Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #3OT where I break down what went right and what went wrong for the LSU Tigers! In this edition, I look at the historical loss to the Florida Gators.
1st OT: Defense Virtually Nonexistent
LSU defense has never been great, but Wednesday night’s loss to Florida showed that this might be one of the worst LSU defenses that they’ve ever had in college basketball. The Gators dominated in all aspects offensively with a 56.3 percent performance from the field. While that doesn’t seem like an amazing game, you’ll think this is one of the best games they’ve ever played when you see that they were 57.6% from the three-point line. How can a team like LSU allow such inefficient defensive efforts night in and night out? The “announced attendace” was 7,009 and all the fans that were actually there deserve better.
2nd OT: Tigers Can’t Make Threes
When a team can’t make three pointers in a game, it’s usually a bad thing. However, the Tigers learned long ago that they’re not great from beyond the arc, so when you’re only shooting 17 shots it doesn’t kill you as much. It just seems like LSU has learned that they can’t make those three point shots and won’t bother shooting them in the second half instead opting for anything else.
3rd OT: Historical Loss Building More Frustration
For a historical reference, this is the worst loss since before Pete Maravich even was a part of the LSU Tigers. This was the worst loss since 1963 and has to be a breaking point for athletic director Joe Alleva. Alleva came over from Duke, one of the most iconic basketball programs of all time so he should be furious that the Tigers aren’t performing at the level they’ve expected from them. During the broadcast, they cut to Alleva near courtside and he just had this look in the final minutes. Much like Johnny Jones body language last Saturday, his face told you everything you need to know about what’s happening in the near future.
-Clint Domingue