Payton Prichard
LSU men's basketball senior guard Cam Carter (5) blocks a Loyola player for redshirt junior forward Daimion Collins (10) during LSU's 110-48 exhibition win against Loyola on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.
LSU men’s basketball fell to the Ole Miss Rebels 77-65, making it three consecutive conference losses.
It was a rough offense showing for the Tigers. While Ole Miss does deserve credit defensively for making it difficult to get anything offensively going, LSU simply could not put the ball in the hoop.
LSU shot roughly 41% from the field and 23% from the three-point line, failing to find any rhythm on offense. A key issue for this Tiger team is that they fall in love with the three-point shot. LSU took 31 three-pointers in its game against Ole Miss and only made seven of them.
Although LSU lost its prominent paint presence in Jalen Reed with a torn ACL for the season, the three-point shooting is not one of the team’s strengths. The Tigers rank 13th in the SEC for three-point percentage.
The Tigers are settling for shots beyond the arch rather than attacking downhill with guys like, Cam Carter, Jordan Sears or Vyctorius Miller.
LSU is one of those teams that will be forced to take and make threes throughout the season. As of right now, Cam Carter is the only player who is shooting above 40% from three while everyone else is hovering between 20 and 35 percent.
With a team that struggles to shoot or create isolation offense, the team offense must be better to get players good looks and better shot opportunities. There’s a lack of movement offensively that’s allowing defenders to watch the ball and make plays that stall the offense.
One of the most underrated parts of the game of basketball is the cutting and movement. It keeps the defense honest, makes defenders have to fight through screens and creates mismatches. In the LSU offense, there’s not a lot of that going on.
Players such as Sears, Miller, Carter or Curtis Givens are easily capable of generating their own offense, but it has not been working so far in conference play.
Look at the play of Daimion Collins, an athletic forward who struggles to shoot the ball but has scored in double digits in three of the last four games.
Collins is shooting 63% from the field, but the majority of those shots are in the paint, where he can dunk either on put-backs or lobs plays. Another example is Corey Chest. He’s shooting 63% from the field on the season but most of his points come inside where he can clean up or use his post moves down low.
That’s where LSU needs to start attacking if they want to find success on offense. However, the movement doesn’t matter on offense if you can’t take care of the ball. The Tigers had an abysmal 17 turnovers in their matchup against the Rebels, and it’s not the first time the Tigers couldn’t keep the ball in their hands.
In the conference opener against Vanderbilt, LSU lost the ball 15 times. In their most recent matchup against Missouri, LSU had 14 turnovers.
The Tigers are currently tied in the SEC for most turnovers per game with 13. In a conference that is largely known as one of the best conferences in basketball, it will to get harder down the road against better opponents.
If a team struggles to generate isolation basketball due to not shooting well and turning the ball over, it might be time to change the game plan on offense.