The goal of basketball is to make more shots than the other team.The LSU men’s basketball team is having trouble in that department. But the problem isn’t very complicated — they can’t make a shot. The Tigers are getting plenty of open shots. LSU coach Trent Johnson likes to say the players “aren’t trying to miss.” They’re still not going in. “Some say the hardest shot in basketball is the uncontested one,” Johnson said. “We’ve certainly had a lot of them. Some of it has to do with guys not being confident, being tentative.”LSU (9-16, 0-11) will have to start finding the net if they want to rope in a first conference win against Mississippi State (18-8, 6-5) on Saturday at the PMAC. The Tigers are currently shooting a meager 40 percent from the field, coupled with 27 percent from 3-point range. Throw those stats in with a 68.4 free-throw percentage and the rim starts to look tiny. “Everybody with the exception of [senior forward] Tasmin [Mitchell] is going to have to knock down open shots consistently,” Johnson said. “We certainly had our share of those on the road in Starkville.”Mississippi State could be in a position similar to the one LSU caught Vanderbilt in Saturday. The Commodores were coming off an emotional victory against in-state rival No. 20 Tennessee. Johnson thinks the Bulldogs will be more hungry after a loss — maybe even desperate. “They’re coming off a tough loss against Kentucky,” Johnson said. “They’re going to be desperate because they’re a bubble team.”Statistically, playing LSU doesn’t bolster Mississippi State’s resume too much at this point. The Tigers, winless in Southeastern Conference play, won’t prop up many RPI rankings. None of the above has affected the mindset of Johnson and company. If anything, he said the loss to Vanderbilt was encouraging. “I was encouraged from the play of our whole team competing with Vanderbilt at a high level,” Johnson said.LSU finally saw a balanced scoring output against Vanderbilt — four Tigers scored in double figures. The last time that happened was in LSU’s last win Jan. 4 against McNeese State. Forwards Dennis Harris and Garrett Green proved to be key cogs in the improved performance against the Commodores. Harris, a freshman, scored 10 points while Green, a sophomore, contributed six points and six rebounds. “Dennis, for the first time since he’s been in college, he pushed himself in a four to five minute section there where he was exhausted,” Johnson said. “Him being able to make some plays in that environment is good. Garrett made some pretty nice plays and was physical playing through some fatigue. He had some good passes.”Johnson was more impressed with the defensive effort of the duo on Vanderbilt junior forward A.J. Ogilvy. “Ogilvy is a handful,” Johnson said. “For Garrett and Dennis to compete without giving is a start. It remains to be seen if we can do that back to back. That’s what I’ve        addressed with them in practice.”LSU players don’t seem to be too discouraged by the close loss. If anything, it was a good game for the team’s chemistry. “It was more like us bonding and knowing what we need to do to get that win,” Green said. “We came into the locker room and said we couldn’t give up or give in and that we should come back out with the same intensity. Now we just have to focus on Mississippi State.” The Tigers are mostly injury-free for the first time since early in the season. Freshman guard Aaron Dotson is the only exception, as Johnson said he left practice after having trouble breathing. “Aaron Dotson has been having a hard time breathing and we had a couple of people look at him,” Johnson said. “He had a chest inflammation of the lungs. It’s a concern to me because any time you have some chest pains, regardless if the doctor clears you or not, it needs to be dealt with delicately.”—-Contact Chris Branch at [email protected]