Used to living on the edge, LSU slips off of it against Florida

Let us be clear – Will Wade has done a terrific job of restoring the roar in LSU men’s basketball.

While his Tigers are a very good team, there is still work to do for tournament time.

In Wednesday night’s 72-67 overtime loss to Florida, a familiar theme emerged. For whatever reason, LSU has become a consistently slow starting team.

With coaching adjustments and increased energy, along with their sheer talent, the Tigers have been able to overcome the early shortcomings.

On a couple of occasions, they simply could not do so.

One was a 90-89 home loss to Arkansas on Feb. 2.

The other came last night.

Squarely on the bubble to make the NCAA tournament entering the game, the Gators played their way off the bubble as LSU saw its momentum bubble burst.

From the start, the Gators outworked and outhustled the Tigers, winning most 50-50 balls and Florida gave LSU a heavy dose of its own medicine with slew of key offensive rebounds.

It was a game of many twists and turns with 13 ties and nine lead changes.

Mike White of Jesuit High School did an excellent job of preparing for LSU.

With a huge crowd in tow, facing a team playing a huge brand of basketball, White and his Gators came up huge with an outstanding defensive effort to thwart the Tigers.

Florida showed LSU everything but the proverbial kitchen sink, coming out in a 1-2-2 zone press, dropping into matchup zone looks and other zone concepts before playing man-to-man later in the second half.

The strategy paid off.

Florida frustrated Tremont Waters virtually the entire way.

Waters did hit a couple of key 3-pointers late in the game and in overtime but it was not enough.

Every coach at every level always schemes to take away the opposing team’s best player. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. It worked Wednesday night.

Waters scored just 10 points on 3 of 12 shooting, including just 2 of 8 from 3-point range. He committed three turnovers to go with four assists.

With Waters struggling, LSU lacked the zone-busting ability needed to defeat the looks Florida was giving the Tigers. LSU made just 7 of 22 (31.8%) from 3-point range.

While LSU was its usual bullish self with 18 offensive rebounds, the Tigers allowed 15 offensive rebounds to Florida, many in key situations. The second and third chances proved productive for the Gators.

Florida shot 46 percent from the field to just 42 percent for LSU.

A key in the loss for the Tigers was the free throw line.

One of the best free throw shooting teams in the SEC and country, the Tigers shot just 64 percent from the line against the Gators, leaving nine points off the board with misses.

Kevaughn Allen came up huge in overtime with a pair of big 3-pointers. Florida deserved to win.

If LSU has any potential Achilles heel, it is a lack of consistency in shooting 3-pointers.

If Waters is not hitting, look for teams to play more zone against LSU moving forward. The Tigers are tough to stop with man-to-man defense, given LSU’s length and athletic ability.

LSU continues to give its fans faster heartbeats. The Tigers have played five consecutive games that have been decided by five points or fewer, including two overtime games. They have now played five overtime games this season. The Tigers have now had 13 of their 26 games decided by seven points or fewer. They have lived on the edge all season long. It is a slippery slope.

Despite the loss, LSU is still positioned well to get a top four seed in the NCAA tournament.

What the loss did was hurt LSU’s chances to win the SEC and avoid the dreaded second seed vs. third seed matchup that could see you facing Kentucky prior to the conference tournament final before possibly facing Tennessee. The Tigers are now 11-2, tied with the Wildcats for second in the league with Tennessee first at 12-1.

Speaking of Tennessee, the Volunteers come into Baton Rouge Saturday morning in another key matchup. LSU will have to have short-term memory.

The Tigers have been better on the road than they have been at home in the conference. A sellout crowd will be on hand. LSU needs to turn the Maravich Assembly Center into a formidable force and must do a better job of protecting its home court. That starts with getting off to a better start and not breaking slowly out of the starting gate. You cannot count on a brilliant stretch run in every race.