LSU Basketball Week in Review WE 2/1/15

Record last week: (1-1)

Week Summary: True to LSU Basketball form LSU squandered an opportunity to really put a great SEC start together. LSU beat South Carolina at home on Wednesday, their third straight SEC victory before losing at Mississippi St Saturday afternoon in what was LSU's poorest shooting performance in quite a while. The Tigers shot 17.4% from three and 52.4% from the free throw line. It pushed LSU to 3-5 when scoring less than 1 point per possession on the year.

Streak: Loss 1

Top performer: Jordan Mickey had a game for the ages against Mississippi St. He scored 25 points and pulled down 20 rebounds in 37 minutes. On the week he tallied 39 points, 26 rebounds, 8 blocks, and 2 steals.

Cause for Concern: LSU has shown so much inconsistency this year it is always tough to know what LSU team will show up. They play great one game then they shame the game the next. LSU has to find more consistency if they plan on making the NCAA Tournament. Jalyn Patterson missed both games this week, and it was obvious how much he was missed.

Top Team Stat of Week: LSU had 19 blocks in the two games, including an impressive 13 against South Carolina. In that game, Jordan Mickey and Jarell Martin each had 6. The 6 blocks was a career high for Martin.

Rankings and Standings: CBS RPI (41), ESPN RPI (39), BPI (38), KenPom (39)

Breaking the trend: LSU had hit at least 30% from three point range in each of the last 6 games until LSU made only 17.4% (4/23) against Mississippi St.

Best game by a non Big5 player: With Jalyn Patterson out this week, Darcy Malone logged extra minutes. He played a career high 26 minutes against Mississippi St. He had a game high 3 blocks and a positive 3:2 AST:TO ratio. He added 2 points and 4 rebounds on the game.

LSU Opponent who made noise: Clemson went on the road to NC St and pulled off a big 11 point victory before beating Boston College at home by 15. Their KenPom rank went from 124 to 92 and brings Clemson to 5-4 in the ACC. Honorable Mention: UMASS beat Dayton at home and St Louis on the road.

Interesting Stat of the Week: When scoring more 1 or more points per possession, LSU is 13-0 on the season. When the Tigers score less than a point per possession, LSU is 3-5 on the year.

LSU Scorers this week:
Jordan Mickey 39
Keith Hornsby 30
Josh Gray 20
Tim Quarterman 20
Jarell Martin 14
Darcy Malone 4
Aaron Epps 4

LSU Rebounders this week:
Jordan Mickey 26
Jarell Martin 15
Tim Quarterman 8
Keith Hornsby 8
Aaron Epps 5
Darcy Malone 4
Josh Gray 3

LSU Assists/TO this week:
Keith Hornsby 5:3
Josh Gray 5:6
Darcy Malone 4:2
Tim Quarterman 4:5
Jarell Martin 4:5
Jordan Mickey 1:6
Aaron Epps 0:1

SEC Standings:
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Most Dominant SEC Win of the Week: Kentucky 69, Missouri 53 - Kentucky steamrolled the Tigers by 16 in a contest played in Mizzou Arena. UK was up 34-25 at halftime and had a 20 point lead late in the game before allowing Missouri to pull within 16 at game's end.

Biggest SEC Upset of the Week: Mississippi St 73, LSU 67 - LSU has struggled against the bottom tier of SEC opponents. LSU had a lead with 4 minutes remaining, but were unable to finish the game and lost to the 10-11 Bulldogs.

LSU Bracket Matrix: Nearly halfway through conference play it is time to start looking at projections for the NCAA Tournament. While most people know about Joe Lunardi's Bracketology through ESPN, most people don't realize there are tons of people who do bracketologies. Thanks to Bracketmatrix.com here is a look at where LSU sits in 77 bracketologies by different bracketologist. LSU averages 8.85 seed in all the brackets combined.

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This week in LSU Basketball:
Thursday, February 5 - Home vs Auburn 6:00PM ESPN2
Saturday, February 7 - Home vs Alabama 5:00PM ESPN2