LSU Basketball Coach Will Wade Talks Arkansas Loss, Senior Day at Final Tip-Off Luncheon of 2020 Season
After last night’s disappointing loss at Arkansas, LSU coach Will Wade answered some hard-hitting questions Thursday morning at the final tip-off luncheon of the season at L’Auberge in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers posted yet another dismal performance defensively, giving up 99 points on the road to the Razorbacks, who were 28-of-56 (50%) from the field and 7-of-21 (33%) from deep. For LSU, it’s the same mistakes that are coming back to bite them every game.
“We don’t learn from our mistakes very well,” Wade said. “We keep making the same ones over and over. I hate to be this frank, but you kind of are who you are and we have to do what we can to work around some of our issues.”
Heading into the regular-season finale against Georgia on Saturday, LSU is now 20-10 overall and 11-6 in the SEC, standing in a three-way tie for second place with Auburn and Florida. However, if the conference tournament started today, the Tigers would earn the No. 4 seed as they would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker with both teams.
While the 2020 season is still in toss up mode in regards of which way it could ultimately go, Wade did take a few questions on what this team could look like as soon as next year.
In the final minutes, Wade was asked by a member of the crowd about recruiting, and he gave a powerful answer on the bright future that’s ahead for the program.
“With recruiting, I don’t feel good about it, I feel great about it,” Wade said. “If everything works how we think it will work, we’ll have our best team next year.”
The incoming 2020 recruiting class is loaded with talent, currently ranked the No. 6 class in the country, according to 247Sports team rankings. Five-star shooting guard Cam Thomas, four-star forward Mwani Wilkinson, four-star guard Eric Gaines, three-star guard Jalen Cook, three-star center Bradley Ezewiro, and transfers Shareef O’Neal (UCLA) and Josh LeBlanc (Georgetown) provide LSU the reinforcements they desperately need with the short bench they’ve dealt with this year.
There aren't enough reinforcements that could've helped the Tigers last night from a fouling standpoint. Coming into Wednesday night's game, LSU had been called for the fewest fouls in league play.
Against the Razorbacks, the Tigers were called for a staggering 35 fouls to Arkansas’ 15. Darius Days and Javonte Smart both fouled out, and Trendon Watford, Emmitt Williams, Marlon Taylor, Marshall Graves and Courtese Cooper all finished with four.
“Hopefully we can do a better job of guarding without fouling,” Wade said this afternoon. “I’m not making excuses, but we have a certain amount of players that we play in most games, and when we get further and further down the bench, team’s are able to take advantage of a lot of things.”
Saturday is sure to be an emotional season finale as seniors Skylar Mays, Marshall Graves and Marlon Taylor are all set to be honored prior to game as members of the 2020 class. LSU officially announced it will also recognize the late Wayde Sims as a member of the class, represented by his parents Wayne and Fay.
Senior Day festivities will begin at 12:45 p.m., per an official release.
The Tigers are set to wrap up the regular-season Saturday afternoon, hosting Georgia for a 1 p.m. tip on ESPN. The Bulldogs under Tom Crean are 15-15 overall and 5-12 in SEC play.
