re: We have a Top 5 basketball team

Where is Jalen cook?

And not even 2 weeks ago people on here said Wade was overrated

Need a rim protector...not sure O'Neal is that guy yet.

O'Neal is not the answer.
He's on the team and garnered interest in name only.
Plus he can't stay healthy.

We are looking good and if they can keep building off this defensive effort, then they have chance at top 10 for sure. But need to see more consistent effort. This team slacks off and gets sloppy when they build leads.

As for top 5, anyone watching CBB this year knows we are still not that. There are some scary good teams out there, with Gonzaga above them all and the Big 10 is a monster of a league.

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Was manning an addition by subtraction? I won’t put this on him but this team has played with more energy and joy than the last two games than I’ve seen this season.

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Was wondering the same thing.
What a difference (on defense at least) since Manning's departure.
Night and day.

Slow your roll champ

hard to tell. statistically, this team is identical to 2018 - strong offense, weak d.

kenpom has lsu at 101 defensively which is by far the weakest of the top 20. only 2 other teams are below 31, osu and iowa.

lsu made the sweet 16 in '18 with that statistically bad d but, it's hard to tell how much the coaching fiasco affected that. 3 games in a row without the head coach.

lsu doesn't have the inside presence that the '18 team had defensively (and even that team wasn't great defensively, statistically) and that could really hurt lsu in the tourney against teams with more height and who are just as active on the boards.

i think sometimes the stats need to be turned off. heart counts for a lot in the tourney. this team is absolutely elite defensively when they want to be. the question is could they keep up the intensity for a full game in the tourney and how much will the offensive prowess offset that.

whatever happens, will wade has made lsu bball fun again and it's nice to know that when the tigers hit the court, they've been coached competently, which is a HUGE change in lsu bball. i feel that no matter who lsu plays, they have a chance to win. offensively, the tigers can keep up with anyone in the country

so far this season, it's been so awesome to watch a different player step up each night. last night, days was a beast.

This is not a top 5 team at present time. That said, I also don't think some of the top 5 currently are top 5 teams. This is a solid team that should compete for the SEC title (both reg season and tournament). In the big dance, I think this team should wind up somewhere in a 5 seed or higher if they keep playing this way. If they get on a 4-line or above, I think an elite 8 is possible, depending on their bracket. Definitely a talented team. Wish we had a legit big man, but I think Wade knows how to get the most out of his roster.

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hard to tell. statistically, this team is identical to 2018 - strong offense, weak d

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Right now they are probably a little bit closer to last year's team than the 18-19 team. This team (and last year's team) was better offensively than the 18-19 team, but much worse defensively. They don't have the defensive presence inside that the 18-19 team had, but the ARE doing what that 18-19 did best (maybe the only thing they did really well) getting steals. In 18-19 LSU was a top 10 team in the nation in terms of "steals per defensive play" (10.6%). This team is currently 18th in the nation, but with a better ratio (10.8%). Last year's group fell off TREMENDOUSLY in that category (ranked 194th). When the BIGGEST emphasis of your defense is creating deflections/steals, not getting them kills you.

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lsu doesn't have the inside presence that the '18 team had defensively (and even that team wasn't great defensively, statistically) and that could really hurt lsu in the tourney against teams with more height and who are just as active on the boards.

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Very possible. We saw UF kill LSU on that aspect. It will be interesting to see how LSU plays it in the second meeting with UF. A preview will be the UK game because they have size just like every other year. Wade mentioned that Gray may play more minutes in those scenarios. Also, against UF, Leblanc fouled out quickly. I'd like to see him be able to play without restrictions.

Or, it may just be LSU tries to "defend" size by playing better offense. Wade touched on it a bit in the postgame, but Wilkinson's OFFENSE took Arkansas's 7 footer out of the game. Literally. LSU has the luxury of playing with 5 guys on the perimeter. The 7 footer has to guard someone. Last night it was Wilkinson, because he's the least offensive threat of the starting 5. But when Wilkinson hit a 3 and got a backside offensive rebound early on, I think Arkansas realized their 7 footer was just too slow to guard LSU's style