Florida Postponement A Good Break for Struggling LSU Basketball

Extra few days a good opportunity for Tigers to fix some of most daunting issues over last five games

LSU has dropped four of its last five and is in danger of losing out on another prime opportunity to boost its NCAA tournament resume. Confidence that this team can get the ship back on the right course dwindles with every loss and Will Wade knows understands that people might be starting to lose faith in what was hyped as a promising season. 

"Our guys aren't pleased, our staff's not pleased but it's on us to fix it. Nobody's feeling sorry for us. People probably have a lot of doubt, a lot of venom our way and it's on us to fix it," Wade said after the most recent loss to Alabama. "We've got good players, good people. To this point we haven't played to our potential and that's on me the head coach. No excuses."

So what can the Tigers do with a little extra time now that their matchup with No. 22 Florida has been postponed? For one, it's a great opportunity to work on themselves. This is a team that has really struggled with consistency and have yet to really play an all around good game against a worthy, NCAA tournament type team. 

They came close against top 15 Texas Tech but a 12-0 run by the Red Raiders in the final 66 seconds just piled on to what's been a recent string of bad losses. The Tigers have been blown out twice by Alabama, a team running away with the SEC crown and lost by double figures in Lexington to a Kentucky team that is far from what it's been in past years. 

With outings against Mississippi State, Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia over the next two weeks, the Tigers need to find some consistency or it could spell trouble for their NCAA tournament hopes. 

“I tell our guys all the time, ‘Adversity visits the strong and lives in the weak,’” Wade said. “We’ve got to be strong and make this a passing thing.” 

The players and coaches need to find late game situations that are more condusive with winning but more than anything they need to find ways to be more efficient on both ends of the floor. LSU has been a nightmare in transition defense and defensive rebounding this season. 

It hasn't improved much over the course of the season and being without forward Darius Days for the next several weeks will certainly come with struggles on the glass. These next few days in practice will be critical for players like Josh Leblanc and Shareef O'Neal, two transfers who need to become a bigger part of the offense with Days out. 

The bench came into the season with the expectation that LSU had talented enough pieces to go nine or 10 deep but that hasn't translated on the court as the pressure on the main offensive starters reached a boiling point against Alabama earlier this week.

Far too often in the most recent loss to Alabama, LSU was putting the ball in Trendon Watford, Javonte Smart and Cam Thomas' hands and coming up empty. That was mainly because as soon as one of them did, all of Alabama's defensive attention was on them because there was no other threat. 

Wade is hopeful they can find some contributions from other players to alleviate some of the offensive pressure on the main three scoring threats or else more inefficient nights could be on the horizon on offense. 

"Hopefully we can find it. We've just gotta find our footing and get back going," Wade said. "I believe in our players, I believe in the guys on our roster. We just gotta put it all together and play better as a group."