Monday night featured a high-flying dunking spectacle for a packed PMAC crowd that roared after each slam, but it wasn’t good enough, the LSU men’s basketball team said.
The No. 23 Tigers jammed 13 of its 33 baskets, showing its fans the massive amount of potential in the young LSU basketball team (2-0, 0-0 Southeastern Conference).
The Tigers found one major straggling aspect in their first two games — rebounding. They aim to fix it against University of South Alabama (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt Conference) at 8 p.m. on Thursday in the PMAC. 
Freshman guard Antonio Blakeney, SEC co-Freshman of the Week, said the team’s weakness was addressed in practice following LSU’s 91-69 win against Kennesaw State University on Monday.
“Rebounding and paying attention to detail,” Blakeney said. “We got beat on the boards last game and in the McNeese [State University] game, so definitely a lot.”
Boxing out and a lack of effort had the Tigers outrebounded 37-40 against Kennesaw State, LSU coach Johnny Jones said.
Jones said LSU’s defense is getting better but that winning the rebounding battle is the most important goal for the Tigers’ defense going forward.
“It’s really important that we become a better rebounding team,” Jones said. “That’s one of the areas where we haven’t been as sharp. We’re looking for those guys to step up.
“We lost the battle of the boards, and that’s an area that we have to win.”
The youthful LSU squad will need time to get acclimated to playing with one another, but the team is finding new ways to play together, along with becoming a better rebounding team, Blakeney said.
“We’re progressing well,” Blakeney said. “First two games we kind of let up and let them back in it, but this last game we kept the foot on the pedal. We’re growing a lot.”
LSU, which starts three true freshmen, experience some of the speed bumps most young teams face. Blakeney said playing with freshman forward Ben Simmons makes the process smoother than                                                expected.
Simmons, a John R. Wooden Award preseason Top-50 player, finished his first two collegiate games with a combined 33 points, 11 assists, four blocks and four steals.
“Ben’s a great player,” Blakeney said. “Every game he’s going to do something different. He just wants to win.”
LSU and Simmons are using Thursday’s game as the final tune-up before the team heads to New York to face Marquette University and Arizona State University or North Carolina State University — who recently defeated South Alabama, 88-70 — on Monday and Tuesday.
Jones said South Alabama “had some very good moments against a good team in NC State,” after playing the Wolfpack already this season.
“It’s just another game to get better,” Blakeney said. “They’re going to be a good team just like the teams in New York. We’ve got to really be ready.”
Jones complimented LSU’s student section and the overall crowd in the first two games this season. He took Simmons and senior guard Keith Hornsby to LSU fraternity and sorority houses on Tuesday, beckoning for Greeks to come to Tigers’ home basketball games. 
“We were really excited about the crowd on Monday,” Jones said. “It was exciting to bring them to hit the sororities and fraternities houses to encourage them to keep coming out and seeing us.