re: What’s The Ceiling For Our Men’s Basketball Team?

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stop with Adam Miller is the best player.

Adam averaged 8 points per game last year.

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Basile, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the program and for this year's team. I too am optimistic and always want to think the best for LSU basketball and see them be the best.

But you are looking at Miller through the completely wrong lens. You can't just simply look at his stat from last year, as a freshman, on a completely different team, and automatically say that is what he will be again this year on a different team.

Miller was 8 ppg because that is all that IL team needed from him. They had other key pieces that were the focus of that offense, which operated more from the inside out. It's the same way that people expect Days' production to go up some this year since he is likely to be more of the focus than what he was in the past when he had more and better stars around him.

Wade, along with many other knowledgeable CBB people, expected Miller to be at least a top 2 scorer on this team and likely the top scorer at somewhere between 16-18 ppg.

So while I agree this is still a talented team, you cannot deny that losing Miller is a big loss to them.

It's so hard to project a team with so many newcomers.
The thing we have seen about Wade is his ability to find the best lineup and his teams have always improved. Just last year, the team appeared to completely go off the rails early in conference season with some really bad losses. He made several adjustment, even with a short bench and beat and almost beat 2 teams that we looked outmatched against (Arky and Bama) earlier in the season.

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I really don't know why they would do this with Miller now out.
Did he say that before the Miller injury?

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Yes, Wade had made this comment prior to Miller's injury. I agree with you that if healthy, Williams will likely play now and needs to probably play.

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I get that Murray has a full summer in the program and his body is more sec-ready, but there's a reason Williams was ranked higher.

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Williams was ranked higher, but you can't discount the first part of your statement. Williams is supposed to be a senior in high school this year. Murray, while a true freshman, is actually college sophomore age as he spent last year in IMG's prep school program, meaning he had already finished high school.

Wade is high on Murray and Murray will be the starter and will play more minutes than Williams this year. Williams is small at 170 lbs and will have to learn to take the beating of SEC play. But he will be critical for quality depth at the position.

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Just last year, the team appeared to completely go off the rails early in conference season with some really bad losses.

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They started 5-1 in SEC play last season. If you want to say Wade's teams have a trend it is that they usually lose 1-2 games in OOC play that they shouldn't, then start SEC play hot (5-1 last season; 8-0 the prior season; 7-0 in 2019); before fading a bit in the middle of SEC play, before settling in to kind of consistent win a few lose one pattern at the end.

This year could be different. On paper this looks like the weakest OOC schedule Wade has put together. They don't play a single true road game in Nov/Dec (unless you count the game at Phillips Arena as a true road game). Belmont and Liberty should be good mid-major teams, but LSU gets them at home. Penn St. is picked to finish near the bottom of the Big 10; Wake Forest is picked to finish near the bottom of the ACC...as is Ga. Tech. Frankly, losing one OOC game would be mildly disappointing. Losing more than one would be really disappointing. Moreso because....

The first month of SEC play looks to be BRUTAL for LSU. As said, Wade has done a good job of getting his teams ready for SEC play from the jump. But he will HAVE to do so this year again, or LSU will find themselves in a hole to dig out of when the calendar flips to Feb.

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Speaking of schedules, Wade mentioned yesterday that their 2nd "secret scrimmage" is this Sunday against Houston. Yikes.

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Who was the first?

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If they have any or all of the ones that sat out this past weekend this coming game, I would hate to see the score and writeup for it. Houston has been very tough, especially defensively, under Sampson, and they are pre-season ranked 15th in the country. That scrimmage will be ugly if they are missing the starters again.

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Perhaps. Then again, if LSU were to hold their own with essentially their second team then that would be saying something.

It's ridiculous that the NCAA won't allow the teams to even release stats about these "double secret preseason scrimmages". Nonetheless, I'm still glad they are allowed. LSU should scrimmage Houston every year except those where they play in the regular season. Texas and Baylor (whom they've scrimmaged before) should also be in the rotation. If you want to get better quicker, play the best teams.

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Who was the first?

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Nicholls (technically). Just wasn't a secret since they were using it as a fundraising game.

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Then again, if LSU were to hold their own with essentially their second team then that would be saying something.

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Very true point. And I have no clue what Houston looks like this year; only that I know they have been good under Sampson and are being well thought of in the preseason.

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It's ridiculous that the NCAA won't allow the teams to even release stats about these "double secret preseason scrimmages". Nonetheless, I'm still glad they are allowed. LSU should scrimmage Houston every year except those where they play in the regular season.

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Agreed and agreed. The NCAA rule on it just has no logical reasoning to it, sort of like most their rules. It's weird they will allow baseball to do open exhibition games (now) and publicize that, but basketball can't even release stats and information about a scrimmage before the season. Just dumb.

It'll be interesting to see if they keep UT for future years since Shaka isn't there anymore. I don't know what Wade's relationship with Beard is like. He obviously seems to have a bit of a relationship with Sampson since they have scheduled each other a lot since Wade has been here.

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I get it that Miller was expected to be a leader but to expect him to go from an 8 point per game scorer to a 16-18 ppg scorer with all the options this team will have would be a long shot.

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Not really. Again, you are having that disbelief because you are viewing his stats last season as more of a ceiling for him, when it was more of a baseline.

Miller was known to be a really good scorer coming out of high school, he just wasn't needed to be at IL. Part of his reason for coming to LSU is b/c of Wade's offensive style and philosophy, which was going to feature Miller's scoring ability more from the 2 position.

I get what you are saying in that he would have still had scorers around him here, and that is true; but Wade even alluded to the fact several times that Miller would be a focal point of this offense. Not quite as much as Cam was, but still would have been and would've had the opportunity to put up those kind of numbers that I and others have suggested.

As for Eason, I also was there and watched him. And I agree, he looked great. I was especially surprised by his ability to shoot the 3. However, his game Saturday was a bit of an outlier as he won't be needed to score that much with Pinson, Days, and Reid on the court, so his opportunities will be far less than they were on Saturday when it was pretty much just he and Gaines being looked to to produce on offense.

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Wade is high on Murray and Murray will be the starter and will play more minutes than Williams this year.

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Murray to me is going to be very important for this teams offense, especially now that miller is out.

I'm a big brandon murray fan. Justice williams is going to be another star. It's just a matter of when.

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unless Wade gets much better at the X's and O's of this game, then the results of last year is about our ceiling and most years it won't be nearly that good of an outcome

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Well, that’s just dumb.

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I thought WW said we were scrimmaging IN HOuston not necessarilly versus UH.

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He said they were traveling to Houston on Friday and practicing all weekend there and playing a scrimmage on Sunday in Houston. He also said that it was going to be "quite a step up in competition" with a tone to his voice that indicates it will be against Houston. I don't think anyone is traveling to Houston to play a neutral site scrimmage and UH is the only team in the city that would fit what he is describing. So yes, I am making an assumption; but I feel pretty confident that is who he would be referring to.