU is an up tempo team. You dont change your identity because of your opponent. Someone posted the other day with the data to support that if Alabama shot their season long percentage from three, LSU wins 87-81. They went ape shite en fuego.......it happens. Its not football, its one loss.......move on

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I'm not implying an complete philosophy change. I'm just suggesting that when you are playing a team making any shot they take, don't have short offensive sets that end in bad shots and turnovers that allow them to quickly throw up more shots.

Most basketball coaches would agree the best way to break a shooters rhythm would be to take the ball out of his hands. Try to get the game under control and go back to work. We tried the 2-2-1 and 1-3-1 to move the ball around quicker and they just kept making shots over us.

It was their night for sure, but we could have tried to contain the tempo and break their rhythm.

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We should have been more deliberate on the offensive end once we were aware their had hot hands on the offensive end. Instead we pressed offensively which led to bad shots and turnovers allowing their shooters to get in a rhythm

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Some of that seemed to be Thomas and Watford wanting to compete personally with what Petty was doing (and trash talking them a bit). But, yeah, like you said they were kind of "my turn, your turn" instead of getting shots out of running the offense and making Alabama guard everyone. It really snowballed when some of those bad shots started leading to Alabama getting out on the break.

The main thing LSU did that probably wasn't a good call specifically against Alabama is that 1-3-1 press. They have five mostly 6'4" to 6'7' guys on the court that can all handle the ball and all shoot threes. You're not going to force a lot of turnovers against a team full of lengthy ball handlers and that defense is an absolute 3 point shooters dream if it doesn't stop the ball from getting quickly to the wings/corners.

They will get to play Bama again, and I will bet you anything that Bama won't be that hot from 3 point range. Let's see how it goes when Bama isn't having the best game in its history.

We have three guys who are well above average when it comes to getting their own shots. I'm just wondering if we would slowed the ball down when we had it, made them guard us for longer stretches and(if need be) try to make a play once the shot clock was low, what the result of that game would have been.

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What exactly do you consider contesting a three? Raising your hand up 4 ft from the shooter or running past him and jumping after his shot is not considered contesting!

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A problem with the fan base here is they don't understand the definitions of basketball terms. Contested shot does not mean you have completely eliminated the shot opportunity and the shot is taken anyway. It simply means an attempt to put pressure on a shooter, or that the shot is attempted to avoid the nearest defender(i.e. step backs and quick release shots of the bounce). 2-4 feet away is considered a contested shot, because the shot is taken with a defender in play.

These shots normally fall at a significantly lower rate than shots taken with no close out at all or defender near by.

Given the fact Alabama was making threes at not only a high rate for contested shots, but for wide open shots, the answer was not gonna be a change in defensive approach early on. That's when you have to lean on an offensive strategy, make them guard which takes the ball out of shooters hands and wear down their legs.

Continuing to fast break and run quick sets did not help the defense. That isn't really debatable. Sometimes you need to do a better job controlling things you can control.

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Then, guys away from the ball are far too often completely unaware of the man they are guarding. They are just watching the ball. So by the time the pass is made LSU is reacting rather than being in good position early. Often times they are late...if they react at all.

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Your post is spot on and what I quoted is a big part of the problem. Defense is about fundamentals and having to desire to completely shut down your opponent. And one of the basic fundamentals is guarding man and ball. Number two is knowing what the concept ofone pass away means.