LSU Basketball Players Learning Their "Responsibilities" As 2021 Season Winds Down

Tigers settling into reliable rotation as regular season comes to a close

Will Wade knows what wins. In his four year stint at LSU, Wade has led the Tigers to an SEC Championship and back-to-back double digit win seasons in conference play. 

It's why when he sat down with his team a couple of weeks ago, he outlined to each player what their responsibilites are. 

Since that meeting with the players, LSU (15-6, 9-4) has looked like a different team, winning three straight and getting it done on both ends of the floor. It all came to a head on Saturday afternoon, when the Tigers poured it on visiting Auburn in historic fashion, winning 104-80 and scoring the most points against an SEC opponent since the 1990's.

"Roles kind of makes it sound like it's a suggestion. I like to call them responsibilities," Wade said. "If I say run fast and you say run fast we've probably got different definitions of run fast. It wasn't just changing a lot of stuff.

"Anybody on a team, this is any team, everybody kind of has their own thoughts and I just told them 'I understand what y'all think but I really don't care.' This is what we're doing, this is how it goes, this is what I think. It was really just cutting down some of the frivolous chatter and some of the sidebars you don't wanna hear."

The offensive numbers have been impressive indeed. Over it's last three contests, LSU has scored 276 points against Mississippi State, Tennessee and Auburn, shooting 61, 53 and 53% in the three contests.

Wade mentioned the teams improvement in forcing the issue and getting much better looks in its transition offense as well as the improved shot selection in the halfcourt as the main reason for the better play on both sides of the ball. The theory being that more efficient offense allows the players to get back on defense instead of having to sprint back on turnovers or long rebounds off of poor shot selection.

"We were top five in offensive efficiency, we're sixth now. Certainly when teams adjusted, we needed to adjust and run some longer plays. We've helped our defense out, we've been a little bit more ball controlled on offense," Wade said.

With tough outings against Georgia, who took LSU to overtime when the two squared off earlier this season, No. 24 Arkansas and Vanderbilt, Wade knows that LSU needs to capitalize on all opportunities as the season winds down. 

There's also a possibility the Tigers get one of their previously postponed games rescheduled against Missouri, Florida or Ole Miss, all of which would be Quad 1 opportunities.

"We've got a limited number of opportunities left so it's like I said, we've gotta finish strong," Wade said. "This is the first step, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We haven't left ourselves any margin for error so we've got to stay locked in." 

"I was explaining why we do things the way we do and you don't have to agree with it but I know what wins. Our way has worked for us."