While a run to the NCAA tournament at this point is theoretically possible, the Tigers would have to either win out or run the gauntlet in the SEC tournament to do so. With the way the team has looked, the prospect of it accomplishing either of those tasks is not a part of even the most optimistic fans’ dreams.
When a season is lost in the NBA, the best thing a team can do is rest its stars and push for a high draft pick while also giving its younger players more playing time to develop. So even if it’s having a terrible season, fans can still look forward to the prospect of landing top talent next season.
Unfortunately for LSU head coach Matt McMahon, continuing to lose isn’t going to make many fans happy. It’s bound to have the opposite effect as losing out in the NBA, as the prospect of attaining top talent becomes less likely the worse a college basketball program appears.
The best thing McMahon can hope to accomplish besides miraculously making the NCAA tournament is to generate more excitement for next season and he can do that by showing what his younger players can do. While there isn’t a copious amount of untested talent on his roster, there are certainly players we can hope to see more from moving forward.
Tyrell Ward
Tyrell Ward came into the season with high expectations, being rated as a four-star prospect and the 11th best small forward in the class of 2022 according to 247sports. While McMahon didn’t hype him up quite as much as Jalen Reed in the preseason, he still liked what he saw from the forward and had high hopes for him as a scorer.
“[He] is a very skilled guard at 6’7” who can score the ball at all three levels,” McMahon said on Ward before the season began. “We love his three-point shooting combined with his unique ability to finish at the rim in a variety of different ways.”
Most preseason projections at least considered him a possibility to start, with the four spot being a complete mystery up until the first game. But Ward played zero minutes in LSU’s opening game against Kansas City and since then has played in just 12 games, three of which he contributed double-digit minutes.
In those three games against New Orleans, Florida and Alabama, Ward averaged just under four points on 13.7 minutes and 38.5% shooting from the field. Those aren’t incredible numbers, but against the Gators, he showed flashes of what he could do with more playing time, nailing two critical threes in the first half before disappearing in the second.
It isn’t uncommon for a freshman to be inconsistent, especially early on in his career and when the team that’s surrounding you was pieced together in the preceding offseason. But playing him as limitedly as McMahon did early in the season is questionable, even more so considering LSU’s struggles offensively.
Jalen Reed
Jalen Reed, son of former SEC Player of the Year Justin Reed, has gotten decent minutes throughout the season, especially at the beginning of it and recently. He’s averaging 15.5 minutes per game and while he did lose his starting job after eight games, his minutes started progressing upward again after the Tigers lost to Auburn.
From those facts alone, it seems like he’d be producing numbers that indicate he has adjusted to the SEC and improved, but that isn’t the case. He’s scoring just under three points per game to go with a matching three rebounds and he’s doing that on 37.7% shooting from the field as a big man.
For comparison, on 19.6 minutes per game last season, former LSU center Efton Reid averaged 6.3 points shooting 52% from the field. From a per-minute standpoint, Reid scored 0.32 points per minute compared to Reed’s 0.186. Those who watched the Tigers last season understand how disappointing the center was, so that comparison should be worrisome.
He was projected as a versatile scorer and skilled, stretch–four power forward (meaning he can score both inside and outside). McMahon also stated he would be great at scoring off the dribble prior to the season. But Reed has shot just six three-pointers through 338 minutes on the court, making two of them, and that off-the-dribble success hasn’t been present for most of the season.
So rather than seeing Reed attain more minutes, the hope here is to see more of what he can do.
Cam Hayes
Cam Hayes may be a junior, but he has two years of eligibility remaining, making him a potential part of LSU’s future. Despite expectations surrounding the former NC State guard being relatively quiet, Hayes came in as a moderately active rotational player and impressed, earning more and more minutes before landing a starting role in mid-December.
In that same timespan, Hayes had a three-game stint where he averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and four assists on 61% shooting from the field and 47% from three, stellar numbers from a player that wasn’t on most people’s radar. But that’s when things took a turn.
In the 10 games since then, the guard has shot 36% from the field and 23% from three, with a lot of those struggles coming in the team’s last three SEC matchups. But he has maintained decent, albeit inconsistent success on the boards and at finding the open man, averaging just over two rebounds and two assists through eight conference games.
He’s had his minutes dwindle a bit since he earned the starting role, with the guard averaging just under 23 minutes per game in LSU’s last seven contests. While that’s partially due to an injury he suffered at the end of its matchup against Texas A&M, his minutes haven’t upwardly progressed since his second game back against Auburn.
His minutes will likely remain around the 20-25 per game range for the remainder of the season. The problem with that is he is still the most efficient scorer in LSU’s backcourt, shooting 46.6% from the field and 37.7% from three. The Tiger backcourt has shot woefully throughout the season, especially from long range, so having Hayes reemerge alongside Adam Miller would be a huge step in the right direction.
