Roles are beginning to be carved out for the Tigers with sophomore forward Wayde Sims and senior forward Aaron Epps sharing time at the four.
The four spot in coach Will Wade’s offense is critical for LSU to figure out this season.
The position will require perimeter shooting and offensive rebounding according to Wade. Both Epps and Sims are capable shooters and can crash the glass on the offensive end.
“He’s basically a two or a three man,” Wade said. “You have to make a lot of decisions at the four. You’re more likely to play a smaller guy there than a bigger guy.”
Epps has spent the off season adding 10 pounds of muscle, which he said will help with rebounding on both ends of the court. The goal is to get Epps, current at 222, up to 225.
“In the league that we play in it’s definitely going to help,” Epps said. “The four has been my natural spot.”
Sims on the other hand was told to trim down to fluctuate minutes at the three, four and five. Sims said that learning three positions gives him an advantage with more available playing time.“
“I realized I had to lose weight,” Sims said. “I feel like it helped me in conditioning and getting in better shape.”
Defensively, the four spot is one that could require Sims to guard all four spots on the perimeter.
“We all could step out and cover a guard,” Sims said. “We try to keep the five man on the inside but the guards could cover a four man if they needed to.”
Wade has preached to the players about the importance of defense in his system. Sims believes this unit is coming together nicely on the defensive end.
“We’re in the right positions when an opponent drives,” Sims said. “Just helping out your teammates if they get beat.”
Wade also gave some injury updates with freshman forward Galen Alexander returning to practice last week. Graduate transfer forward Jeremy Combs is up to running on the treadmill in 30 minute intervals and Wade hopes to have him running on the court as early as next week.

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Dilyn Stewart

The LSU basketball team lines up for suicides during warm-ups before practice in the PMAC practice facility on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.