LSU men’s basketball continued its hot start to the season with wins over Penn State and Wake Forest, crowning them champions of the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida.
The Tigers then traveled back home and beat Ohio 66-51 Wednesday night.
LSU continued to look impressive in these three games and are looking to keep building on the momentum as SEC play gets closer. With that said, here are three major takeaways from LSU’s first eight games of the season.
Tari Eason is Vital to this Team
An emerging star on this LSU team through the first seven games is sophomore transfer forward Tari Eason. Eason is the team’s leading rebounder and second leading scorer, averaging 13.9 points per game. Will Wade spoke very highly of Eason in his weekly press conference, and gave a clear idea of what his value is to the team.
“Tari’s played great,” Wade said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that would question that he’s not one of the best players on our team.”
Outside of just the numbers, Eason’s impact has been felt in a big way on both ends of the court. His size and athleticism has been huge for LSU, especially on defense. He’s shown the ability to switch across all five positions, which is huge for LSU’s system on defense.
In a defense built around switching, it is important to have players who are versatile and can guard multiple positions, and Eason has done just that so far for the Tigers. Offensively, Eason has been one of LSU’s most productive players as well. He’s shown some ability to consistently score and has been extremely effective when driving to the basket. His shooting is still coming along, but when he is able to get in a rhythm from behind the arc, he becomes a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. His overall impact has been felt in a huge way and already looks like one of the best sixth men in the country.
This team has great depth
A big point of emphasis coming into the season for this LSU team was the depth and cohesion of the group.
Compared to seasons past where it felt like the team was carried by a few star players, this team has a much deeper core and can be dangerous in many different ways.
So far this season, Wade has used an eight-man rotation, in which all eight play significant minutes. Off the bench, Eason, Eric Gaines and Alex Fudge have all been key contributors and have prevented any serious drop-off from occurring when starters come out.
Gaines and Fudge have been impressive for LSU through the first seven games of the season. As a sophomore, Gaines has made major strides since last season and has been one of the main reasons why this team has been so good on the defensive end. He has also improved a great deal as a point guard and shown he can be a floor general and run the offense.
Fudge, while only being a freshman, has shown tremendous upside and has answered the questions of whether he’d be able to contribute right away. His athleticism is off the charts, which has made him a valuable piece on both ends of the court. His length allows him to guard and block shots on the defensive end while also making plays around the basket on offense.
The defense allows this team to compete with anyone
Despite everything else this team has shown, the biggest storyline surrounding the start to the season and the Emerald Coast Classic is the defense.
Coming into the tournament, LSU had yet to allow any team to score 60 points, and despite giving 63 and 61 points in each game respectively, the defense continued to impress. The pressing has caused an abundance of turnovers and led to easy offense, which has been huge, especially in games like the one against Penn State where the offense struggled to get going in the half-court.
The press has allowed them to speed teams up and play more to their own style and speed which has been a huge advantage especially late in games. The other big part of the improvement on defense has been the improvements made on the defensive glass.
Cutting down on giving up offensive rebounds and second chance points has made a huge difference and may be the main factor as to how LSU has been able to hold teams under 60 points in six out of eight games.
