For Matt McMahon and LSU, the starting lineup was always going to be fluid to start the season.
That’s the nature of a team with extremely little continuity, one that was patched together in the transfer portal. However, as McMahon and the team continue to tinker with the starting group, LSU may run out of time to find the right five players.
To date, LSU has used seven different starting lineups in its 18 games. More concerningly, the Tigers have used four different combinations in their last six games. Adam Miller and KJ Williams, the team’s two most consistent offensive players, are the only two members of the team to have started every game.
The team’s starting lineup in its opener, consisting of Miller, Williams, Mwani Wilkinson, Jalen Reed and Justice Hill, was always likely to undergo change as a very new team got a better idea of what players worked best together.
Though the Tigers were 7-1 when starting that group, that record came against a soft early season schedule where several games were closer than expected given the quality of LSU’s opponent.
In December, Wilkinson and Reed were moved to the bench in favor of Cam Hayes and Derek Fountain, creating a new lineup that produced good results. That five-man starting group led LSU to an exciting win over a top-ten Arkansas team and narrowly lost in a close battle against Kentucky in Rupp Arena.
However, that loss to Kentucky was the first of a still-ongoing losing streak that currently stands at five. In that stretch, LSU has gone back to the drawing board. The Tigers have tried subbing Trae Hannibal and Justice Williams in the starting lineup at different points, as Hill was benched and Hayes briefly dealt with an ankle injury.
LSU’s problems during this time seem to be less with personnel and more with general inconsistency across the board. As a whole, the team has struggled at times with its ball movement, shooting and finishing at the rim.
That’s been the case regardless of who’s been on the court for the last few games. As important as it is to find the best five-man group, the search to do so may be contributing to the team’s inconsistencies. With the lineup constantly shuffling, it’s harder for players to build chemistry and for them to fix the issues that have continued to pop up, which suggests that LSU’s best course of action may be to pick a lineup and stick with it.
Still, that’s easier said than done for McMahon and company. As long as LSU continues to struggle, the urge will naturally be to try something in an attempt to fix it. The patience to stick with a lineup and allow it to work out its own kinks is something a team that’s 1-5 in conference play and fighting to stay in the March Madness conversation may not be able to afford.
With only 13 games left in the regular season, time is running out for the Tigers to settle on a starting lineup they trust. The challenge for McMahon is to act decisively and quickly find the group that will steer his Tigers back to their winning ways.