In college basketball, especially during conference play, there are often ebbs and flows.
No team knows that better than the LSU’s men’s basketball team, which has experienced slow starts and erased large leads because of defensive lapses, turnovers and sudden poor shooting.
Even with the inconsistency, the Tigers (13-4, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) have ended up on the right side of most of their contests. But after blowing a 13-point second-half lead against Texas A&M on Saturday, LSU will try to fix those mistakes against Florida at 6 p.m. tonight in Gainesville, Florida.
LSU coach Johnny Jones said he recognizes his young team has to learn how to play with leads in the second half in a competitive conference.
“The greatest teacher is being in it,” Jones said. “Playing [and] experience is the best thing for you and being a part of it. That’s the great thing from being inexperienced to being an experienced team. Again, our veteran guys that have maximized minutes are sophomores, and other guys are new to the team.”

The Tigers couldn’t find a rhythm offensively in the second half Saturday against Texas A&M, shooting 29.4 percent from the field and turning the ball over 9 times in the final 20 minutes. After scoring a combined 19 points in the first half, sophomore forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey became less involved in the offense while shooting a combined 4-of-13 from the field with four and six points, respectively.
For a team that likes to push the ball up the floor, Mickey said he knows slowing the pace of play is something his team is capable of doing when playing with a lead.
“I don’t think it’s tough. I believe we are a good half-court team,” Mickey said after the Texas A&M game. “We can either do half court or can get out and push the ball. We just had some bad shot selection at the end of the game. We didn’t execute our plays like we should have, but I definitely feel that we can be a great half-court team and a great open-court team.”

The Tigers will have to adapt as they face two straight road games against the Gators (10-7, 3-1 SEC) tonight and Vanderbilt on Saturday. Despite a 3-4 start to the the season and a 12-point loss on Saturday to Georgia, the Gators sit at second in the conference behind No. 1 Kentucky. Four of Florida’s seven losses came against teams ranked in the top 50 of the Ratings Percentage Index.
Jones still expects a difficult matchup with Florida, which had to replace four starters from last year’s Final Four team.
“I expect them to space the floor really well,” Jones said. “They are going to move the ball precisely. On the defensive end, they are going to do an excellent job of having you scouted and making sure they try to force you to play to your weakness instead of your strengths. If you have a good scoring post, they are going to double down on your post guys. If you have shooters, they are going to shade them and try to take them away from you.”
If Jones is correct, the Gators may go with a similar zone defense Texas A&M ran to limit Martin and Mickey. The Aggies packed the paint, and the Tigers shot just 7-of-23 from deep.
Though LSU realistically could be 4-0 in the conference, freshman guard Jalyn Patterson said the Tigers can’t dwell on the mistakes of their recent contests.
“We got to bounce back,” Patterson said after the Texas A&M game. “Coming this week, we got two tough road games, so we got to be focused on what’s next.”

You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR.