If Xavier Pinson was on the fence last March trying to decide whether to transfer from Missouri and find a new basketball home for his senior season, perhaps the last game of his Mizzou career was the clincher to move on.
In Missouri’s 72-68 first-round NCAA tournament loss to Oklahoma, he scored 2 points in 18 minutes of playing time including just four minutes in the second half. And in the final 5:52 of a mostly one-possession game, Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin benched Pinson.
Three days later, Pinson entered the transfer portal. Just more than three weeks later, he announced he was transferring to LSU.
Just once this season in early November, Pinson addressed why he transferred.
“There were personal things that weren’t in line for me for my goals,” Pinson said. “I talked to the head coach (Martin) and all the other coaches about it. That’s when we parted our ways.”
Pinson will see his old teammates Saturday night when LSU (19-9 overall, 7-8 SEC) faces Missouri (10-18, 4-11 SEC) with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Since coming to LSU, Pinson has transformed into a pass-first, shoot-second point guard which was a flip from his days at Mizzou. He’s become more of a penetrator with drives to the basket rather than launching 3-pointers.
His scoring average of 13.6 points last season for Missouri is now 10.4 for LSU, his assists have increased from 2.9 to 4.6 per game and his turnover rate is slightly up over last season.
“Me trying to be a dead-on scorer does nothing for us,” Pinson said recently. “Somebody has to lead us and put us in the right spots so we can score. I came here to win the championship or championships. I really don't care about what I can do. I really care about what I can do to help the next person.”
Pinson has been the cerebral floor leader that LSU head coach Will Wade wanted and Wade has made Pinson feel valued. That was obvious when LSU lost 6 of 7 games after Pinson was trying to recover from a sprained knee.
“There's stuff that you can't quantify that he does,” Wade said. “It's the bad situations that he keeps us out of and the good situations that he gets other guys where they need to be and gets them the ball in those spots.
“He keeps us out of a lot of mistakes. He's able to say `They've scored two straight baskets. Let's pull it out. Let's run some offense. Let's not take a quick shot. Let's try to get fouled.’ There's a lot of intricacies of the game that he understands that really help us.
"Nobody on our team has sacrificed more of his game than `X.' He embodies the type of player we want."
Pinson did his best to coach his teammates from the bench while he recovered from his injury. But it wasn’t the same as being in live games.
“It's the difference being on the sideline trying to instill confidence and coach them up,” Pinson said, “and actually guide them on the court and tell them what they need to do. I try my best to get us happy and keep us in something and keep us organized throughout the game.”
Pinson has been thoroughly appreciated by his teammates.
“He just puts us in the right spots,” LSU sophomore forward Tari Eason said of Pinson. “He kind of slows the game down. He has good pace. You know, as you all know, he's been playing. He's been playing high level basketball for three years now. He's had experience and he really knows what he's doing. He sees things before anyone else sees things.”
It seems as if Pinson has become the type point guard Missouri’s Martin may have wanted him to become.
“Just looking at the games we’ve watched, he’s passing the ball more, he’s distributing more, getting in the lane, doing different things.” Martin told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Friday.
Pinson’s career scoring high for Missouri was 36 points last season in Mizzou’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge overtime win. Heading into Saturday’s game against his former team, Pinson is coming off an LSU career high 26 points in Wednesday’s loss at No. 3 Kentucky.
It's obvious personal statistics don’t matter to Pinson, judging from his comments after the UK loss.
“I want to get back to winning,” Pinson said. “I’ve got to come with it, I’ve got to bring it to the table, no matter what. No excuses. We’ve got to find a way to win no matter what.”
With three regular season games remaining vs. Missouri, at Arkansas on Wednesday and home against Alabama next Saturday, LSU is No. 17 in the NCAA NET rankings and still solidly projected to make the NCAA tourney field.
But with the way LSU has struggled in league play going 4-7 after its 3-1 SEC start (including wins over Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida), Wade is taking nothing for granted.
“Winning tomorrow night would help us tremendously toward that goal,” Wade said of the Tigers earning a third NCAA tournament bid in his five seasons as LSU’s head coach. “Our guys know how important every game is. We’ve got to handle our home court here in SEC play.”
