Will Wade knows rematch vs. Kentucky will be tough

LSU was able to beat Kentucky 65-60 in Baton Rouge back on January 4, but Will Wade knows that result won’t matter tonight in Rupp Arena.

“The last game is not going to have anything to do with this game,” Wade said yesterday. “They’re playing a lot better than they were the first time and we’re not playing as well as we were the first time, so you know, it’s not gonna have a whole lot to do with what happened in the first game. They’re going to be extremely motivated because, you know, we beat them here.”

Since the loss in Baton Rouge, Kentucky is 11-2, LSU 6-7. The Cats’ only losses have been at Auburn and Tennessee, while the Tigers have fallen to Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, TCU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and, most recently, South Carolina. Once one of the favorites to win the SEC, LSU is now stuck in the middle of the pack with a 7-7 conference record.

“We haven’t been as solid as we need to be. It’s been frustrating. We spend a lot of time working on it and we will work on it again today. We haven’t made our free throws, we’ve committed a lot of poor fouls defensively, not being solid on defense, and we’ve had some very, very costly turnovers. So, we have to clean up the free-throw shooting and be a lot more solid defensively and then value each possession when we get down the stretch.”

Free-Throw Shooting, Turnover Woes

A few factors to the Tigers’ slide: free throws and turnovers. LSU is making only 65% of their free throws in SEC play in contrast to 76% in non-conference play. Wade called the disparity “perplexing.”

“You got the same shooters,” he said. “I’ve never seen a team kind of fall off like that. Eleven points is a huge, huge swing. Especially over two months on the same shot that’s not guarded.”

Turnovers have also been an issue. The Tigers rank sixth nationally in turnovers forced, with 18.2 per game, but lately, they’ve been sloppy with the ball themselves. Over the last six games, they’re averaging 16.0 turnovers. Wade said for his team to have a chance in Rupp, they have to protect the ball and keep the rebounding battle close. In Baton Rouge, both teams finished with 39 boards. Oscar Tshiebwe, who battled foul trouble in the first half, had 13 rebounds.

“You can’t go on the road and turn the ball over like we do,” Wade said. “The rebounding will be a big part. We got to keep the rebounding margins close. I don’t think we’ll be able to out-rebound them, but we’ve got to keep it manageable. We can’t just get annihilated on the glass. We can’t go in there and cough the ball up 15-20 times and expect to give ourselves a chance.”

“Hope is not a very good strategy”

As mentioned, Oscar Tshiebwe picked up two fouls in the first half in Baton Rouge, checking out at the 11:23 mark. He played all 20 minutes in the second half, finishing with 8 points and 13 rebounds. Oscar’s been pretty good about staying out of foul trouble since then (knock on wood). Wade knows he may not be as lucky this go around.

“What we did on Oscar the first game, count on him to get two fouls in the first half — hope is not a very good strategy,” Wade said. “He is playing as well as anyone in the country. Being able to block him out and keep him off the offensive glass, he’s going to get his defensive rebounds, but do a good job keeping him off the glass as best we can.”

TyTy Washington (leg) and Sahvir Wheeler (wrist) could both be out tonight. Whereas Kentucky was caught off guard when Wheeler and Washington went down in Baton Rouge, they’re now prepared to play without them, as evidenced by Saturday’s win over Alabama.

“We’re going to prepare as both of them are playing,” Wade said of Washington and Wheeler. “[Davion] Mintz is a sixth-year senior. He’s a tremendous player, a tremendous guard. Kellan Grady, a phenomenal player. Those two played very, very well against Alabama. [Jacob] Toppin is someone that they started against Alabama when those two were out, and Toppin killed us here. I think he had 14 and 8 against us here on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, so I mean, Toppin was tremendous. They still got Oscar. Keion Brooks as an older guy, a junior, he had a big three against Alabama. He’s a really good mid-range shooter, does a good job.

“I mean, they’ve got plenty of very, very good players. Older players. Talented players. Whoever they put out there, they’re Kentucky for a reason.”