LSU Men’s Basketball enters another tough week of SEC play starting with a road game Wednesday night against Alabama. Leading up to the game I was able to talk with Austin Hannon who covers Alabama Men’s Basketball for The Crimson White. With that said, here is the conversation I had with Austin and what he had to say about this Alabama team.
Rauterkus: To start off, what’s the feeling around the program right now coming off of three consecutive losses.
Hannon: The hype was massive at the beginning of the season, but has fallen off over the last few games. You open up the season and you have a lot of new talent. A lot of guys that left, obviously John Petty and Herb Jones were huge for us last year and beat LSU three times. But they didn’t return, we lost Primo to the draft, but guys like JD Davison and Charles Bediako come in that haven’t really, other than a couple of games really formed in themselves. We started 5-0 after beating Oakland and you go to Orlando, you lose to Rick Pitino and Iona which was kind of like a hiccup game they defended really well on the perimeter and we dropped that one. You bounce back with a couple of games, beat Gonzaga, beat Houston so it’s like okay, Alabama is the real deal. We’re ranked number six, everybody’s all in on the program and we took that trip to Memphis and we got pounded badly, and they were playing really, really bad basketball at the time. Of course, they’ve got a lot of five star talent on their team, but when you’re ranked number six in the country off those wins, you’re not really expecting to lose to a team like Memphis. And then there was the loss to Davidson. We struggled against Tennessee, but we’re able to beat them without Fulkerson and Kennedy Chandler, and we go on the road and beat Florida. So it’s kind of like the momentum is back again. Then you go play the 13th team in the SEC in Missouri, and they score 92 points on you. Then, a lot of emotions are high when you play Auburn, almost beat them, but still a loss. Then just Saturday, we went down to Starkville and we dropped our third in a row, against a good Mississippi State team that I believe is underrated, but still, when you have the aspirations that we have this season, that’s a game you’re supposed to win.
Rauterkus: It seems like defense has been where the issues have come from. What’s been the main problem on that end of the court?
Hannon: It starts on the perimeter, which was really, really good last year, because we had Herb Jones and John Petty on the perimeter who are long, good defensive bodies. But this year, we were kind of undersized, a little bit at the guard position with Quinnerly and Shackelford. They’re kind of letting guys get by them, which pulls the forwards up, which leads to dump offs and easy dunks or pass out threes that are wide open. When teams start making that shot, the defense kind of falls apart. Then once you’re giving up that many points, you kind of lose confidence in defense, so it’s kind of like a domino effect, really. However, I think it all starts at the guard position where we’re a little undersized and giving up second chance points has been another really big issue because we’ve given up offensive rebound after offensive rebound, which has led to more shots, which obviously is going to lead to more makes. So it’s just little things. It’s not necessarily that our players are not good defensive players, but when you give up a bunch of offensive rebounds, and you give up blow bys, easy baskets come after that.
Rauterkus: Rebounding seems to have been an issue so far, how would you assess the play of Alabama’s frontcourt so far this season?
Hannon: They’re good players, they have a big issue with fouling, which you’ll see tomorrow night. I mean, they foul way too much, Juwan Gary has played less than 10 minutes in back-to-back games against Auburn and Mississippi State because he’s gotten in foul trouble. It all goes back to the blow bys defense, because you have to step up on the guards and that contact leads to more fouls and then they get out of the game. So we’ve got to bring in guys like Darius Miles that are a little undersized to play the four and five, and you give up more rebounds so it’s just kind of a domino effect.
Rauterkus: The defense has struggled at times, but LSU knows better than everyone else that once that offense gets going it is hard to stop? What kind of impact have the guards like Shackelford and Quinnerly had in that regard?
Hannon: Yeah, they’re really good at scoring the basketball, they’ve kind of gone through a little bit of a rut recently, but it’s really nothing else but just kind of cold shooting. Early in the year, they kind of looked like themselves making shots, but Ellis and Shackelford and Quinnerly they’ve started to all miss three pointers and then once your confidence goes away, your defense sometimes goes away. So they just have to make some shots because they’re all streaky guys, and Quinnerly is really good at getting to the basket. That’s probably what he’s best at, he’s a great ball handler and he can get to the rack with anybody. But guys like Shackelford and Ellis and even Noah Gurley who plays the four and five, confidence really comes when they start knocking down shots. So, Alabama is kind of like one of those teams, if they’re cold, it’s going to be a bad night, and if they’re hot, it’s going to be a bad night for the other team.
Score Predictions:
Rauterkus: This matchup is an interesting one to me because it’s two opposite play styles going at each other. With LSU being such a strong defensive team that struggles to score at times, and Alabama being a team that can light it up on offense but often struggles defensively, something will have to give in this matchup. In my opinion though, a game like this favors the Crimson Tide because they are at home and truly need this game with their backs against the wall after losing three in a row.
Prediction: 74-67 Alabama
Hannon: I agree. I think that Alabama will play with its backs against the wall and I think a desperate team on its home court is dangerous, especially a talented team like the Crimson Tide.
Prediction: 77-71 Alabama.
