MBB NIT Final: LOUISIANA 76, LSU 84

[zephyr]

Just left game. Tigers played fairly well, our guys played hard but made too many mistakes. We were hammered inside most of game with few calls. Despite all that difference in game was simply fact Gant was ineffective due to his illness. He could not even dunk. Where he was really missed was on defense as we had no rim protector. Guy was hustling but he just could not go. What was disappointing is our depth did not show up. Miller, Davis, and Marquetti were ineffective. Those guys will be counted on next year. They have to perform better than what they showed tonight for next season to be successful. In closing I of course had to bring in logic to balance the understandable emotional responses many have

Miller was Miller. Tubby and under the rim player eaten up by better athletes. Just glad we didn't really give him a chance to shoot us out of the game. Didn't give Davis much of a chance but this environment was tough for him. Marquetti was very disappointing for me. Guy was leaned on heavily all year and played a ton of minutes. He absolutely disappeared in this game when we needed that P5 athleticism against LSU's guards. He actually came in on one stretch and guarded Waters really well after he had just taken Bartley to the hole several times in a row.

[VObserver]

Your facts are correct but doesn't RPI take all that into account? And ours was still 30 or so better than LSU. Seems like the RPI is used by the NCAA when it favors the P5

The RPI is pure mathematics. You can build a good RPI by understanding the math and playing (and beating) teams who are good in their conference, but not good in absolute terms. The RPI doesn't care whether you beat a 25-5 Savannah State or a 25-5 Kansas. Well, it does care, but not that much. Your opponents record is 50% of RPI, so the most important factor in scheduling for RPI is to avoid teams likely to have losing records. Whether you win or lose is only 25% and how good your opponent's opponent's record accounts for the other 25%. On our schedule this year, our win over SLU and our loss to Clemson were pretty close to an RPI wash.

Point being that RPI is a good tool, but not a perfect one. It would probably be more accurate in measuring your actual team quality if slightly less weight were given to your opponent's record and slightly more to your opponent's opponent's record. That would make it more difficult to game the system, while being a more accurate measure.

Of course the NCAA and the Tournament committees like the imperfect RPI, because it let's them look at other factors when selecting teams and seeding. And they do so in a way that allows them to pick Oklahoma or Syracuse over MTSU or St. Mary's.

What needs to be done is to have an empirical standard, and if you meet it, you are in, and your seed is set according to how you rank in that standard. No committee necessary. The standard need not be perfect, but it should be reasonably derived and as accurate as we can make it, and it must not care whether you are in the ACC or the MEAC.

If RPI were that standard this year, we would still not be in the Dance (assuming that all conferences still get an automatic bid for their champion), but we would have been playing an NIT game at home as a 3 or 4 seed.

[Turbine]

https://www.seccountry.com/lsu/watch...SF_Carvell_AJC

Two things:
1) "Rivals"
2) "Southland Conference"

[Turbine]

Y'all showed up to the arena en masse. Kudos to y'all.

As to your dumbass coach, he got what he deserved.

As soon as LSU was gifted home court (3 points) it was predictable that there would be zero trips to the free throw line in the first half, and 11 fewer attempts in the game (8 points)

"Deserved" is not a word you should be associated with uttering right now.

[Clutch0364]

I'm still amazed. With all the crap that ended the game, what we aren't talking about is how poorly we played, somehow lost Gant and Marquetti (Don't know what happened to this guy) and still were down 1 with 1:30 left in the game. We played like ____ and still had a shot to win at the end. We just limit the dumbass turnovers and actually run an offense like we did all year and I like our chances.

Gant looked shell shocked when he got the dunk attempt partially fouled/blocked as he then missed the easy alley oop afterwards and Marquetti looked like he didn't want to be there. Washington showed his physical limitations in this game as he was just eaten up by Reath inside and they ran him on high pick and rolls ALL game long. He couldn't keep up and they just got what they wanted all game.

Gant protecting the rim saved us a lot this season. The problem in the last few games from my point of view is that he wasn't there to do the protecting. In the end we have zero big bodies who could match up underneath with them.

[Duggie35]

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/stor...show/426398002

Glenn Guilbeau may have regained a little credibility.

[CajunT]

Gant protecting the rim saved us a lot this season. The problem in the last few games from my point of view is that he wasn't there to do the protecting. In the end we have zero big bodies who could match up underneath with them.

Perhaps, but the one consistent problem in the losses to Georgia State, UTA and LSU was the dribble penetration to the basket without Gant in the game. Last night, he couldn't stop it when he was in the game. Marlin's refusal to go to the zone when the other team starts taking to the basket is his main problem. He admitted last night that he should have sent to the zone earlier in the game. The formula is the same for beating the Cajuns.

I would just like to thank Washington, Stove, Bartley and the other seniors for their efforts this season. The leadership of the first three specifically will be missed and they are good young men. Thank you so much from the Cajun Nation!

[zephyr]

Gant protecting the rim saved us a lot this season. The problem in the last few games from my point of view is that he wasn't there to do the protecting. In the end we have zero big bodies who could match up underneath with them.

You can defend the rim without always blocking shots. If I'm relying on ONE guy to protect the rim, I'm in trouble. Our help defense was non existent the whole game and our on ball defense was atrocious. Bartley was beaten soundly off the dribble by quicker guards all game. Our rotation was terrible. I remember one sequence in the 3rd quarter we actually rotated and got a steal where Bryce made a great pass for an and 1 down in transition. That is what we did most of the year. We didn't do it yesterday. We had very little rotation and recovery and it killed us. We gave up easy layups but I contend that those layups shouldn't have been attempted had we had better rotation and guys in the lane to stop it.

[CajunProud]

You can defend the rim without always blocking shots. If I'm relying on ONE guy to protect the rim, I'm in trouble. Our help defense was non existent the whole game and our on ball defense was atrocious. Bartley was beaten soundly off the dribble by quicker guards all game. Our rotation was terrible. I remember one sequence in the 3rd quarter we actually rotated and got a steal where Bryce made a great pass for an and 1 down in transition. That is what we did most of the year. We didn't do it yesterday. We had very little rotation and recovery and it killed us. We gave up easy layups but I contend that those layups shouldn't have been attempted had we had better rotation and guys in the lane to stop it.

In your opinion, is this a coaching issue, talent issue, or combination of both; or some other factor?

[Clutch0364]

You can defend the rim without always blocking shots. If I'm relying on ONE guy to protect the rim, I'm in trouble. Our help defense was non existent the whole game and our on ball defense was atrocious. Bartley was beaten soundly off the dribble by quicker guards all game. Our rotation was terrible. I remember one sequence in the 3rd quarter we actually rotated and got a steal where Bryce made a great pass for an and 1 down in transition. That is what we did most of the year. We didn't do it yesterday. We had very little rotation and recovery and it killed us. We gave up easy layups but I contend that those layups shouldn't have been attempted had we had better rotation and guys in the lane to stop it.

Completely agree. We depended way to much on him protecting. he misdirected a lot of shots this season that he didn't block.