Same script for LSU in loss at Utah

LSU was never in its NIT game at Utah on Monday night.

With one minute left in the first quarter, the Tigers found themselves staring at a 21-point deficit. More or less, the two teams played evenly over the next 31 minutes. When the fourth quarter ended, LSU had absorbed a 95-71 loss to the Utes – matching its worst defeat in a NCAA tournament or NIT game.

“Utah came out very aggressive,” LSU coach Will Wade said. “When they weren’t making 3s, they were making layups. They had six layups in the first quarter and that really hurt us. We just never could get on our feet to start the game.”

For a little more than two months, the pattern has been the same for the Tigers. LSU went 7-0 at the PMAC beginning with a victory against Texas A&M on Jan. 23. In that stretch, the Tigers beat three NCAA tournament teams at home – Texas A&M, Arkansas and Missouri.

In this same span, LSU went 0-9 away from the PMAC. There were eight losses on opposing team’s home floors and one neutral site setback. Five of those defeats came against non-NCAA tourney teams – Vanderbilt, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Utah.

Everyone can want to determine the reason for the Tigers’ road woes. Wade stressed that his team didn’t have the mental toughness needed to be successful away from home. Without a doubt, LSU is missing that grittiness which a squad must possess in order to win in unfriendly environments.

However, there is a simpler explanation for the variance of the Tigers’ results on the road as opposed to at home. Remember that basketball is a game of putting the ball in the basket.

In LSU’s nine-game losing streak away from the PMAC, it never shot higher than 46 percent from the field. Seven of those nine opponents made more than 50 percent of its field goal attempts. The two exceptions were 49 percent by Georgia and 44 percent by South Carolina.

The Tigers were outshot from the field in all nine defeats. In five of those games, LSU’s opponent had a double-digit advantage in field goal shooting percentage. Utah was one of those teams. The Utes shot 58 percent from the field, while the Tigers were at 44 percent.

“We used every defense we had in the book,” Wade said. “Utah was excellent from ‘three.’ We didn’t have anything to stop them. It took us a while to adjust to what they were doing with their matchup (zone). I didn’t do a good job of preparing guys for their defense and that really did us in.”

LSU was certainly a different offensive team in its season-ending seven-game winning streak at home. The Tigers made at least 52 percent of their field goal attempts in five of the seven victories. The two exceptions were 44 percent against Texas A&M and 39 percent against Missouri.

LSU did show the ability to grind out a victory in the game against Missouri. LSU was outshot by seven percentage points in that game. But, LSU won the battles of the boards 36-33 and escaped with a one-point victory thanks to numerous missed foul shots by Missouri.

Tremont Waters, the Tigers’ top scorer, failed to score at least ten points in four of those nine defeats away from the PMAC. In the seven-game home winning streak, Waters did not reach double figures in points just once.

Duop Reath, LSU’s second leading scorer, did not score at least ten points in six of those nine games on the road. He scored in double figures in four of the seven home games. Skylar Mays was the one player who scored as well on the road as he did at the PMAC.

Wade accomplished a lot in his first season as LSU coach. The Tigers increased their SEC victory total from two to eight. LSU increased their overall victory total from 10 to 18. The Tigers’ late-season winning streak was a positive. A team must develop a homecourt advantage to be respected.

When next season begins, it is obvious what LSU must do if it is going to get into the first division of the SEC standings and reach the NCAA tournament. The Tigers must execute far better both offensively and defensively away from the PMAC – starting with shooting the ball better than the opposition.

Such a scenario did not play out at Utah in LSU’s final game of the 2017-18 season Monday night. As a result, it was another poor result away from the PMAC.

“We used a couple of timeouts in the first quarter to try to stem the tide a little bit,” Wade said. “We weren’t able to crawl back and make it a gamer. Utah was ready to go. They really took it to us.”