It was about a month ago the day before the eighth win in a 12-0 start to LSU’s men’s basketball season that Tigers’ coach Will Wade uttered words that finally proved prophetic.
“Our margins of error are very, very thin,” he said. “We’ve got to play well every night, we can’t take a night off if we want to beat anybody who has a pulse.”
The unbeaten 16th ranked Tigers played their worst game of this 2021-22 season Wednesday, opening SEC play with a 70-55 loss at No. 11 Auburn in which LSU had season lows in points, field goals made (18), field goal percentage (28.6) and assists (4).
“We played our hearts out,” Wade said of his team's first loss. “We just didn’t play with the discipline and the smarts we needed.
LSU (12-1 overall, 0-1 SEC) dug itself a game-opening 18-1 deficit by missing its first 16 field goals attempts including 11 3-pointers. It was an ill-advised number of 3-point attempts for a team ranked 241st in Division 1 in 3-point percentage at just 32.2 percent.
The Tigers, who trailed 32-21 at halftime, cut the Auburn lead in each half to six points. But three LSU turnovers in each case helped Auburn re-extend the lead and LSU rarely found a hint of consistency in any phase of the game to get over the hump.
Offensively, since no LSU player apparently can shoot mid-range jumpers, the Tigers either jacked up 3s (6 of 29, 20.7 percent) or kept driving to the basket hoping to foul out 7-1 Auburn sophomore center Walker Kessler.
All Kessler did was score 16 points, grab 10 rebounds and block 11 shots to become the first Division 1 player in the last 25 years to record a triple-double against a team 10-0 or better.
“Our defense was outstanding,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, whose team improved to 12-1 overall and 1-0 in the SEC. “It starts and ends with Walker Kessler, his ability to protect the rim. Walker cleans everything up. If there's a better defender, rim protector and shot blocker in the country, I haven't seen him. You've got to be a tough guy to be willing to get up in the air in all of that traffic, and he doesn't get enough credit for that."
Added Kessler, a North Carolina transfer, "We have, if not the best defense in the country, one of the best. I think we showed that tonight."
LSU entered Wednesday’s game ranked first nationally in field goal percentage defense (33.8 percent) and first in scoring defense allowing 54.1 points per game.
The Tigers’ defense wasn’t terrible, but LSU simply didn’t give itself a chance when 22.1 percent of its 77 offensive possessions ended in turnovers.
LSU had to shuffle its starting lineup when freshman guard Brandon Murray was sidelined with a pulled hamstring he suffered in stretching drills on Monday.
It forced Wade to move sophomore Eric Gaines into the lineup and also resulted in the college debut of previously injured freshman signee Justice Williams.
Williams held its own with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals off the bench, but Gaines and senior starting guard Xavier Pinson combined for 11 turnovers and 4 of 20 field goal shooting including 1 of 11 3s.
Besides Pinson and senior Darius Days, no LSU player had ever played before a packed, hostile road atmosphere because COVID-19 limited home arenas to 25 percent capacity last season.
It’s why Wade viewed the Auburn loss as a painful, but needed lesson for a squad that has three sophomores and four sophomores among its top nine players.
“This is what life's like on the road and the SEC, this is how it is,” Wade said. “We got to learn from it, we got to grow from it.
“I know people will be upset and jumping off the ledges and stuff like that. I still feel great about this team. We got great people. We got great chemistry. We're built on a rock-solid foundation. We're good. We've got great character, and nothing changed about this team.”
It doesn’t get any easier for LSU, which hosts No. 18 Kentucky (10-2, 1-0 SEC) on Tuesday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. UK opened SEC play Wednesday with an 83-56 home pummeling of Missouri.
“We’ve got another test coming, so we can’t sulk on this,” Days said. “We’ve got to reboot. I feel like this year we probably have the best league in the country. This is a test every night.”
