If you caught a little of LSU’s 59-54 loss to Tennessee last night, or if you’ve followed the Tigers at all this season, you know that Kentucky’s next opponent has a very difficult time putting the ball in the basket.
Going into last night’s game, LSU was last in the SEC in scoring offense (63.1 points per game), last in field goal percentage (41.1), last in three-point field goal percentage (27.9) and last in steals (5.55), which often leads to instant offense.
The Tigers lost five of their top seven scorers off last year’s SEC championship team, and Trent Johnson has not been able to locate quick replacements. He has four freshmen — Daron Populist, Aaron Dotson, Eddie Ludwig and Dennis Harris (a redshirt) — on this team, but none is playing a significant role in scoring the basketball. Going into last night, Harris was the leading scorer among the freshmen, averaging 4.5 points per game. And the redshirt took his second straight gooseegg.
Remember, this is a team that scored 38 points in a loss at Alabama. That was the lowest total given up by Crimson Tide in a regular-season SEC game since 1958. In two games against Bama this year, LSU scored 87 points.
Here’s the chart, and remember that 1.000 points per possession is considered acceptable:
You know what this means don’t you? LSU will come out tomorrow and shoot 60% for the game. That just seems to be the way the season has gone thusfar.