Coming off its first SEC loss of the season, the schedule only gets harder for LSU basketball starting with a road matchup against Mississippi State on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs are primarily a guard dominate team led by Lamar Peters and the Weatherspoon brothers, Quinndary and Nick who combine to score 40 points per game between the three. Peters, a New Orleans native faced LSU sophomore point guard twice at the end of last season and it was one of the more intriguing matchups of the season.
LSU defeated Mississippi State at home for the final regular season game of the season but came up short after drawing in the Bulldogs in the opening round of the SEC championship tournament a week later. With three of the five Bulldog starters being juniors and seniors, Wade said that level of experience can only be beneficial as SEC play continues.
“They play mostly juniors and seniors, guys that have been in the program,” Wade said. “They’re a very, very good team and I know the atmosphere will be good Wednesday night. It will be probably the toughest road game we’ve had to this point. We’re going to need to play very well.”
After starting out well defending the 3-point ball in the first five SEC games, the Tigers have struggled to consistently defend beyond the arc, surrendering 13 made 3-pointers in the 90-89 loss to Arkansas on Saturday. With Mississippi State shooting 37 percent from 3-point range in conference play, good for top-3 in the conference, coach Will Wade said the Tigers will have their work cut out for them Wednesday.
“It’s an opportunity to patch it up or an opportunity to get extremely exposed again, however you want to look at it,” Wade said. “Our three-point defense is going to have to improve. I take some blame on that in the Arkansas game. We left some kids open that don’t hit shots a lot. We left some of those guys open by design and they took advantage of it and hit some shots. I’ve got to do a better job in scouting and adjusting. All of Mississippi State’s guys can shoot so we’ve got to be out there, have our hands up and be ready to contest shots.”
LSU has also run into slow starts to games and Wade re-arranged the drills in practice this week in an attempt to start faster in practice and in theory start faster in games. After and initial 11-7 run to open the game against Arkansas, the Razorbacks proceeded to go on a 13-0 run to take a 20-11 lead and suck the air out of the PMAC.
“We ease into to practice with some drills, but we’re going to change that up so we have some more pop,” Wade said. “Practice mirrors the game. It starts slow and we build up. Then we’re pretty good for a while. We’ve got to start faster and stay fast.”
Following the road matchup with the Bulldogs on Wednesday, who have been ranked most of the season, the Tigers will host previous top-10 Auburn and face Kentucky, Florida and No. 1 Tennessee in a two week period. It’s a grueling five game schedule that will test the mental fortitude of this young Tiger team that has found a new identity in recent weeks.
LSU is now in the position of trying to get a win after a loss, something that has escaped it the last 10 games. Wade said the motivation is high heading into the matchup against Mississippi State as losing Saturday would “put them in a hole.”
“We’ve got to stay the same,” Wade said. “Do what we do and play a little better than we’ve been playing. You can’t change. After winning 10 in row, that’s good enough to win from here. Get a little bit better.”
