LSU (78) vs. Grambling State (57) Final Tigers Win

Posted on 12/1/18 at 10:14 am

Posted by CoastTrashTiger

Baton Rouge

Member since May 2015

1966 posts

Posted on 12/1/18 at 10:14 am

Intro Sorry for the later than usual post, but your basketball Tigers return to action today against another instate opponent in the Grambling State Tigers out of the SWAC. This is definitely a get back on track game for both squads as both come into the game after defeats on the road in preseason tourney/classic action. This is an afternoon tip at the PMAC and should be a new test to gauging our young Tigers and how they respond to adversity early on.

About Grambling: The G-Men come in with a record of 3-3. Last year they finished 17-14 which is impressive for any SWAC/MEAC schoool as they play a ton of away games against larger competition, in so called "money games". They also went 13-5 in SWAC play as well as they knocked off Ga Tech on the road last year, and have already played last years final four Cinderella in Loyola Chicago tough before the Ramblers pulled away late in the second half. They are coached by Donte Jackson who is in his second year at the helm for the G-Men. This is Coach Jackson's first head coaching job at the Division One level, but he has had previous success as a head coach at Stillman and Central State University, both lower class HBCU programs. Coach Jackson is a tough nosed coach that will slow it down and run a multitude of sets primarily out of high pick and roll actions to start that lead into a lot of down screening and they look for curls and shooters off of that. They are primarily man to man but did mix in limited zone against Loyola, they also played @Wyoming and gave the cowboys all they could handle losing only 78-86, but had it down to a 2 point deficit with 45 seconds to play. They have had 4 different players lead them in scoring, but only two that average double figures.

Grambling plays 10 guys consistently and can play 11. They will not be intimidated by LSU's size and athleticism as they have a 7'1, 6'10, and 6'9 post that all play major minutes. They are a very good SWAC team but they have some holes. They have a negative assist to turnover ratio and they can get very careless in transition. They also have given up more than 10 offensive rebounds a game.

Sorry this will not be as in-depth a report as I normally do but as I have said about previous games, this is one of those games that is frankly more about LSU. They are coming off their first two losses of the season in a heartbreaker in OT against FSU they should have won, and a sound defeat to Oklahoma State that was a lot worse than the 77-90 score indicated.

Keys to the Game: LSU has got to right the ship, and mainly fix the turnovers and especially clean up the rebounding, even before they went to Orlando against La Tech there were problems starting to show. Tremont Waters has really struggled, I personally think he is in a new role and pressing too much and playing way too much outside of himself. Coach Wade and staff asked him to be more of a passer and creator this year and while he is giving it his all at times it has gotten chaotic for him. LSU has used 3 PGs in every starting lineup but I think one may need to come off the bench atleast to see how against a team we should beat who does best at both adding instant offense and maintaining poise of the offense. Javonte Smart is really starting to come into his own and you can see he is quickly becoming one of if not the most vocal leader on the floor. Kavell Bigby Williams has also played much better of late and I think him and Darryl Edwards are who need to be leaned on right now.

LSU needs to come out focused and energized, because Grambling will, and while LSU is much more talented, Grambling is extremely experienced and does not have a single freshman on the roster and only 1 sophomore, even if LSU gets up the G-Men will not quit, and I want to see LSU control and keep on an opponent for a full 40 minutes.

A little bit about what happened in Orlando and our schedule in general. LSU played 3 really good challenging and different style of opponent in the Advocare Invitational. All 3 opponents in Charleston, FSU, and OSU, I think will be be NCAA tourney teams. LSU frankly did not respond well to their first loss of the year and played defeated against OSU. Hopefully the entire tournament was a learning experience, because in less than two weeks LSU goes on the road in a huge two game stand @Hosuton and against St. Mary's in Las Vegas. Both of those games are within two days of one another and will go a long way to not only determining LSU's postseason potential chances but also their seed. This is still a very good team, and one positive is their was no pointing of fingers or blaming of teammates they have stuck together. Time to get back on track against a team that will not do any favors for our RPI, but its a day game against a SWAC opponent during finals/prep and another challenge for our young LSU Tigers about maintaining a focus from start to finish.

Prediction
Half
LSU 39 Grambling 26

Final
LSU 91 Grambling 71

This post was edited on 12/1/18 at 6:05 pm