LSU Coach Will Wade Reveals Guard Charles Manning Suffers "Setback" in Injury Recovery
If LSU's 99-90 loss to Vanderbilt on Wednesday taught coach Will Wade one thing about his team, it's that the Tigers need injured guard Charles Manning back in the rotation. They need him back "bad."
Manning hasn't played since suffering a fractured foot in the Tigers 89-85 win over Texas A&M on Jan. 14. Manning had surgery two days later and the initial hope was the JUCO transfer could be ready as soon as LSU's matchup with Missouri on Feb. 11.
Before his injury, Manning was not only one of the best defenders on the team but clearly the Tigers best option off the bench. Manning averaged eight points and three rebounds on 40% shooting from the three-point line in 16 games before his injury.
Wade broke the news on Thursday during his monthly luncheon at L'Auberge that Manning suffered a "setback" this week and could be out another few weeks. LSU was hoping to prevent any delays in Manning's return by keeping him in Baton Rouge for treatment while the team played its away games.
When he started to get back to running on the court, that's when the pain cropped up in his foot Wade revealed, causing the team to pump the breaks on his return.
When the team is able to get Manning back into the rotation, Wade said it'll help correct a few of the problems that gave Vanderbilt so much success against the Tigers on Wednesday. The fourth year LSU coach would love to see what a lineup that features both Manning and senior Marlon Taylor would look like defensively.
"We've never had Charles and Marlon on the floor together so when we have Charles and Marlon on the floor it'll fix about 80% of the problem," Wade said. "The problems have to do with matchups in a way they're playing and things like that. We need both of those guys back so that we can kind of go with a five person guard rotation or four person big rotation."
Wade said the formula in four of the five Tiger losses this season has been the inability to guard opponents off the dribble, leading to bucket after bucket in the lane or kick outs for open threes. With Manning back in the lineup, some of those issues might be fixable but in the meantime, the Tigers have a lot of work to do between now and Saturday if they don't want a similar result in Auburn.
