When people look back at the LSU men’s basketball team
70-63 win against Florida on Saturday, they will most likely think of sophomore forward Jarell Martin’s rim-rattling, between-the-legs dunk.
But while the jam by Martin, may have sparked a stagnant LSU offense, what will be overlooked is how well the Tigers played defensively — or at least how poor Florida’s offense looked without its two leading scorers.
Defense, especially on the perimeter, will be a special emphasis for LSU when it travels to face Auburn at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Auburn Arena.
Auburn shot 9-for-20 from 3-point territory when it beat LSU (19-8, 8-6 SEC), 81-77, at the PMAC on Feb. 5, giving LSU its first loss when outshooting the opponent from the field and the second-straight loss to a team below .500.
Jones said LSU’s struggles on defense last time against Auburn (12-15, 4-10 SEC) marred a solid offensive output.
“We scored 77,” Jones said. “That should be plenty enough points to win a basketball game. [Auburn] did a great job of shooting three’s. We got to make sure we have more attention to detail in defending, guarding,and making sure we don’t allow guys to go off with big numbers that way.”
The big numbers Jones spoke of were performances by Auburn senior guards KT Harrell and Antoine Mason. The duo combined for eight treys in Auburn’s win in Baton Rouge and another eight in a blowout loss to Kentucky on Feb. 21.
In conference games this season, Auburn leads the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage, but a big part of LSU’s win against the Gators was a defense that held Florida to 35.3 percent from the field.
In the first half, LSU gave a struggling Florida offense life when LSU went scoreless for more than seven minutes of game action.
LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby said his team’s lack of aggressiveness allowed the Gators to cut into a 13-point lead midway through the first half.
“We became complacent and started trying to protect the lead rather than advance upon it,” Hornsby said.
But after LSU broke the 26-all tie on Martin’s dunk and entered halftime on a 9-0 run, Florida never got within six points. LSU led by as many as 16 despite the Gators outshooting LSU in the second half.
LSU freshman guard Jalyn Patterson said the big difference in LSU not allowing the Gators to make a serious run in the second half was a message Jones had been preaching to his team.
“Coach [Jones] just talks to us about ‘pitching shoutouts,’” Patterson said. “We had to, basically, just sit down on ‘D’ and keep them from scoring. We try to take pride in that.”
Pitching shutouts may be an abstract philosophy in basketball, a sport in which teams are bound to score at some point, but Jones said there’s practical application to that phrase by breaking the game down into defensive segments.
“When we come out of timeouts a lot of times, whether it be media timeouts, a stoppage in the game, or an another opposing team calls a timeout and they have the ball, getting stops and pitching shutouts mean, ‘on that next possession, let’s win the timeout,’” Jones said. “If they’re drawing up an offensive play, let’s make sure we get a stop. Let’s win the timeout.
“If we’re able to do that or win that four-minute segment, those are good parameters for us that we try to stay
by … If you win enough of those four minute wars, some good things generally happen for you in games.”
You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR.