LSU Basketball Week in Review WE 2/8/15

Record last week: (1-1)
Auburn 81, LSU 77
LSU 71, Alabama 60

Week Summary: LSU was attacked by Auburn with a barrage of three pointers as the Auburn Tigers hit 9 of 20 from deep. On the other side, LSU was only 4 of 17 from three point range. LSU changed things up against Alabama. Jalyn Patterson got his first career start and Tim Quarterman also got the start while Darcy Malone and Josh Gray were delegated to coming off the bench. The players responded well getting out to an early 29 to 13 lead. Bama went on a run early in the second half to get the lead down to 2 at 49-47 before LSU re-took control and won convincingly by double figures.

Streak: WIN 1

Top performer: Jordan Mickey tallied another two double doubles this week. He averaged 23.5 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. He made 17 of his 22 free throws on the week and was nearly impossible to stop in the paint all week.

Cause for Concern: LSU now has losses to 1-9 Missouri, 3-7 Auburn, and 4-6 Mississippi St. LSU has played better against the tougher SEC teams, but they cannot afford any more losses to sub 500 SEC teams.

Top Team Stat of Week: LSU has struggled to get to the free throw line this year, however, they got to the line 61 times this week, including a season high 38 times in their victory over Alabama. LSU seemed determined to attack the basket and it paid off against the Tide.

Rankings and Standings: CBS RPI (50), ESPN RPI (51), BPI (42), KenPom (43)

Breaking the trend: LSU had started Josh Gray in every game of his LSU career until the Alabama game where Johnny Jones decided to switch things up. He started Quarterman and Patterson to go along with Martin, Mickey, and Hornsby and the team responded with a big start to the game.

LSU Opponent who made noise: UAB is now 9-2 in Conference USA play after two big home wins over Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss. They are currently tied for first in their conference with Louisiana Tech and Western Kentucky.

Interesting Stat of the Week: The Auburn game was the first time LSU was able to score at least 1 point per possession and still lose. They had 77 points in 74 possessions. The 1.09 PPP LSU gave up to Auburn was LSU's worst defensive performance of the year.

LSU Scorers this week:
Jordan Mickey 47
Tim Quarterman 32
Jarell Martin 30
Keith Hornsby 21
Jalyn Patterson 11
Josh Gray 7

LSU Rebounders this week:
Jordan Mickey 24
Jarell Martin 20
Tim Quarterman 13
Keith Hornsby 8
Jalyn Patterson 8
Darcy Malone 4
Josh Gray 2

LSU Assists/TO this week:
Josh Gray 6:2
Jalyn Patterson 6:3
Jarell Martin 5:7
Tim Quarterman 4:2
Keith Hornsby 2:2
Jordan Mickey 1:11

SEC Standings:
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Most Dominant SEC Win of the Week: Arkansas had a pair of 20 point wins last week, including an impressive 75-55 win over South Carolina.

Biggest SEC Upset of the Week: With Tennessee sitting pretty at 5-4 in conference, Mississippi St went into Knoxville, where the Vols were 9-2, and won 71-66. Big upset for the Bulldogs who beat LSU and Tenn back to back.

Bracketology:
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In this graph, the vertical axis is the number of times LSU was seeded. The horizontal axis is the seed. On 2/2/15 there were 75 brackets altogether while there were 82 on 2/9/15. LSU trended down, but was still included in in 77 of 82 brackets.

Recruiting News: LSU will get an official visit from 5 star shooting guard Malik Newman. LSU was believed to be out of the running for the top SG prospect in the 2015 class, however, Newman loves the class LSU is bringing in with Blakeney and Simmons. However, Kentucky is thought to be the leader for Newman. Still an exciting opportunity for LSU to show the Jackson, Mississippi prospect what LSU has to offer.

This week in LSU Basketball:
Home vs #1 Kentucky - Tuesday, Feb 10 - 6:00pm - ESPN
Away vs Tennessee - Sat, Feb 14 - 3:00pm - SECN