Newfound Change in Leadership, Accountability Has LSU Basketball "Poised to Take Off"
LSU put together its second consecutive 20 win season and was poised to make another run in the NCAA tournament before the season was prematurely shut down because of COVID-19. It was another step in the right direction for a program that had been riddled with inconsistency before Will Wade showed up in 2017.
But behind the scenes, the leadership and culture had slipped and it was being felt throughout the entire program as the SEC tournament started. The leadership of the team had a strong nucleus of Skylar Mays but it started to falter almost immediately on the team's preseason trip to Spain.
Without getting into too much detail, Wade knew there needed to be some significant changes heading into the 2020 offseason. Wade sat down with every single player after the season about what he and the program needed to do to get back to the strong foundation that had been created during the Sweet Sixteen run back in 2018.
"I had to come to grips with some things I wasn't doing very well," Wade said. "Our first two years we were on track but we totally skated off track last year and it's very difficult to get back."
Over the course of those exit meetings with his top players, Mays, Javonte Smart, Trendon Watford and Darius Days, Wade said he learned a lot about how to grow the program and get it back on the right track.
"That's why I'm so confident with this team, we've got a great team, we've got great talent," Wade said. "We had great talent last year but we didn't have all of the other stuff. Give credit to those guys, they had some guts to come up to me and say 'Coach this ain't right, you said this in recruiting and it isn't going how it needs to go.'
"All of the success we have this year will be owed to them, changing the structure, our guys are having fun again. Everybody's on the same page and we didn't always have that last year and that's a credit to Trendon, Javonte and Darius."
In a lot of ways, Wade felt he failed the players last year. Watford was supposed to be a one and done before the season and there was strong speculation that both Smart and Days would be gone after their sophomore years as well. Although the record didn't reflect it, Wade made the requisite offseason changes to galvanize this team like never before and feels very confident in this 2020-21 roster.
So what did change? For one, LSU developed a leadership council consisting of Watford, Smart and Days where each one is responsible for a specific unit of the team. With more structure and with the development of each one's leadership skills, the team is trending in a consistent, positive direction.
The team is more player run off the floor than ever before while Wade has seized control on the court as the primary voice.
"We probably had too many people with their hands in too many different jars and not enough structure," Wade said. "It's been a wholesale change across the board and had unbelievable help from our players. We've invested tons of time in what we call upstream thinking as opposed to down stream thinking which is reacting."
Wade provided an example to the wholesale change that's been embraced by the entire team. In the past, if a player were to miss or be late for a tutoring session, Wade would run the player and that'd be the end of it.
But with Watford, Smart and Days now responsible for a portion of the team and what the players do off the court, Wade has seen more focus and simply guys doing what they're supposed to on and off the floor.
"I'd get eight emails a week for guys being late to that sort of stuff. So now with Javonte, Trendon and Darius as the unit leaders, I may get one a week where we have a miss," Wade said. "I promise you this, if you miss in Trendon Watford's group, it is going to be hell, he's gonna call you out and there are consequences that the group leaders lay out."
It's certainly rubbed off on the players, specifically Watford and Smart who have totally changed how they approach the game because of their added leadership responsibilities. For Watford, not only coming back for another year to improve on his three-point efficiency and defense but develop as a leader played a major influence on him.
"With me coming back, I had to be that vocal leader but all of the guys listen and by me leading, it allows them to get better," Watford said. "Us three being the main leaders, I think we're doing a really good job.
"I feel like I've grown tremendously, I had a year under Skylar Mays' wing so just learning from him how to be a leader was my biggest thing coming back for year two. Me, Javonte and Darius have done a good job with it and we're trying to lead by example."
Smart admitted to not being that much of a vocal presence in the past but worked tremendously hard in the offseason to become that voice for young guards like Cam Thomas, Jalen Cook and Eric Gaines to look up to.
"That's a big deal for this year, we've got a lot of guys looking up to us this year," Smart said. "Once we work, other guys work and I think that's a big step for this year, having the young guys work like we work. I know I was poor at it last year but coach Wade helping us with that was a big step in my life."
