LSU Basketball Runs Out of Gas in 86-78 Round of 32 Loss to No. 1 Michigan

Offense goes stagnant for most of the second half as Wolverines capitalize on rough shooting

In what turned into a second half of runs, LSU came away with the short end of the stick in a tightly contested second round battle to No. 1 Michigan, losing 86-78 to the Wolverines. 

It was a game dictated by offensive spurts in the second half and in the end, a stagnant finish from the Tigers allowed a well coached, experienced Michigan team to take advantage. The second half play of Javonte Smart and Cam Thomas is what really kept the team in the game. Thomas went for 30 points while Smart chipped in 27 more with nine rebounds and six assists.

With a first half dominated by brilliant perimeter shot making, LSU knew it needed to come out of the second half attacking the rim, the that's exactly what the Tigers did. The Tigers opened the second half on a 9-2 run to grab a 51-45 advantage with Smart, Watford and Thomas all taking it to the basket. It became evident this game would come down to a game of runs.

Michigan would answer LSU's start with a 10-0 run of its own, where the Tigers finally committed their first turnover of the game 24 minutes in. LSU would follow with a 12-3 run of its own, headlined by Smart and Thomas' stellar guard play to grab a 63-58 lead.

The two teams would exchange blow after blow but down the stretch, LSU's offense in the half court became too discombobulated as every player wanted to be the one to get the Tigers back into it.

"During the middle of the second half we felt like we was doing a lot of one-on-one ball," Smart said. "All year that's what we've been doing all year. So we just tried to pass the ball to each other, play as a team, continue to play as a team. Hit some shots, but they hit some big shots. They hit a couple big shots."

LSU went without a basket for over eight minutes and as the Tigers' offense stuggled, Michigan took advantage with some dagger threes, the last of which was from Franz Wagner, which put the Wolverines up 79-70 with 3:27 to go. Wagner was great down the stretch, scoring nine points over the final four minutes of the game. 

Another area that hurt LSU was the disparity in bench points as the Wolverines outscored the Tigers 26-2 in that category. The Tigers have been a team that has depended on its big four all season and they combined for 74 of the 78 points but it was easy to see they lost a lot of their energy as the game wore on. 

"We played well. We ran into a great, great team. I mean, we could have done some things differently," Wade said. "We could have made a few more shots, finished a few more in the lane, had a few better switches defensively. We certainly could have won the game. I can't fault our guys' effort and how hard they played. We were prepared and ready to go. We just couldn't sustain it for 40 minutes."

Unlike their first round matchup, the Tigers came out firing on all cylinders from the field. LSU started 8-of-16 from the field and jumped out to an early 13-6 lead, headlined by Cam Thomas' 5-for-6 start that saw him score 12 straight points.

Cam Thomas is COOKING early on ♨️@LSUBasketball #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/pa04wWd7Hx

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 22, 2021

LSU did a great job early in this game playing to its strength, getting the rebounds and pushing the ball up the court. It led to transition buckets for Darius Days, Trendon Watford and Thomas early but a veteran experienced Michigan club always seemed to find an answer.

A big contributor to the offensive success was the players' ability to not be fazed by the Michigan defense and not turn the ball over. The Tigers didn't commit a turnover for the entire first half of the game and were able to capitalize on the few mistakes the Wolverines made with eight points off turnovers. Three turnovers in the second half set a program record, an impressive stat despite leading to a loss.

There was not much defense from either team but it had more to do with really spectacular offensive sets. The Tigers had no answers for guard Eli Brooks, who drained 13 of his 21 points in the first half to keep the Wolverines in the game. Michigan was able to turn a nine point LSU lead into a one point advantage by shooting 57% from the field and dishing out 13 assists on 16 makes. 

That stretch to end the first half is where coach Will Wade felt like the Tigers really lost the game despite building a six point lead at one point in the final 20 minutes.

"We couldn't string together enough stops. We could just never string together enough stops to make a run and to expand our lead. We could never get the lead above 10 in the first half," Wade said. "Second half, after we got the six-point lead, we gave up a couple threes, we missed a floater in the lane. We could never sustain what we were doing."

The Tigers end the season 19-10 and will now prepare for a 2021-22 offseason where they expect to lose many prominent players but feel excited about a young core.