Organized and chaos are two words that rarely go together, but for the LSU women’s basketball team, organized chaos has been vital to its exhibition game success and holds the key to its long-term goals.
In the Lady Tigers’ two exhibition games, they’ve forced 70 turnovers and held their opponents to an average of 53 points. LSU’s aggressive defense in both the half court and full court have given Loyola-New Orleans and Mississippi College more than they could handle.
In the full court, the Lady Tigers use their own style of trap defense. It resembles a man-to-man press before the in-bounds pass, but LSU quickly jumps into one of its various zone- trapping defenses once the ball is in-play.
LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said the Lady Tigers will continue this form of defense throughout the year.
“I like the fact that we’re going to be able to extend our defense,” Caldwell said. “Run some 1-2-2, 1-2-1-1 press, 2-2-1 and really mix it up. Organized chaos is what we call it.”
It may look chaotic, but the Lady Tigers say it’s just sound team defense. Freshman forward Stephanie Amichia said they’ve been working on moving together all preseason.
“Everyone is moving with each other, and that comes with talking and wanting to have the next person’s back,” Amichia said. “We’re moving fluidly, and we’re doing what we’re supposed to.”
LSU’s full-court defense isn’t the only part of the Lady Tigers’ defense causing mayhem. The LSU half-court set is just as aggressive and hidden as the full-court press.
Caldwell said the zone carries principles from man-to-man and tends to be a little improvised.
“It takes the shape of the offense,” Caldwell said. “If you’re running a 1-3-1, it looks like we’re running a 1-3-1. If you run two guards up top, we’re going to match that. If you run a 1-4 flat, we’re going to look like that.”
To beat a zone, opponents try to find the weak spot like the free throw line against 2-3 zone, but the Lady Tigers defense is a more complex than a standard zone, which Caldwell said makes it harder to crack as long as her team is grabbing the rebounds.
“We sometimes leave our backline up and rotate on the backside or sometimes we bump our backline down, and that’s where you see the guards running back and forth,” Caldwell said. “As long as they are playing it hard and playing it smart and improvising when need be, it’s a very tough defense to break especially if you’re committed to one shot, one and done, and let’s clear the rebound.”
The Lady Tigers have allowed 9.5 offensive rebounds per game in the two exhibition contests, something that could be attributed to the spread offensive styles LSU has faced.
Loyola and Mississippi College shot a combined 54 three pointers — which leads to longer rebounds — but the two teams shot 26.7 percent and 12.5 percent from the three-point line.
Caldwell said she’s proud that her team got out to contest the three-point shots and force misses, especially against two teams with different methods of getting its shots.
“They would run four out and one in and that made us run,” Caldwell said. “That made us have to get off those back screens where they try to screen the bottom of the zone and really get out there on that close out. That’s a different look for us than the other night, when they were really trying to put their head down and penetrate and kick.”
While the Lady Tigers’ defense has played well in the first two games, they aren’t ready to call it a finished product.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Rhodes said with so many new faces, the Lady Tigers continue to mesh as a unit, which can only help their defense.
“It’s a process,” Rhodes said. “We’re still working at it. Each day in practice we keep going through the plays and doing the defenses so it’s getting better.”