After Thursday’s Southeastern Conference Tournament exit, all that remains for LSU’s season is the National Invitation Tournament bid, which means some reflection is in order.
The Tigers finished 17-14 in the regular season and 9-9 in the SEC, showing incredible fight in almost every game and coming up with two marquee wins over South Carolina and Kentucky.
Without a doubt, LSU is on an ascending trajectory as a program. Next season, head coach Matt McMahon’s third with the Tigers, is an opportunity to take the next step.
The roadblock, though, is that LSU will be losing a fair amount of production. Leading scorers in Jordan Wright and Will Baker, a late-season revelation at point guard in Trae Hannibal, and two valuable bench pieces in Hunter Dean and Mwani Wilkinson will all be gone.
Complicating things is the murky future of Jalen Cook, who, after being suspended for the back end of the season, isn’t guaranteed to come back for LSU. As inconsistent as his availability and performance on the court were, the subtraction of his scoring punch would leave a void.
Though LSU has two top-60 incoming freshmen and will hit the transfer portal when it opens on March 18, a lot of that slack will be left to three former star recruits to pick up.
In LSU’s upcoming NIT run and for the next few years, these young players will have major roles and will be the core of the future.
Tyrell Ward
Pending the yearly offseason additions and subtractions of the transfer portal, Ward is the early leader to be LSU’s No. 1 option offensively next year.
In his freshman year, Ward’s shot was not as good as advertised, and he struggled to make an impact. This year, he took the next step as a lethal offensive weapon.
Though he averaged only 9.1 points, Ward scored in double digits in seven of the final nine games of the regular season (and in one of the games he didn’t, he left early with an injury). During that span, Ward averaged 13.1 points on 48.4% shooting.
Ward’s game-breaking skill is his 3-point shot, which is already NBA-level. Ward shoots at a high percentage both in catch-and-shoot situations and on the move. He finished the season shooting 41.7% from three, which was 46.5% during that aforementioned nine-game stretch.
For most of the season, Ward’s role was just to catch open shots and make them rather than make plays with the ball in his hands. Toward the end of the year, that changed, and LSU began to run plays for him.
In LSU’s upset win over Kentucky, Ward came up with several late plays as the ball handler. He pulled up for deep 3-pointers off of screens and showed decisiveness driving to the net, both skills that will become increasingly important as he receives a bigger role going forward.
The fact that Ward’s efficiency went up, not down, when he was given more offensive responsibility bodes well. In his junior year next season, he could develop into one of the SEC’s premier scorers.
Jalen Reed
Reed is one of the most unique talents on LSU’s roster and has been a favorite of McMahon’s since his freshman year, when he was a starter from his very first game.
In both that year and this year, Reed was eventually benched in favor of Derek Fountain, a player who might not provide much flash but makes heads-up plays and is always reliable for his effort.
Reliability is exactly what Reed’s been lacking at times. He’ll make a spattering of impact plays – a few buckets in a row, a couple standout defensive efforts – and then seemingly disappear for the rest of the game.
In the season, he averaged 7.9 points per game on 51.4% shooting to go along with 4.2 rebounds.
Reed is a tantalizing and uncommon player in the archetype known as a point forward, a big who has the capability to initiate the offense from the perimeter and make plays for himself and others.
He’s surprisingly quick and nimble for his 6-foot-10-inch frame, which allows him to start with the ball outside the 3-point arc and drive to the net rather than have to be set up by a pass like most bigs.
His remarkable body control and fluidity comes in handy when driving to the rim and making moves in the post. He’s shown a knack for making shots with a high degree of difficulty. On top of that, he can make passes out of the high post and on drives to set up others.
With Will Baker and others graduating, Reed will get more looks offensively in the post, where he’s had success with his soft touch around the rim. He’ll also generally be more involved in the gameplan, although he could once again have to battle Fountain for minutes, depending on if Fountain exercises his COVID fifth year.
The problem is that as skilled as Reed is on the perimeter compared to most big men, he’s still not as refined as he’d have to be for that to be a significant part of a team’s offensive attack.
For one, Reed’s ball handling will need to improve. He often lost his dribble this season, and he finished second on the team with 58 turnovers despite a low usage rate.
Reed has also sometimes struggled to bring consistent physicality on the defensive end and on the boards, though that was something that improved as the season went along. He became an impactful defender, often coming over to help at the rim and coming up with 28 blocks on the season.
If he can put it all together, Reed can be a force on both ends with his unique set of skills and athleticism. Heading into his junior year, it’s time for him to take the next step.
Mike Williams III
No matter what LSU’s roster looks like next year, Williams is a player who is primed to make an impact from the guard spot.
As his role changed throughout the year, Williams adapted his game for the good of the team. When Cook was ineligible to begin the season, Williams was the point guard. When he was declared eligible, he went to an off-ball role, which he continued when Hannibal became the team’s initiator.
That kind of maturity and malleability is uncommon in a freshman. With Hannibal gone, Williams will probably get the ball in his hands more in his sophomore year.
When he was the point guard this year, Williams displayed an ability to play fast and still stay in control with his decision-making. Though he frequently got downhill and made smart passes, those are both things he’ll need to do more consistently going forward.
A constant with Williams is his defense. He will undoubtedly be LSU’s ace defender going forward, the one who draws the best opposing perimeter player. He forced 1.2 steals per game this season with his hard-nosed defense and his ability to break on passes.
The most important development of Williams’ freshman season, though, was his 3-point shot. It wasn’t necessarily a hallmark of his game in high school, but as he transitioned to an off-ball role, he became a real threat from deep.
Beginning with a 20-point outburst against Northwestern State in which he made six 3-pointers, Williams shot 42.5% from 3-point range for the final three months of the regular season.
If Williams can combine that and his excellent defense with an improved on-ball game, he will be a difference-maker in his sophomore year. He’s already an outspoken on-court leader.
