No one would listen to him.
All week long after LSU’s victory over No. 7 Mississippi State, head coach John Brady preached to his team and the media that Ole Miss is a solid team with four returning starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament team.
Unfortunately for everyone associated with LSU, the Tigers (12-3, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) did not heed Brady’s warnings and fell Saturday to the Rebels (10-4, 1-2 SEC) 67-57 in front of 8,000 fans at the PMAC.
“For some reason, nobody ever thought they [Ole Miss] were that good,” Brady said. “Nobody gave them a lot of credit. I don’t get it. They lost a couple of close games. They are a good basketball team. They were better than we were today.”
In a second half full of runs, it was Ole Miss who finished the game on a 22-7 run and put the ice-cold Tigers away with tough defense and determined hustle.
Even though LSU shot a dismal 7-of-25 from the field in the second half, it was not the offense Brady was concerned about.
“We cannot guard anybody in the league,” Brady said. “We have not held a league team to under 50 percent shooting, yet. If your team is not based on defending and rebounding, you have no chance to win significantly on a consistent basis. And that is what disturbs me about our group.”
Ole Miss shot 50 percent from the field for the game, led by Justin Reed’s 17 points.
“We couldn’t stop them on defense,” said senior forward Ronald Dupree. “We did not have any intensity on defense. If we are not shooting the ball well or stopping anybody on defense, we are going to lose the game. We just have to buckle down and start focusing more on stopping our opponents from scoring.”
Junior forward Jaime Lloreda led the Tigers with 14 points, but struggled at the foul line, going 4-of-10.
Senior point guard Torris Bright getting in early foul trouble did not exactly help the Tigers cause either.
After picking up two fouls in the first five minutes of the game and sitting out the rest of the first half, Bright never got in the flow of the game and struggled, shooting 1-for-6 from the floor with two turnovers and no assists.