LSU’s opening game against Kansas City displayed some of the growing pains that fans expected to see heading into the season. There were times when it seemed like the Tigers were going to allow the game to slip away, but they managed to scrape by 74-63.
There were certainly negatives, as the team committed 15 turnovers and 23 fouls, along with its early struggles with defensive rebounding that it later fixed. It also went toe-to-toe with Kansas City in the paint, an opponent that shouldn’t have given it trouble there. It struggled to get runs going and gain momentum, which allowed the Roos to remain in the game much longer than they should have.
But a win is a win, and it typically takes positives to achieve that. Four players making their LSU debuts gave the team the edge it needed to pull away in the second half.
Adam Miller
After a year and a half without NCAA competition and a long, painful recovery process, Miller was finally able to take the court as an LSU Tiger. LSU head coach Matt McMahon mentioned heading into the season that it could take some time for the shooting guard to get back into a groove, understandably so.
However, that didn’t seem to be the case, especially early in the second half. After finishing the first period with eight points and iffy shooting percentages, Miller nearly matched that point total in the first four minutes of the second half, making three of his first four shots, including a deep three.
He ultimately scored 18 points on 43% shooting from the field and 44% from three and made 4-of-8 from the field in the second half. If that’s what he’s able to do in his first game in 19 months, LSU fans should be excited about what he’s able to do in the near future.
McMahon commended him for his resolve throughout the process and was excited to see what he did on the floor tonight, not just in terms of overall play and scoring, but also in terms of leadership.
“The first thing everyone sees is 4-of-9 from three, 18 points, but I loved his leadership on the floor,” McMahon said. “He was saying all the right things, communicating with teammates, and I thought he really worked and competed on the defensive end of the floor.”
The Murray State Trio
If you’re unfamiliar with who I’m referring to, KJ Williams, Justice Hill and Trae Hannibal all elected to follow McMahon to LSU after he took over the head coaching job. Of those three, it seemed like Williams and Hill were the players McMahon trusts the most early on, as Hill placed third on the team in minutes played and Williams placed first by far.
Hill’s success started earliest of the three, as he was an active facilitator from the get-go. He had four assists through eight minutes of the game, and ultimately finished with seven. And though he didn’t shoot amazingly from three-point range, he did make a huge one as the first half buzzer sounded that provided the team with momentum going into the break.
“We needed that,” McMahon said on the shot from Hill. “That was a big play. We wanted to take a shot at it to see if we could make one and Juice [Justice Hill] was able to bank it in.”
Williams and Hannibal were the main contributors when it came to getting the team out of its rebounding slump, combining for 22 rebounds, eight of which were offensive. Williams started off his LSU career with a double-double as well, finishing the game with 13 points and 14 boards.
Hannibal did most of his rebounding in the second half, coming down with six of his eight in the period. McMahon commended him for that second half showing, believing it was important in helping them pull off the win.
“I thought Trae [Hannibal] was able to make an impact on the glass for us, where we really struggled to clean the glass in the first half,” McMahon said. “I thought he was a big part of the improvement there in the second half for us, cleaning up our defensive rebounding.”
This team has a lot of room for improvement, but it also has a lot of potentially strong pieces to build around. We’ll see if it’s able to fix some of the problems that were displayed tonight in its next matchup against Arkansas State on Saturday.
