What I saw - LSU

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

The good tigers got the win last night as Auburn beat LSU 78-74. Last night's game had wide swings in scoring, with Auburn trailing by as many as 11 and leading by as many as 15, before eventually earning the 4 point win. This was a win we needed and has moved our RPI in the right direction, now sitting at 74. While the bad taste of starting conference play 0-3 is still lingering, this team is 12-6 overall with plenty of wins left in the tank.

On to last night's game. I liked the move in the starting lineup to put Lang back to his usual off the bench role, but the addition of Dunans and Spencer (at the 4) caused some early disorganization, which contributed to the 11 point deficit referenced earlier. That being said, Spencer played with great energy and that mostly made up for any missed assignments over the full course of the game. What stood out most about the game to me last night was the balanced scoring and contributions from the bench.

On the balance, I would like to give Dunans a shout out. He gave us what we need from him, 6 reb, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and 12 points. Wiley also had a solid game, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and 10 points (first time in double digits I think). Heron led us in scoring with 12, but I would still like to see him with the ball more, we did continue our trend of winning every game where he has multiple assists (he had 2 to go along with 6 rebounds). The bench was very strong, with McLemore and Johnson both providing great minutes and production. Brown contributed as well off the bench with 6 rebounds and 8 points, though he didn't shot a great percentage he did contribute good defense down the stretch.

Which brings me to the final 2 minutes of the game. The lineup that CBP chose to close out the game was Johnson, Brown, Dunans, McLemore, and Spencer. An interesting grouping. Though we gave up several late offensive rebounds, this group played well together. Johnson managed the floor, scoring on open drives and dishing when his drive was cut off, and McLemore played tough down low. One thing you have to do to close out games is make free throws and this group did it. In fact the whole team shot free throws well, shooting 86.4% for the night. 

Looking at the playing rotations, we played very balanced minutes, 8 guys had 20+ minutes, and Lang had 16. Smith didn't see the floor, and that is something I have been predicting for a while. With WIley and McLemore playing well, and SPencer back from suspension, there just aren't enough minutes to go around for him to get much time. Lang has even been getting minutes at the 4, which will stop with Purifoy's return, and he will likely be relegated to marginal minutes from here on out. 

Twitter was a buzz after the game that Purifoy told the student section he will be back for Bama this weekend, but there is nothing official on that as far as I know, so we will play that by ear going forward. 

The defense was very good at times, and average at others, but overall we did hold LSU under their scoring average, and LSU is a good scoring team. That is something to be encouraged about going forward. We also rebounded the ball pretty well. 

We only won by four, but showed some signs of improvements in several areas. Sitting at 12-6 and 74 RPI is still very much alive for some form of postseason play. With Bama coming up this weekend and hopefully the return of DP, there are reasons to be excited about basketball. 

[AUGoo 2,659]

As I recall, Heron is playing on a bad wheel.

He even looks like he is having difficulty elevating like he did early in the season.  I've been wondering how much that has affected his game.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

I should have also mentioned that there was one area where we were severely outplayed, second chance points. They didn't get an outrageous number of offensive rebounds, but they did get a huge amount of second chance points. This was largely due to our failure to matchup on defense following a scramble for the ball. That is a lingering chemistry and communication issue. These are the issues that will hang around until we start to have a consistent lineup and rotations. With Purifoy coming back vs Bama, if it happens, we will be shuffling the lineup yet again. Some of it is unavoidable, but this is the challenge for CBP, to keep the team developing with the shuffling. 

10 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

As I recall, Heron is playing on a bad wheel.

He even looks like he is having difficulty elevating like he did early in the season.  I've been wondering how much that has affected his game.

He looked good early, I think it affected him later in the game. 

