Hobbled LSU Must Adapt to Myriad of Injuries Plaguing Roster

Will Wade is in a rare situation with this 2021 team he hasn't yet experienced at LSU. The Tigers have all of the talent to compete with the best teams in the country when fully healthy but the injury bug has hit LSU like never before under Wade.

LSU has dropped five of its last six and are physically and mentally drained at the moment, primarily because of the hobbled roster. The injuries that have been known for weeks are the knee sprain with Xavier Pinson and the ankle sprain with Darius Days, both injuries the players are trying to play through.

But the list doesn't stop with them. Guard Eric Gaines is playing through a wrist injury. Brandon Murray has a beat up thumb that makes it hard for him to catch a ball, much less dribble and shoot. Justice Williams has a toe injury that requires a shot before every game just for him to be able to play.

Because of the injury status of a number of players, Wade is now just hoping to get in one good practice ahead of the Vanderbilt game on Saturday. All of this is a primary concern into why the Tigers just haven't looked the same, starting with the injury to Pinson a month ago

"It's our biggest issue. When we're healthy and rolling our team's been pretty good," Wade said. "We just gotta get back to that. Our rotations have been off with our injuries, it's been a lot herky jerky. We gotta get back to where it's a lot smoother and I don't know when that's gonna be. Until then we just gotta survive.

"I've never been able to practice this little and it's part of the reason our defense has slipped, our switching has slipped, everything that's all part of it. We gotta have seven or eight guys we can play. That's been the No. 1 focus, just getting those guys healthy back and feeling good."

While Wade isn't fully ruling Pinson out, the team wants to see how he responds over the next day or so. Wade says he's been moving around fine but when he gets to cutting it's where the issues start to pop up. The team is also waiting on a new knee brace for Pinson as well and if he adjusts well to the new brace there's a chance he could suit up at Vanderbilt.

"We need him back to as close to full as he can be. He's not doing himself or our team any favors going out there like he's been. I appreciate him trying and wanting to help but we've gotta do what's right by him," Wade said.

LSU walks into Vanderbilt, a place where Wade has yet to win as the Tigers coach, and is a team that gets to the free throw line a ton, led by guard Scottie Pippen Jr., who is No. 3 in the country in free throw attempts this season.

Pippen came in as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year and has lived up to the billing as a scorer, leading the conference at 19.3 points per game. The Commodores are also top five in the SEC in three point makes so it'll be important for the Tigers to have better communication and switching on the perimeter.

"They're a good team, they won at Arkansas and played Kentucky really well. They're a team we've struggled with so it'll be tough game for us.