The LSU basketball team has outperformed its modest expectations early on, outscoring opponents by an average of 18 points per game during a 4-0 start.
Just don’t be surprised if it’s fool’s gold.
LSU is no stranger to quick starts, especially against the bevy of directional schools and low-level competition that has littered the Tigers’ schedule so far.
Last season’s squad raced to a 10-3 start against markedly better foes and 7-2 marks ushered in the 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
Players say they’re aware of how fickle non-conference games can be, but believe this year’s team — which has six players on scholarship for the first time at the Division I-A level — needed to ease into the action.
“This is a whole new team,” said sophomore forward Johnny O’Bryant III. “These good starts mean nothing, but the experience does. We’re learning to play together right now.”
New LSU coach Johnny Jones said training O’Bryant and sophomore point guard Anthony Hickey as team leaders puts the early games at a higher premium than normal.
To make his point, Jones contrasted his team’s first four games against what it will see Thursday night in Big East opponent Seton Hall.
“Our key guys are those two sophomores and we’ll count on them to carry us against a better team,” Jones said. “Freshmen like Shane [Hammink] and Malik [Morgan] will be tested like never before and they’ll be looking at the coaches for [help]. I’ll tell them to talk to Johnny and Anthony.”
There’s still the nagging question that follows beating Mississippi Valley State or McNeese State: Was there anything to learn about LSU in those easy wins?
Junior college transfer and leading scorer Shavon Coleman said it’s the attitude that matters.
Coleman recalled Jones chastising the team after allowing 57 second-half points in a lackluster 102-95 win against Northwestern State last week.
“He’s not satisfied with that from us, even though we got the ‘W,’” Coleman said. “Coach doesn’t want a 20-point win; he thinks the other team shouldn’t score. He wants to win by 100 or 200.”
O’Bryant said attitude plays into defensive critiques, which he said don’t change according to the quality of competition.
“Defensively is where you really learn what you’ve got early, because it’s an effort thing,” O’Bryant said.
For inexperienced players like Hammink, getting comfortable with college basketball is preferable to tackling ranked opponents in the first month.
“I need to slowly build my way up, and this start has been like that,” Hammink said. “The decision making is so different at game speed because your head just goes so fast. I’m just now getting comfortable with it.”
With an 18-game Southeastern Conference slate awaiting the Tigers, they don’t figure to have any breathers come 2013. Except several SEC teams have already posted putrid results this month.
Mississippi State has been run off the floor by major conference opponents, Vanderbilt posted 33 points in an ugly loss to Marist, Auburn got blasted by Murray State and fell to Rhode Island and South Carolina lost to Elon.
Six of LSU’s 18 conference games come against those four teams, but O’Bryant said that doesn’t change the approach.
“We’ve done pretty well so far compared to what people thought, but I know what the SEC is like,” he said. “None of us are happy yet because the big challenge starts Thursday and it won’t stop [until] March.”
LSU sophomore forward Johnny O'Bryant III (2) tips in the basketball for the score on Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 in the 77-63 win over the University of California, Santa Barbara in the PMAC.
