Will Wade Left Searching for Answers After LSU's Latest SEC Blunder

Continuous slow starts, attention to detail huge problems for slumping Tigers squad

A month ago, not even Will Wade's darkest imagination could've predicted this is where a once 15-1 LSU basketball team would sit. The Tigers have dropped six of their last seven games and leaving their head coach scratching his head looking for answers. 

The purple and gold had positioned themselves beautifully heading into the toughest stretch of its schedule, flirting with the top 10 in the AP rankings, picking up huge home wins against Kentucky and Tennessee. But from that point on its been a steady decline as injury, inconsistent play and attention to detail have all played a part in where this Tigers team now sits.

At 16-7 and 4-6 in conference play, LSU has some inner demons it must now overcome and the goal for Wade and the Tigers is trying to inject a little more confidence into their players. 

"It's hard to be confident when you've lost six out of seven," Wade said. "We've got to inject a little bit of confidence in our guys, get back to playing better than we are now."

Recently LSU has been putting itself in extremely precarious positions. Getting down big early, fighting hard to come back, only to run out of steam down the stretch has been the blueprint to the recent losing ways of this team. 

The Tigers got down by as many as 23 against Ole Miss in the first half at home and by 21 on the road against Vanderbilt before clawing their way back late to make it interesting. Wade knows better than most it's not a blueprint for success and is searching for answers on how to start games on a better note.

"I wish I knew the answer. We've gotten down huge at halftime, we've been down 20+ in the first half of the last couple of games," Wade said. "We've charged back but you spend so much energy to get back, you can't get over the hump. Very disappointed."

Injury issues can only go so far with the way this team has looked in its last two games. The defense is starting to suffer in the half court with breakdowns as players looked a step slow on their rotations throughout the night against the Commodores.

Offensively this is still the same team that has yet to find consistent and more importantly reliable scorers, particularly early in games when teams have pounced on the Tigers. Playmaking has been a really difficult area of the game for this group as well, with LSU most recently committing 16 turnovers to just six assists in that loss to Vanderbilt.

"Health related, attention to detail, different issues. We can't blame it all on health, we didn't get an offensive rebound in the first half, that's an effort issue," Wade said. "We don't follow the details on the scouting report, give up 11 threes to two of their best shooters."

LSU gets a chance to get back in the win column against an equally struggling Texas A&M squad on the road but it won't get any easier if Wade and company can't figure out a few issues that have really started to overtake this team.

"We need better play from a lot of folks. What we're doing is not good enough on a lot of fronts," Wade said. "We need a lot of guys to step up and certainly play better as we work our way through this slump."