LSU Coach Will Wade Details What Tigers Must Do to Walk Out of Auburn With Win
Will Wade, Darius Days and Xavier Pinson are really the only ones who know what kind of environment LSU walks into tomorrow.
The No. 16 Tigers travel to No. 11 Auburn for what will be the first of seven straight heavyweight matchups for the purple and gold to kick off conference play.
"Large step up in weight class," Wade said.
Auburn is one of the toughest road matchups for any SEC team over the last few years and one of two arenas in the conference where LSU has yet to pick up a win under Wade. The fifth year Tigers coach has even had to tell some family members they couldn't come because the tickets have been so hard to get.
"Days and Pinson are the only guys who have been on the road in this type atmosphere," Wade said. "We've got newer guys and some of our guys last year played in front of cardboard cutouts. Home court advantage is a lot different and Auburn has as good a one as any in the country. It's going to be one of those great college basketball environments."
This is without question one of the two or three best teams LSU will face this season with depth across the board, particularly in the front court lead by Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler. Smith comes in as one of the most highly touted freshmen in the country and is backing it up, averaging 16.2 points a game and shooting 45% from three-point range.
Kessler on the other hand is also a former five-star big and is one of the premier rim defenders in the country, averaging 3.8 blocks per game. It's going to be a real test for Efton Reid, Darius Days and Tari Eason to slow down the Auburn bigs but one of LSU's strengths this year has come in protecting the rim and stellar on ball defense.
"Their two supposed backup big were their two starters last year. Kessler was a five star, McDonald's All-American, does a great job, one of the best defenders in the country," Wade said. "Then Jabari Smith, from what I've seen in college basketball, he's gonna be a top pick in the draft from what I've looked at. He's a tremendous talent and they run a bunch of really good elbow iso stuff for him."
Wade outlined three major points of emphasis for LSU to walk out 1-0 in SEC play Wednesday night, starting with valuing the ball, transition defense and rebounding. The Tigers' coach was not a happy camper with the 10 second half turnovers the team committed against Lipscomb and said the team has been able to work on a lot of different areas during an extended holiday break.
"The last two times we've played them we've given up 18 and 17 offensive rebounds," Wade said. "They've bludgeoned on the offensive glass. They're gonna pin their ears back and go to the glass.
"To give ourselves an opportunity we're gonna have to value the ball, can't cough the ball up a ton. We're gonna have to have great transition defense, front, back, stop the ball, cover the rim, find the shooter and we're gonna have to rebound. If we don't do those three things, no shot. Might as well fire the plane back up and leave at halftime."
During this extended break, LSU has worked shooting and offense in the morning, practicing and working on defense in the afternoon and film study in between. One of the areas the team has worked closely with individual players on is footwork on their jump shooting.
Wade knows LSU is a better outside shooting team than its shown to this point so he's gone back and studied each player's footwork on their shot to put them in the best possible spot to make shots. Scoring 70 points would give LSU a shot at Auburn according to Wade and the only way to do that is not turn the ball over and make shots.
With a good handle on the focus and keys to the game on Wednesday night will be, this is a good early test to see exactly how well this LSU team performs against another elite program.
"They're focused, they know what's at stake and what we're going into environment wise," Wade said. "They're focused as we can be so we'll let our hair down and see what happens."
