Impressive Win Over Ole Miss Proves LSU Becoming the Team It Envisioned

Tigers win over Rebels could be one of those season defining moments for this 2020 team

Adaptability has been a common theme throughout college basketball programs across the country this season. With the strictness tied to the COVID-19 protocols, teams are having to postpone or cancel games left and right and LSU has been no different. 

This weekend, the program was thrown a different kind of curveball as the Tigers were given less than 48 hours to prepare for a defensively sound Ole Miss club and absolutely rose to the challenge. The 75-61 win over the Rebels was a sign that this team is finally starting to click in all the right directions. 

Furthermore, to put on the offensive and defensive display shown on Saturday night without two major pieces to the puzzle, Cam Thomas and Shareef O'Neal, proved to coach Will Wade and his players that this is a special group. 

"We always say you can make an excuse or you can make it happen and we made it happen," Wade said. "I thought it was our best effort, I thought we were locked in, we were focused, our defense was tremendous. We got contributions from everybody and I'm very proud of our program for making this happen."

The leadership on the team from Trendon Watford to Javonte Smart to Darius Days has been something that Wade has talked about all season. When the Tigers' leading scorer Cam Thomas went down with an injury in the opening minutes of the game, it was the three veterans who stepped up and made sure the game was never going to be in question.

"We came in hungry and with something to prove, we hadn't had a good road win yet and that was our biggest thing and I think we took a step forward today as a team and as individuals," Watford said. "We're the leaders and when Cam went down we knew we had to step it up and other guys came in and contributed."

Eric Gaines, Mwani Wilkinson, Jalen Cook, Aundre Hyatt and Josh Leblanc all flashed moments of how deep this team can be when everyone's playing up to their potential. The stability of Watford, Smart and Days is the icing on the cake that will ultimately determine whether this team is good or great. 

"I can speak for the team and the coaching staff, I think we were ready just to play. Any team that was in front of us, we were just ready to go," Smart said. "Everybody came to the gym like 'We're not going to Missouri?' So we just came to Ole Miss and show everybody what we can do."

LSU was looking for a season defining moment and that performance over a very solid Ole Miss team to get the first road win of the season can be a moment this team points back to and circles as a change in the approach and execution for the better.

"This is the team we can be, we played like we need to play," Wade said. "I told our guys in the locker room afterwards, we don't need to go back. We gotta be moving forward from here on out with the way we prepared and the way we went about things. Our focus was through the roof.

"How different was our bench, how different was everything? We looked like a totally different team, a real team, a championship level team."