LSU winning in different ways

$1-dollar gets you TigerBait.com Premium for 30 Days. CLICK HERE to subscribe

Normally, outshooting the opposition is a good recipe for winning most college basketball games.

LSU is not following that pattern so far in its Southeastern Conference games.

Heading into Saturday’s matchup with Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens (5 p.m. Central/SEC Network), the Tigers have made a higher percentage of their field goal attempts than the opposition in just five of their ten victories.

Four of those five victories did come in games away from the PMAC – at Ole Miss, at Texas A&M, at Mississippi State and at Kentucky. The only other time LSU had a better field goal percentage than its opponent came in the conference opener at the PMAC against Alabama.

Coach Will Wade identified three areas in which the Tigers have been successful enough to overcome mediocre shooting.

“Our offensive rebounding helps,” Wade said. “Our turnovers have been down the past six or eight games. Getting to the free throw line helps. There have been a lot of hidden points for us at the free throw line.”

The statistics confirm Wade’s assessment. In LSU’s ten conference victories, it has grabbed more offensive rebounds than the opponent seven times. In the ten SEC victories, the Tigers have had fewer turnovers and more made free throws than the opponent eight times.

Forcing turnovers and grabbing offensive rebounds result in more possessions and, as a result, more scoring opportunities. Only in the Alabama game did LSU not win two of these three categories. In the victory against the Tide, the Tigers outshot Alabama from the field 49 percent to 40 percent.

LSU won all three of these statistical areas in its 92-82 victory against Georgia at the PMAC on Jan. 23. The Tigers committed just eight turnovers – nine fewer than the Bulldogs. LSU had 11 offensive rebounds as compared to eight for Georgia. The Tigers had a 21-14 edge at the foul line.

Wade has put the victory against Kentucky in the rearview mirror. LSU still has seven games remaining as it chases its first SEC championship in ten seasons. Georgia shredded the Tigers’ defense in the second half of the first game. The Bulldogs made 54 percent of their field goal attempts for the game.

“This is the second time we have played somebody the second time around,” Wade said. “We did a poor job the first time against Arkansas. We lost to them at home after winning on the road. We didn’t play with an edge the second time. We have to get that corrected for Georgia.

“We must guard them better than we did the first time. Our transition defense has to get better. Georgia scored 44 points in the paint against us and a lot of them came in transition where they scored at the rim.”

It was been a difficult first season for Georgia coach Tom Crean. The Bulldogs have lost nine straight conference games. Georgia’s one and only SEC victory came more than five weeks ago against Vanderbilt. Four of the Bulldogs’ four home SEC defeats have been by double digits.

Georgia’s most productive players have been a pair of sophomores – post player Nicolas Claxton (13 points and nine rebounds per game) and wing Rayshaun Hammonds (12 points and six rebounds per game). In the first game against LSU, Hammonds and Claxton had 18 and 15 points, respectively.

LSU, which lost its last seven SEC road games last season, is seeking its seventh straight SEC road victory Saturday in Athens. There have been just two other seasons when the Tigers won their first seven road league games – 1952-53 and 1980-81.

“We are in a good routine on the road,” Wade said. “We have some composure to us. We don’t panic. We take a different mentality which is needed to win on the road. I hope we continue it.

“Every game is important. Every game is meaningful. We have to be locked in and focused. The bigger the game you win, the bigger the next game is.”

LSU Tigers Nike Salute to Service T-Shirt – Black