[jared52 4,354]

I'll just add some bullet points:

• I was glad to see Spencer and Wiley in the game together as I thought it might cause some matchup problems. It was diorganized as you said, but it seemed to come together.
• Wiley has a ways to go to handle the physical aspects of post defense.
• I thought Brown had a good enough game that it might get him going.
• McLemore was very important in some big stretches, on both ends.
• I'd like to see more discipline on the breaks. Too many forced passes led to turnovers during big AU runs. You can kill your own run with sloppy play and I felt AU did that during both of their big runs.
• The guys shooting FTs last night are typically good FT shooters. To be almost 90% was outstanding and the difference in the game for AU. LSU hit theirs too, so AU hitting their normal percentage would have been a loss.
• The refs were the best I've seen so far. Called a great game and let the game happen, while calling the necessary fouls.
• I was suprised to not see Smith for at least a spell the first half, but the run lasted a while and Bruce didn't want to end that.
• I do agree that Bruce needs to call timeout more instead of letting the guys weather the storms so long.
• Harper seemed to disappear but it was good to see Johnson make things happen and make some big baskets.
• LSU scored a few times on inbounds plays under the basket where AU looked like they weren't even aware the play had started.
• Congrats to Bruce Pearl for win number 500! Here's to 500 more at AU.

[CameronCrazy 1,059]

5 hours ago, jared52 said:

I'll just add some bullet points:

• I was glad to see Spencer and Wiley in the game together as I thought it might cause some matchup problems. It was diorganized as you said, but it seemed to come together.
• Wiley has a ways to go to handle the physical aspects of post defense.
• I thought Brown had a good enough game that it might get him going.
• McLemore was very important in some big stretches, on both ends.
• I'd like to see more discipline on the breaks. Too many forced passes led to turnovers during big AU runs. You can kill your own run with sloppy play and I felt AU did that during both of their big runs.
• The guys shooting FTs last night are typically good FT shooters. To be almost 90% was outstanding and the difference in the game for AU. LSU hit theirs too, so AU hitting their normal percentage would have been a loss.
• The refs were the best I've seen so far. Called a great game and let the game happen, while calling the necessary fouls.
• I was suprised to not see Smith for at least a spell the first half, but the run lasted a while and Bruce didn't want to end that.
• I do agree that Bruce needs to call timeout more instead of letting the guys weather the storms so long.
• Harper seemed to disappear but it was good to see Johnson make things happen and make some big baskets.
• LSU scored a few times on inbounds plays under the basket where AU looked like they weren't even aware the play had started.
• Congrats to Bruce Pearl for win number 500! Here's to 500 more at AU.

I completely agree about Bruce needing to call more timeouts. It seems like the great coaches always know when their team needs a timeout. So that's definitely concerning to me, especially since we have such a young team that needs extra instruction & direction. 

[au302 2,669]

I know this team will miss Dunans next year but losing Ronnie will also be tough. The guys not special but he's so solid and really knows the game. He's like a stabilizer when Harper's off. He has that deadly floater and makes everyone around him better. Couldn't be more happy with his play 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

18 hours ago, jared52 said:

I'll just add some bullet points:

• I was glad to see Spencer and Wiley in the game together as I thought it might cause some matchup problems. It was diorganized as you said, but it seemed to come together.
• Wiley has a ways to go to handle the physical aspects of post defense.
• I thought Brown had a good enough game that it might get him going.
• McLemore was very important in some big stretches, on both ends.
• I'd like to see more discipline on the breaks. Too many forced passes led to turnovers during big AU runs. You can kill your own run with sloppy play and I felt AU did that during both of their big runs.
• The guys shooting FTs last night are typically good FT shooters. To be almost 90% was outstanding and the difference in the game for AU. LSU hit theirs too, so AU hitting their normal percentage would have been a loss.
• The refs were the best I've seen so far. Called a great game and let the game happen, while calling the necessary fouls.
• I was suprised to not see Smith for at least a spell the first half, but the run lasted a while and Bruce didn't want to end that.
• I do agree that Bruce needs to call timeout more instead of letting the guys weather the storms so long.
• Harper seemed to disappear but it was good to see Johnson make things happen and make some big baskets.
• LSU scored a few times on inbounds plays under the basket where AU looked like they weren't even aware the play had started.
• Congrats to Bruce Pearl for win number 500! Here's to 500 more at AU.

One big point I think you made that is very accurate is that the game was refereed well. Ticky tack fouls were not given much face time, so the game had a good pace. When a foul affected the flow of the game, it was called. This is exactly what it should be. Refs went to the monitor when they should have on that call under the basket with 2 mins left where McLemore actually tipped it out of bounds instead of the LSU player. Traveling was kept in check, no big errors in judgement from this crew. I think that was the best officiated game of the year. Should be a model for other officials...