LSU hosting talented mid-major team at the PMAC
LSU impressively took care of a defending mid-major conference champion in its season-opener Tuesday.
Six Tigers players, including their four freshmen, scored in double figures as they dominated Southeastern Louisiana 94-63. The Lions won the Southland Conference a season ago and participated in the NIT after they were eliminated in the league tournament.
A more-highly regarded mid-major team visits the PMAC on Friday. North Carolina-Greensboro, which won both the regular-season and tournament titles in the Southern Conference last season, will be LSU’s second opponent (7 p.m. Central/SEC Digital Network).
The Spartans won 27 games, including 15 in the Southern Conference, last season. UNC-Greensboro gave Gonzaga all it wanted in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Gonzaga defeated Greensboro 68-64. Three starters return from that Spartans team.
“This will be a big test for us,” said LSU coach Will Wade at his Thursday press conference. “They are experienced. They will not be rattled and they will not beat themselves. Our players are well aware of the good program they have and the good players they have.”
UNC-Greensboro, which is picked to repeat as Southern Conference champions, played three Atlantic Coast Conference teams on the road last season. The Spartans defeated North Carolina State by five points and lost to Virginia by 12 points and Wake Forest by six points.
Greensboro’s three returning starters are point guard Demetrius Troy, wing Francis Alonso and post player James Dickey. Alonso, a premier scorer, had 23 points in the Spartans’ season-opening victory against North Carolina A&T. Dickey contributed seven points and ten rebounds.
Wade is more worried about UNC-Greensboro’s inside players than the outside shooting of Alonso. Dickey, who is 6-foot-10, is joined inside by 6-8 Kyrin Galloway. Those two players combined for 16 points and 19 rebounds in the opener.
“Greensboro is an elite offensive rebounding team,” Wade said. “We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Southeastern (12). I was very adamant about that in our edit session. We just didn’t touch them on rebounds. We just ran in there. If we don’t get more physical, we get bludgeoned on the glass.”
The one poor offensive number for the Tigers against SLU was their 3-point shooting percentage. LSU made just six of its 24 shots from behind the 3-point line. At least, six players made one 3-pointer.
“We weren’t ready to shoot a couple of times,” Wade said. “We are a good shooting team. I am not overly concerned as long as we take good shots. We passed up some easy shots and took some harder shots. Now, get back to me after two or three more games, if the poor perimeter shooting is a trend.”
Wade was pleased with the player rotation against the Lions. Nine players were on the floor for at least 15 minutes and no one logged more than 27 minutes.
“I liked the way we rotated our five guards and our four bigs,” Wade said. “A lot of our guys’ minutes will increase. We will use different guys more each night depending upon who plays well and who matches up better with the other team. We will do what we need to do to win that night.”
LSU’s five perimeter players combined for 45 points – led by backup wing Marlon Taylor, who scored 15 points. Skylar Mays had 11 points and freshman Ja’vonte Smart had 10. Tremont Waters had nine points and five steals. Edwards didn’t score in his 21 minutes.
Naz Reid and Emmitt Williams, the starting post players, combined for 29 points and 16 rebounds. Reid was the Tigers’ top scorer with 17 points. Williams registered a double-double in his college debut – 12 points and 10 rebounds. Kavell Bigby-Williams and Darius Days accounted for 18 points and nine boards.
“This game is going to be more physical,” Wade said. “They have 6-9 and 6-10 guys. Alonso is certainly capable of scoring. This is going to be a six-minute game (decided in the last six minutes). We need to have strict adherence to what we are doing for 40 minutes and not 15 minutes.”
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