LSU Basketball Hitting Stride as SEC Play Winds Down

The answer was short and sweet from LSU forward Tari Eason, who was asked Wednesday night after a win over Georgia if the Tigers felt like they're about to go on a serious run.

"Yes," Eason said.

The Tigers are winners of three straight since inserting senior guard Xavier Pinson back into the starting lineup. While there is still plenty to work on, this group feels like they're starting to catch their stride as SEC play begins to wind down.

This has been relayed plenty throughout the 2021-22 season but the Tigers are just a much crisper team when they have all of their parts. The starting lineup more often than not is able to get this team on the right track and has had a lot of success this season. For example, the trio of Pinson, Eason and Brandon Murray outscore opponents by 60.8 points per 100 possessions when sharing the court according to LSU's Cody Worsham, which is the top trio in the country.

Eason, LSU's leading scorer, is essentially an extension of the starting lineup coming off the bench and gives the Tigers better matchups and keeps him out of foul trouble in that role.

"We're a good team and everything just runs a little bit smoother, the rotations run a little bit smoother," Wade said. "The matchups are little bit more advantageous for everybody. Everything's just smoother with that lineup."

Finding and exploiting matchups is everything in college basketball, particularly on the offensive end of the floor where the Tigers have struggled at times. Against any defense, the goal is to get the opponent in rotation by driving and moving the ball offensively, something that Pinson is so good at and why Wade wants him on the floor as much as possible.

On Wednesday night, the benefits were hard not to notice when the Tigers got Georgia into rotation, not only leading to open shots but second chance opportunities with their 17 offensive rebounds.

"When the ball moves, the defense is stirred up so when they switch they got their two guard trying to box out our four man," Wade said. "When we weren't getting offensive rebounds, the ball sticks. If we can keep them moving we'll get on the offensive glass a lot and that's what Pinson brings. The ball moves we can find mismatches and if you don't find the mismatches you have the mismatches on the offensive glass."

Some of it was because of foul trouble but Wade, who has been preferential to eight man rotations this season, went a little deeper Wednesday night by playing 10 guys double digit minutes. There were some benefits to it and liked what he saw for the most part out of that group.

In the end, what Wade and this team are working towards is getting back to the peak level this team was at prior to all of the injuries. The program was coming off top 25 wins over Kentucky and Tennessee and just starting to hit its stride when all of the injuries started to happen.

At 7-6 in league play, LSU sits two games back of Arkansas for a top four seed in the SEC with the Razorbacks, Alabama and Kentucky still on the schedule one more time. Wade feels LSU is getting closer game by game to the team that was just starting to play at its best before the injury bug.

"I think we're getting back closer to where we were. We're still a little bit sloppy in some areas but I think we're certainly getting some improvement," Wade said.