LSU Basketball Drops Out of AP Top 25, Continues Free Fall In NET Rankings

After spending much of the last month well placed in the AP top 25 and NET rankings, LSU is starting to descend in both.

On Monday, the Tigers completely fell out of the AP top 25 while the updated NET rankings have the purple and gold at No. 16. At one time, this team was flirting with the top 10 in AP poll and in the top 3 of the NET rankings but having lost six of its last seven, this LSU team is starting to figure out some hard truths.

In most recent losses to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, LSU mightily struggled on both ends of the court early and it wound up burning the team by the end. Will Wade has said constantly this team can't afford to be so sloppy with the razor thin margin for error when not at full strength.

LSU has been without its starting point guard Xavier Pinson at full strength going on a full month while a multitude of other players are banged up as well. But the injury excuse can only go so far as Wade mentioned after the Vanderbilt loss on Saturday.

"Health related, attention to detail, different issues. We can't blame it all on health, we didn't get an offensive rebound in the first half, that's an effort issue," Wade said. "We don't follow the details on the scouting report, give up 11 threes to two of their best shooters."'

It's been hard for LSU to get going when it's shooting as poor as it has and compounding the issue by not being able to finish at the rim more consistently. This is clearly a team that is not confident on either side of the floor right now and goal No. 1 for Wade and this staff will be finding something on offense this group is comfortable running.

If not, a once very promising season could be lost in Baton Rouge.