Matt McMahon critical of LSU's offensive rebounding, turnovers vs. Alabama

LSU’s 17-point loss against Alabama wasn’t a coincidence. After LSU’s 109-92 loss to Alabama on Saturday, Tigers head coach Matt McMahon revealed where his team went wrong.

“I’m not trying to oversimplify the game here but, at the end of the day, when you pull the box [score], because of offensive rebounding and turnovers, they shot 81 balls in the game. We only shot 60,” McMahon said. “It’s hard to win when that’s the case.”

LSU actually shot a better percentage from the floor than the Crimson Tide. However, as McMahon mentioned Alabama’s quantity of attempts overwhelmed the Tigers. Alabama shot 38-81 (46.9%) from the floor while LSU shot 33-60 (55%).

Alabama added an extra 21 shots to its final box score by doing the dirty work. The Crimson Tide hauled in 19 offensive rebounds in the win, over three times as many as LSU. Additionally, Alabama scored 23 points off LSU’s 12 turnovers. For reference, the Tigers only tallied six points off Alabama’s mistakes.

Despite LSU’s mistakes, the team was neck-and-neck with Alabama late into the game.

“In the first 32 minutes, playing smart and moving the ball offensively enabled us to have a better opportunity to defend them in transition,” McMahon said. “But, I think we had an open 3 there, down maybe 76-75. We missed it. They get a dunk, and then I believe they hit five 3s on their next possessions there.”

Matt McMahon’s memory serves him well. With eight minutes left in the game, LSU trailed Alabama 76-75. From that point, Alabama finished the game on a 33-17 run. After the game, Alabama head coach Nate Oats echoed McMahon’s comments.

“I didn’t realize that we took 81 shots,” Oats said. “That’s a lot of shots. When you don’t turn the ball over and you get 19 O boards, you’re gonna have a lot of shot attempts. Now, they had more free-throw attempts, but it wasn’t by a huge margin. They only out-scored us by four at the line.

“To have 21 more field-goal attempts, it’s gonna be hard for them to win the game doing that. I thought we did a really good job on the offensive glass. [Latrell] Wrightsell is a guard and ends up with five [offensive] boards.”

LSU won’t have to wait long to attempt to hop back on the saddle. On Tuesday, the Tigers will square off against Florida at 8 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. It won’t be easy. LSU will be in Florida’s territory, where the Gators recently upset No. 12 Auburn.