i think its time to revisit the prospects of the season from kenpom.com with his rankings and predictions Sat Jan 24 (18) Xavier L, 68-66 68 39% Home Wed Jan 28 (33) Tennessee L, 82-74 72 23% Away Sat Jan 31 (92) Arkansas W, 75-67 70 80% Home Wed Feb 4 (171) Georgia W, 68-62 70 76% Away Sun Feb 8 (118) Alabama W, 74-63 66 85% Home Wed Feb 11 (75) Mississip St. L, 71-69 69 42% Away Sat Feb 14 (112) Mississippi W, 78-67 68 84% Home Wed Feb 18 (92) Arkansas W, 72-71 70 53% Away Sat Feb 21 (77) Auburn W, 71-65 71 74% Home Tue Feb 24 (39) Florida W, 71-70 66 56% Home Sat Feb 28 (22) Kentucky L, 75-64 69 16% Away Wed Mar 4 (70) Vanderbilt W, 67-62 65 71% Home Sat Mar 7 (77) Auburn L, 69-67 71 44% Away Projected record: 22-9 10-6 i think this is a particularly tough team to gauge. the team depends too much on a streaky shooter (thornton) and can have huge match up problems in the post, but i only see one definite loss--@ UK. vandy will be tough with ogilvy and its unfortunate that the tigers get UF late because they will get much better. i see two home losses (X and UF/VU) and three road losses (UT, UK, Arky).
I disagree about depending too much on Thornton. We rolled SC and Ole Mess with him having quiet offensive nights. When Thornton is off Tas, GT, Bo, and Terry Martin seem to pick up the slack and score more. I think our guys are more than ever playing within the framework that Coach Johnson is trying to establish. A win against Xavier and a 12-4 SEC record is my call.
Maintaining 20+ point wins can't be attributed entirely to streaky shooters. The team's getting better as a whole, but they've gotta come up with a game plan to defend the post better. Xavier is winnable, but with the game at home LSU has to get their big men into foul trouble early.
lsu depends too much on thornton to beat good teams. usc, om, bama and miss st are not good teams. against good teams, like upcoming xavier, ut, and uk, lsu will need spencer or temple or martin to step up offensively. im concerned that more times than not, this will not happen.
I tend to disagree. I think the team as a whole has improved. Trent Johnson has said that the players are playing more within the designs of the offense. I think what we will see for the rest of the year is solid play and scoring from Tas, Bo, and Marcus. These guys will account for 70-80 percent of our points most nights. We will see solid play and spotty scoring from CJ, and Temple. They will each score 6-10 points a night and play good defense. Terry Martin and Q will score 2-6 points, and Q will give us some decent post play. Chriss Bass, Alex Farrer, Delwan Graham and Storm Warren will score 0-4 points but provide valuable spelling of the starters, Q, and Martin.
i dont really disagree with you. this team is definitely ok and has a good shot at an ncaa bid. but against better teams i think there may be huge problems. and, to me, this is the real gauge of how good a team is because it will determine how far they are likely to go in the tourney. good teams will be able to stop tas and/or thornton either by great defenders or scheme. i question the ability of the others to pick up the slack. it seems too late in the careers of martin, temple and johnson to think they will suddenly become dependable scorers. bo will be needed for this team to end up being more than just "ok". and i didnt even bring up post D deficiencies.
I'm not disagreeing that the team needs more contributions on the offensive side, but maybe not enough credit is given to what they do on defense. Also consider that to this point LSU has played a grand total of 2 games against "good teams", both on the road (A&M wasn't really a neutral court), so I think it's a bit early to write off their tournament chances. But if Xavier comes into the PMAC and rolls us by double digits, I agree that IS a cause for concern.
absolutely. xavier has size and experience. if the tigers can handle them, then the sky is the limit. xavier gives 8 guys a lot of pt. including a 7' 265 Fr, 6'9" 255 Jr, 6'8" 235 So., 6'8" 227 Sr, 6'6" 225 Sr 6'6 225 Sr no twiggies there.
Yeah, I looked at their roster last night, and that jumped out immediately. What worries me is the Tigers almost exclusively use man-to-man and I have not seen them switch to a zone very much. That's something they will almost certainly need to do defending the post. A winnable game, but they have to come out firing on all cylinders for 40 minutes, bench included.
Tas is the difference right now. He's playing on another level. It didn't hurt that the rest of our guys were on fire last night. But Tasmin is hitting nice shots from a distance, schooling people inside, rebounding great, defending hard, etc. If he keeps playing like that, then we could make a run to win the SEC.
