Will Wade explains what Missouri matchup meant for Xavier Pinson

One would think Saturday’s victory against Missouri meant a little bit more to Xavier Pinson. The LSU point guard spent three seasons in Columbia before transferring to Baton Rouge this offseason.

Following a 75-55 victory, LSU coach Will Wade said though the win was still significant for Pinson, a lot has changed since he last suited up for Missouri.

“Obviously I think he wanted to beat them, but I think there’s only two kids on the team that played with him: (Javon) Pickett and (Kobe) Brown,” the coach said in his postgame press conference. “So it’s not like he knows everybody on the team, there’s a lot of new guys. We didn’t really talk about it much. I kind of just let him be and told him to play his game and do what he does. But I think certainly there’s probably something a little extra for him in this.”

Pinson finished with 10 points and three assists in the victory, though he also committed five turnovers. LSU held a slim six-point lead at halftime, but began the second half with a 22-8 run to increase its advantage to 20 points. Tari Eason led the team with 18 points in 20 minutes off the bench.

After wavering between a starter and a bench player his first two seasons at Missouri, Xavier Pinson started every game in the 2020-21 season. He finished second on the team in scoring to help lead them to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament as a nine seed, where they lost to Oklahoma. Pinson picked up where he left off this year with LSU, where he is averaging career highs in assists (4.6 apg) and steals (1.8 spg) along with 10.3 points per game.

His importance to the team is not to be understated, as evidenced by LSU’s performance with him out. Pinson suffered a knee injury during a Jan. 8 game against Tennessee that caused him to miss the next three weeks. Even when he first returned, he did so sparingly, playing just seven minutes off the bench in his first game back.

Pinson appeared to return to near full health in a Feb. 8 matchup against Texas A&M, scoring 11 points in 25 minutes of action. LSU is an impressive 4-2 since that game, with one of the losses coming against No. 6 Kentucky. Compare that to the eight-game stretch when Pinson was either out or limited that they went 2-6 over, and the point guard’s impact is evident.

LSU was at one point considered to be among the country’s best teams, rising as high as No. 12 in the AP poll this season. With the NCAA Tournament growing ever closer, the Tigers appear to be recapturing momentum thanks to the return of Pinson. They close out the regular season with a pair of top 25 games, first against Arkansas and then at home against Alabama.