re: Who's Ready For Some Basketball Tonight?

A loss doesn’t take anything away from beating a ranked team on the road. Especially to Kentucky.

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I agree with what you say here, but your previous post was more pessimistic. You did say losing to Kentucky would appear to make the South Carolina game an aberration, but that ignores the obvious progress the team has made. If that was an aberration, the team has had several aberrations this season, which by definition means it isn’t aberrant. They had several Q1 victories this year. I think they may have had 1 last year. Losing today doesn’t mean the team has suddenly taken a big step backwards, and if the goodwill is lost, it is only lost among fans that aren’t following the team closely. A win today also doesn’t mean the team has taken a big step forward, however given where we are, I would consider a win a much bigger deal than a loss, since a loss is expected. It is unexpected results, such as the loss to Nichols, that moves the needle significantly. What is most important is how we win or lose. A win to Kentucky would move the needle no matter what, but a big win would move it a lot, while a close loss wouldn’t, but a big loss would move the needle a little. All of this changes in our future games against much weaker opponents, because we will be expected to win.

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No, I said "most" (not specifically me) would consider the South Carolina win an aberration. That's the mindset of the majority of a fanbase when a program is trying to build support. Not just at LSU, but everywhere.

The victory vs. South Carolina was unexpected. With it brought some interest from many that generally haven't shown much interest. If LSU follows it up with a win tonight those same people are like to think "wait a minute. Maybe this team/program has something going". If LSU loses many of those same people will look at the USC win as more of an unexpected "one off".

I think you and I are discussing two different things. I said in my original post "a loss to UK doesn't kill the program". It doesn't mean that the season is lost. It doesn't mean the improvement from last year is meaningless. It just means the momentum from the win on Saturday stalls from a fan support/interest standpoint. And really, the biggest variable in that opinion is the opponent being Kentucky.

Anyone who has followed LSU basketball over the last 3 decades can tell you there have been many instances of the fans ready to jump on the bandwagon...only for LSU to lose and kill the momentum. Case in point, in Wade's first year LSU opened the season at home with a hard-fought 3 point loss vs. No. 17 Kentucky. They then followed up with an upset win at No. 11 Texas A&M (Water's deep, virtual, buzzer beater) before blowing out Arkansas on the road. The next game was at home on a Saturday night vs. Alabama. LSU and Wade promoted it a ton and it resulted in a sellout...that LSU promptly lost. The next game was a home game vs. Georgia. The attendance for that one was nearly a sellout (13,000+)...and LSU lost again. After that, LSU didn't get a home crowd anywhere close to 13k again for the rest of the season. The fans were ready to jump on the bandwagon at that Alabama game, but the loss killed the momentum.

McMahon hasn't had many "big" wins here at LSU. Contrary to the belief of some on here, the fans really do want to get behind the program. But it's going to take consistent winning to do so. LSU is now coming off of maybe their best win of the season and they are playing THE preeminent "brand" in SEC basketball. You get this one and I bet you will see a very good crowd on Saturday night. That's how the momentum in favor of McMahon starts to get rolling.

anyone got info on Jalen Cook?

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anyone got info on Jalen Cook?

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CoachMc said he’ll test it out in shootaround, so I assume that’ll be a game time decision.

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This is pretty much where I fall at the moment. Which is sad because I watched every single game when *REDACTED* was the coach. I chose to redact his name so we can skip the part where we argue about him. My point isn't about the coach but that winning makes people show interest regardless of who is in charge.

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Well said. I agree with your sentiment 100%. If you say something like this, you are a Redacted nut hugger. I don’t cheer for him, I cheer for LSU, but he won and basketball was fun. That’s what I want again. That said, Geaux Tigers! Beat Kentucky!

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This is almost always true, however Kentucky has the #1 away winning percentage in the SEC at 71%...so for some reason they seem to play just as good away from home this year as they do at home

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Part of that reason is because they really haven't played a tough slate of true road games:

Louisville
Florida
A&M (L)
South Carolina (L)
Arkansas
Vanderbilt
Auburn

Obviously the Auburn win is really, really impressive. But other than that the only team they beat on the road with a pulse is Florida...by 2.

It's Kentucky. They are used to getting every opponent's "best crowd". So I doubt LSU's moderately more energetic crowd will have a huge effect. Particularly with them coming off a great performance at maybe the toughest road environment in the SEC. But in context it's hard to say they have been "world beaters" on the road.