Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #3OT where I break down what went right and what went wrong for the LSU Tigers! In today’s edition, we look at LSU’s loss to Arkansas.
1st OT: Poor Start Too Much to Overcome
When it came to LSU on Saturday against Arkansas, they showed that they have the ability to make a game that looked dead in the water competitive in the final minutes. However, it was the poor start that doomed them. They were 1-for-11 to start the game and were down by double digits in the first five minutes of the game. One of the more mind-blowing stats to me coming out of this game is that they missed five straight shots in one possession. That’s about half of those first 11 shots coming in around 30 seconds. It really showed how ill prepared they were offensively. Again, they were able to get back in the game after they were able to find their shot in the second half when they shot 66.7 percent but that wasn’t what sealed their fate.
2nd OT: Make Your Free Throws
What really sealed the Tigers fate was shooting poorly in the second half from behind the charity stripe. In the final twenty minutes, they shot for an abysmal 28.6 percent. If they had been able to do as well as they did in the first half in that aspect of their game, there is a chance that they could have been able to snap their four-game skid. The chance is fairly slim though because they would only have 14 attempts versus Arkansas’ 24 attempts.
3rd OT: Jones’ Leash Gets Even Shorter
Each of these losses early on in conference play should frustrate the fans of LSU basketball. It also means that each and every one of the losses shortens the leash that Head Coach Johnny Jones has. When they cut to the Tigers coach on the broadcast, it seemed like a man tired of being at his job. I’ve seen that look before in the years before I got into the radio business. He looked like he’s checked out after losing five straight and starting 1-6 in conference play. Joe Alleva needs to begin the process of finding a successor before the calendar flips over to February.
-Clint Domingue