Florida twice this year and now UCLA. Teams that we can't run out of the gym athletically eat our lunch.
I know im gonna get flamed but here goes, POOR COACHING! at one point in this game I felt sorry for the lsu kids. They were so unprepared for what was happening to them.
This is kind of a oversimplification. Texas is an athletic team. Tennessee is an athletic team. We get beat by well-balanced teams, who play defense, and shoot well against us... What happened was that UCLA beat us at our own game. Defense and rebounding. We also helped them by missing 15 free throws, turning the ball over and shooting 33%. What is really evident at this level is that momentum is amplified tenfold. When UCLA gave us a punch and we didn't punch back, it almost felt like the game was over. Bottomline, we played crappy and UCLA played well.
You're right...you are going to get "flamed" because there isn't ANY coach out there that could have helped this team tonight--we simply couldn't buy a basket. When you have players miss FT's and miss shots down low, that's NOT coaching. Throw in the FACT that UCLA scored 9 points in the final 10 minutes (or more--I don't know--I was drunk as a skunk), then I'd say that ANY half time adjustments made by the coaching staff did as well as they possibly could. Take the loss like a man...we got our butts kicked by a team that simply just could not miss...no matter WHERE they shot...
to me it looked like they were hit by a tornado and were so shook up they missed the shots and FT . like i said they were not ready for what was coming and it showed.
the fact that we didnt have anyone that could hit outside shots consistently besides dmitch was gonna catch up to us eventually....oh well what a run, I am proud and we should be back next year....geaux tigers!
Good points. Alot of college basketball games boil down to which team is hitting its shots and which isn't. I think at the start of the game our guards were a little overzealous trying to establish themselves from the perimeter. Temple took a contested 3 and TMitch took some 17 footers off the dribble instead of coming off a screen. And what you said about momentum is very true. At the start, we got down by double digits and then for the rest of the game it felt (and our players seemed to emote) that the game was over. Bottom line is, UCLA outplayed us in just about evey facet of the game. It was still a great season for the Tigers. If you would have told me that LSU would make the Final Four at the start of the season, I would have been ecstatic - no questions asked.
I'm not a coach hater by any means but it did seem like LSU didnt go to their strong points until it was too late. They started out the game shooting from outside and started working it inside too late. Was a damned good run though and it has definitely stirred up an interest in LSU basketball. Great season! :thumb: