LSU 66, Texas A&M 55

This was a splash of cold water to the face.

All of our improvement disappeared on the road trip to Baton Rouge, and the Tigers won comfortably without the presence of their best player Tremont Waters.

Box Score

We Were Dominated Inside

The Tigers scored their first four buckets on dunks, and that was a harbinger of things to come. LSU did whatever they wanted inside, torching us with a 40-22 advantage around the basket… but it didn’t end there. They had two players with double-doubles, they had six blocked shots, and they had 16 offensive rebounds.

It was a testament to their advantage down low that they should shoot 10.5% from beyond the arc (2-19) and win this comfortably.

Terrible Ball Movement

We just flat out didn’t move the ball offensively. We settled for (and missed) bad threes, and no one seemed particularly interested in getting open off the ball. It was lazy, unorganized, and generally at odds with the improved play we had seen the last three weeks.

Six assists in a D1 college basketball game… not really going to get it done.

And I don’t know what it is about LSU’s defense, but they are the architect of two of our worst offensive performances of the season. In fact, with the exception of our dog of a home game against Mizzou, the two LSU games rank dead last in efficiency and effective FG%.

If only the Tigers secondary could match that effectiveness.

Final Score: LSU 66, Texas A&M 55

Additional Notes

• Flagg fell back down to earth tonight. The threes weren’t falling (0-4), he couldn’t get anything going at the rim (1-5), and he registered no assists, blocks, or steals. Three points and five boards is far what we’ve come to expect from a guy who regularly fills up the stat sheet.
• Starks hurt his shoulder pretty badly about midway through the game. Last we heard he was at the hospital to gauge the seriousness of the injury.

Overall Thoughts

Well, we had to figure it out eventually right?

This turnaround was either a nice little story during a down stretch in our schedule, or it was a legitimate charge into NCAA contention. Deep down, I think we all knew that the answer was from the beginning, but it didn’t make that 4-1 stretch any less fun.

Now we’re looking at a home game against the lowly Commodores, who haven’t won an SEC game all season.

BTHO Vanderbilt