LSU Basketball Loses Valuable Bench Player Charles Manning to Broken Foot in the Heart of SEC Play
LSU junior guard Charles Manning walked slowly over to the LSU bench, shaking his head in disbelief, knowing something was very wrong.
"When Charles told me he heard something pop, I had a pretty good idea that’s what it was," Wade told the Advocate after the game.
Manning fractured his fifth metatarsal in the first half of the Tigers 89-85 overtime win over Texas A&M and will be out a month according to Wade. The loss of Manning is significant for this LSU team that was just starting to find a rhythm with the eight man rotation the Tigers had been rolling out over this five game win streak.
Manning averaged eight points per game on 40% shooting from the three-point line in his 24 minutes per game, production that is not easily replaceable.
To match what Manning was able to bring off the bench, Wade said Thursday the plan is to go deeper into the bench, playing a combination of Marlon Taylor, Aundre Hyatt, Marshall Graves and James Bishop at the guard position.
Taylor is the most intriguing of the four as he proved to be an important piece for last year's team as it went 21-3 with him in the starting lineup. However, a foot ailment of his own kept him out of 10 games for the Tigers this season and hasn't been the same since his return to the rotation.
After not making the trip to A&M with soreness, Wade said Thursday Taylor has been cleared to play against Ole Miss and that the team will need him to get back to his true form sooner than later.
"We need Marlon to step up. We need Marlon to play a lot better than he’s been playing – more like he played last year," Wade said. "We need him to get back going."
Wade also spoke very highly of the freshman Hyatt, who stepped up in the win over A&M by grabbing six rebounds and draining a three off the bench. What really impresses Wade about Hyatt is his ability to move the ball with crisp passes that lead to easy buckets for his teammates.
"He’s a great passer and ball mover on offense. That thing moves. He doesn’t hold the ball," Wade said. "He’s shot faking and punching the next gap and hitting the next guy or he’s shooting it. The ball never sticks with him. He’s a tremendous help-side defender. He very rarely gets beat. He crashes the glass every time, offensive rebounding wise – he goes every time. He’s somebody that we really trust and value and he’s playing well for us."
The bench depth will be sorted out in time and repetition but until then, LSU is preparing for an Ole Miss team that is desperate to find a conference win. The Rebels rank 11th in the conference in points per game and 10th in field goal percentage ahead of their matchup with the visiting Tigers.
But on the road, in one of the more hostile environments in the SEC, Wade said the Tigers can expect the Rebels best punch.
"It will be a hostile environment. They’re having a red out. They’re backs are against the wall. They’re 0-3 in league play," Wade said. "They’re not an 0-3 team in the sense that they’re a very, very good team and disciplined team and coach (Kermit) Davis is a good coach. We’ll get their best shot. We’ve just got to make sure we give them our best shot.”
One player the Tigers will have to keep their eye on at all times is senior guard Breein Tyree, who is averaging 17.8 points per game, tied for fourth in the conference.
"He’s one of the best guards and one of the most prolific scorers in our league," Wade said. "He does a lot of work in the mid-range, off of the bounce, and is very good at getting downhill, especially with his right hand. He’s a tremendous player and it will be a very difficult guard for us."
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday in Oxford with the game airing on ESPN2.
