In her first three seasons, LSU women’s basketball coach Nikki Caldwell became ‘Mrs. November,’ putting together a 12-6 record in the opening month of the season.
But this season the Lady Tigers have stumbled out of the starting block, managing only two wins in November to go along with four losses, marking the first losing record in November during Caldwell’s tenure.
LSU has struggled to score early in the season for the first time under Caldwell, shooting 35.4 percent from the field and averaging 57.7 points per game.
“What I am seeing is a team that is struggling offensively,” Caldwell said. “We’ve got to regroup and figure out the play action that we need to run — really how to get this team to be more efficient on the offensive end.”
Coming into the season, the Lady Tigers averaged 68.3 points per game and averaged shooting 42.7 percent from the field during November games under Caldwell.
Consistent scorers have led LSU’s offense to early success in Caldwell’s previous seasons, but this season, the Lady Tigers have lacked leadership on the offensive end since their season-opening loss against the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
In November games during Caldwell’s first three seasons, LSU’s leading scorer averaged 17.1 points per game.
The production of the Lady Tigers’ leading scorer declined to only 14.7 points per game this November, which is partly because of LSU’s struggle to replace the offensive production of former guard Jeanne Kenney and former forward Theresa Plaisance.
The offensive leadership has fallen on the shoulders of sophomore guards Raigyne Moncrief and Rina Hill, who are not the same type of consistently productive scorers as Kenney and Plaisance.
In November 2013, Kenney averaged 7.3 points per game and 2.7 assists per game, while Plaisance averaged 12.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Although Hill started with Moncrief in each of LSU’s six November games, she managed only 3 points per game and struggled with turnovers, posting a 3-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Despite leading LSU with 10 points per game through November, Moncrief did not effectively direct the offense from her point guard position and managed only nine assists.
“Coach Caldwell gave us the opportunity to perform and it is our duty to go out and perform, each night,” Moncrief said. “It starts with Rina Hill and myself. We are the two point guards and are supposed to give the ball in space, but we had a ton of turnovers and miscommunications.”
Through Caldwell’s first three seasons, the Lady Tigers averaged 18.6 turnovers per game in November, but this season LSU averaged 20.6 turnovers per game.
The Lady Tigers turnover struggles cost them victories against teams that pressured them on the offensive end.
LSU committed 21 turnovers against then-No. 22 Rutgers on Nov. 22, including 13 in the second half, which helped Rutgers outscore the Lady Tigers in the second half.
“When we turned it over, we turned it over after we had gotten an offensive rebound and then we chucked it,” Caldwell said. “Those were the turnovers that really made a difference against a team like Rutgers. Turnovers are part of our game. We’ve had teams that went on to Sweet 16, and we were averaging 20-plus turnovers a game. We just want to make sure that they’re those dead-ball turnovers.”
Another contributing factor to LSU’s offensive woes in November was the absence of junior guard Danielle Ballard, who was suspended indefinitely on Nov. 5.
Coming into the season, Ballard led the returning Lady Tigers with 10.7 points per game. After losing Plaisance and Kenney, Ballard would have been the main offensive threat for LSU, and adjusting to her absence has been difficult for the Lady Tigers.
LSU used its speed on the defensive end to create pressure through its full-court press defense that has helped keep the Lady Tigers in games despite their offensive efficiency.
In the three previous seasons under Caldwell, LSU allowed opponents to score an average of 61.8 per game and shoot 38 percent from the field.
The Lady Tigers through its first six games held opponents to only 57.2 points per game and shooting 41.6 percent from the field.
“Our team has done a lot of good things the past few games,” Caldwell said. “Defensively, we’ve put out a great effort. We’ve done a nice job of disrupting people offensively. We’ve done a nice job of really extending our defense and forcing turnovers.”