Tonite was my first oppurtunity to really watch the Tigers this year. I listened to the WVU game but this was my first time in the PMAC. Here are a few observations. 1.This team does not know how to play with a lead. I think this is where the inexperience and youth really shows. They didnt play well with the lead against WVU and they blow a 12 point half time lead. 2. I'm a Brady guy but the coaching was just plain bad in the second half. I mean, you cant help turnovers as a coach and his strategy wasnt bad, but it was his use of players that bothered me. The biggest mistake he made was not calling a TO when Houston when nuts to start the half. He called it too late. I understand letting a young team play through struggles, but cmon, just call the damn TO. 3. With this new fun and gun type team, Big Baby is underused. They never look inside for the big guy. 4. Tyrus Thomas had no business ever being on the bench. He should play 35-40 minutes a game. He can be a game changer. He jumps out of the gym and rebounds like a mad man. My only problem with him is he is very raw. He doesnt block out and plays to much for the blocked shot instead of the big baby type D of staying on your feet and taking charges. He will get in foul trouble a lot this year. 5. Garrett Temple plays good D but is not ready for this level on the offensive end. I'd play Voogd more than Temple. But, its kinda tough to do that when your name is Temple. 6. Magnum Rolle is way to thin. LSU overall is very thin down low. Come SEC time, those young, thin post players may get tossed around. 7. Darnell Lazarre needs more minutes. 8. Everyone talks about the great depth LSU has this year, but they still basically went 8 deep tonite. Its the same as last year. The only difference is that more people are getting more minutes. 9. The youth of this team will eventually come back to get it. Oh, and Darell Mitchell is incredible. It blows my mind what he does on the offensive end.
outcoached by houston... wasn't clyde drexler a coach there? I think lsu should go with the former player theme and give ole' lester earl a call
Nice analysis, I can't really add much to that. I'd like to see Voogd play more and Thomas looks like a beast. Big Baby needs to get the ball down low all night. There was a stretch in the start of the 2nd half where they gave it to Lazarre in the post instead of BB and he turned it over. This guy should be in there strictly for rebounds and defense, IMO. Finally when Davis gets the ball he takes a three from the key. He can't be stopped by anyone in the country on the blocks so our guys need to do a better job of getting him the ball. Rolle is a lot smaller than I thought. Taz is an animal. Mitchell was a little out of control on a few plays, but other than that he's proving that he's the leader of this team. I think they'll put it all together come tourney time. The team looks promising.
Love the feedback. I noticed the same thing about the "rotation". Brady played 8 guys, which is better than his typical 7, but I will say that Voogd got a lot of minutes, Thomas did too. Rolle played some. When Tack comes back you go to a nine man rotation which isn't bad for Brady, and I think then the depth will show itself. Good insight on Big Baby. You'd think that we would have got the ball down low more given Houston's (lack of?) height. Changing the topic somewhat..... CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT OLIVER LAFAYETTE'S STORY IS? He played ball at Capitol with Brandon Bass. He's a 6-3 guard, who lit us up for 32 points. Was he all-district? All-state? He clearly should have been hitting shots for us instead of Penders. Granted, the year we signed Bass, we signed Koundjia, Nelter, and others, and had a stacked class. But, could we have not signed a shooting guard? I'm just curious whether we ever looked at this kid.
Oliver Lafayette went to Division II Brown Mackie JUCO, won the National Championship there, and was the player of the year. I suspect grades as the reason why he had to go to JUCO. [/FONT] [FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif] [/FONT] [FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]http://www.njcaa.org/sports.cfm?sid=5&divid=2&gender=m&slid=2&menu=5 [/FONT] [FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif] From UHCougars website: [/FONT][FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]http://uhcougars.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/lafayette_oliver00.html [/FONT] [FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif] LSU did recruit him. He chose UH.
You think that shot wasn't closely defended enough? Dude just had a SICK game. On a normal day LSU wins by 15.
Hard to get it to him when you don't have a real PG to get your team in a set offense. I thought Houston did a great job of pressuring our guards and forcng us to start our offense too far out. And they doubled up on Davis a lot. It was clear that Houston was not going to allow Davis to beat them down low. When he did get the ball, they banged and hacked him all night long.
Why does he need more minutes and who are you going to take time from to get him more playing time? He needs to play enough minutes to give starters a rest or when someone gets in foul trouble. Other than that, I don't see how him playing more minutes will make us a better team.
One thing that no one has pointed out was that one 'three-pointer' shot by UH in the 2nd half was not even close to being so. BOTH of the shooters feet were well within the arc, yet 3 points went up on the scoreboard. I was stunned and stated that I would be pissed if it ended as a one point game. Well...............
