With New Team in Place, LSU Basketball Focused on Finding Right Pieces to Puzzle
With the way college basketball rosters turn over every year, finding that right chemistry with the group is usually step one for every competitive program. In LSU's case under coach Will Wade, the Tigers have had some level of returning stability in each of the prior three seasons.
There was Tremont Waters and Skylar Mays back in 2018. Mays, Javonte Smart and Darius Days in 2019. Smart, Days and Trendon Watford in 2020. But this season is a bit different as Days is the only returning veteran core piece of this 2021 roster, making it both exciting and a bit unknown in terms of what this Tigers' rotation could potentially look like.
It's been an exciting time for Wade, who is the ultimate analytics guru and has a ton of options to choose from with how this rotation could potentially play out.
"I really like the group that we’ve put together. I told the team the other day that it’s hard for me to get mad at them sometimes because I like them so much," Wade said. "They’re fun to be around, they’re fun to coach, sometimes I got to make myself mad before I walk into practice so I can kind of get out of us what I need to get out of us somedays."
Wade and the Tigers hit the transfer portal hard this offseason, bringing in Missouri's Xavier Pinson, Illinois' Adam Miller and Cincinnati's Tari Eason. Freshmen Efton Reid and Brandon Murray have also drawn rave reviews this offseason and figure to be fixtures, as well as returning players like Mwani Wilkinson, Eric Gaines, Alex Fudge and Shareef O'Neal.
"I like what we have, I really think we’ve got guys – some of the newer guys in the transfers have high-major experience and high-level experience," Wade said. "Every year is fun, every year is a different puzzle; you’ve got to put the pieces to the puzzle together and I'm excited about the opportunity to coach these guys and opportunity to put this puzzle together and hopefully make it a masterpiece."
With such a significant portion of this team arriving on campus in just the last few months, building out that team chemistry and finding an identity has been the most critical part of the offseason. Wade has tried a number of different tactics, including team dinners with no phones and regular speakers coming in with their own stories about team building.
Finding those players who can be counted on throughout the course of the season starts with how they carry themselves every day in their preparation. Wade said the most recent week of boot camp has also been a strong indicator of what to expect in terms of team leadership.
“We’re trying to do a lot more team building, spend a lot more time together," Wade said. "This group’s a lot closer than we’ve had in the past. We haven’t started handing out playing time so sometimes that has a way of making things go a little sideways. I think we’ve tried to build some oxytocin with the group and get them closer together. Part of it’s the boot camp we’ve been doing, I think our guys know who they can count on and depend on.”
