Steady progress in Wade’s first year

Both teams won only two of 18 league games. LSU will play host to Missouri on Saturday at the PMAC (1 p.m. Central/ESPN2) – two teams who have made marked improvement under first-year coaches.

At LSU, Will Wade has guided his team to five SEC victories. Four of LSU’s final five regular-season opponents have a losing conference record, so there are winnable games on the remaining slate.

At Missouri, Cuonzo Martin has led his team to eight SEC victories. If the NCAA tournament field would be announced now, Missouri would be one of the 68 teams. Martin has fashioned an impressive body of work minus his best player – Michael Porter, who was considered the best freshman in the nation.

Martin is on the verge of taking a third different school to the Big Dance. Martin had one team at both Tennessee and California reach the NCAA tournament. Martin, a disciple of former Purdue coach Gene Keady, uses that physical style.

“Martin always has hard-nosed defensive teams,” Wade said. “He lives and dies on every pass and every possession. He is an excellent, excellent basketball coach. The expectations at Missouri were high because of Michael Porter. But, he’s been hurt. Martin has done a very good job.”

Missouri has won five consecutive games, including road victories against Alabama and Ole Miss. Opposing teams are averaging just 67 points per game against Missouri. The opposition is making only 40 percent of its 3-point shots, including 31 percent on 3-pointers.

“Unfortunately, Missouri looks a lot like Alabama except they shoot it well from three (38 percent),” Wade said. “They are big and physical inside. They are a big, physical defensive team and they can knock down threes.”

One can sense some frustration with Wade as regards the progress made by LSU in his first season. The Alabama game was a perfect example. The Tigers pulled within one point in the second half before falling victim to a 26-3 Crimson Tide run.Wade is realistic when examining LSU’s personnel this season.

“Alabama dominated us in the second half,” Wade said. “They dunked it 12 times. Alabama caused us to miss layups. We have 6-3 guys trying to shoot over 6-7 to 6-10 guys. Alabama had very good rim protection. They had active hands. Missouri has the same qualities.”

Wade acknowledged he has not been at this type of personnel disadvantage in his two previous conferences – in the Southern Conference with Chattanooga and in the Atlantic 10 Conference with VCU.

“We had the same deficiencies at the four (power forward) at Chattanooga,” Wade said. “But, we were not overwhelmed in conference there. We were more overwhelmed in non-conference games. We were not overwhelmed at all at VCU.

“Duop (Reath) and Aaron (Epps) aren’t physically outmanned, but they’re all we’ve got. When we take them out, we have 6-4 (Brandon Rachal) and 6-6 (Wayde Sims). We must make do with what we’ve got. We have come to grips with who we are. It’s not what we want. We must compensate in other ways.”

One individual with whom Wade is quite satisfied is junior wing Daryl Edwards. For the season, Edwards is averaging only seven points per game. However, he is averaging almost 11 points per game in the last 3½ weeks. Edwards scored a season-high 21 points in the loss at Alabama.

“Daryl has that swagger,” Wade said. “He started off the 11th or 12th player on his junior college team and worked his way into playing. He is doing the same thing here. During any competitive drill, Daryl’s team won every time. He is a lead dog, a tough kid. Daryl doesn’t tolerate losing.”

LSU has lost five straight SEC road games – four against teams with winning league records. LSU will be seeking its fourth consecutive home conference victory when it meets Missouri.

“We have to concentrate on the one’s we can really get,” Wade said. “We are not at the point where we can compete with the upper echelon teams on the road. I don’t like to say that, but that’s where we are. We have five games left. We need to finish strong.”