Takeaways from LSU's Final Four win over Virginia Tech

LSU defeated Virginia Tech on Friday night in Dallas, advancing to the first national title game LSU basketball history

Here are my thoughts, takeaways, and what fueled the comeback in the 79-72 win. 

Defense locks down late

Down nine entering the final quarter, there were two options for LSU: Either start scoring to match Virginia Tech, or take it up another level on defense. Sure, the Tigers scored 29 points in the fourth quarter, but it was all fueled by the defense.

The aggression turned up. Alexis Morris continued to hound Georgia Amoore, Flau’jae Johnson was inserted to wreak havoc on the wing, and the frontcourt duo of LaDahzia Williams and Angel Reese did not allow the Hokies’ forward to score a field goal in the final ten minutes.

The defense that had held its previous five opponents to under 40 percent shooting regained that defensive form, holding the hokies to 2-of-10 shooting in the final quarter. I wasn’t sure if the Tigers were going to be able to stop the balanced attack, but Kim Mulkey once again proves why she’s a Hall-of-Fame coach.

This five-game stretch against Hawaii, Michigan, Utah, Miami, and now Virginia Tech has proven LSU to be the best defense in the country.

Breaking through offensively

Zone offense has been a concern this entire season due to the inconsistent shooting of LSU, but in the last two games against zone teams, the Tigers made a total of 17 threes. Tonight, they only made three. I thought they’d need more, but eventually, Poole and Morris found the crevices in the defense and were able to find good looks.

The offensive rebound breakthrough was also significant. It’s much more challenging to boxout in a zone, but Mulkey said it was more of an effort and emphasis thing in the postgame. The Tigers eventually started throwing tons of numbers at the glass and it paid off. It’s the second best rebounding team in the nation and to finally get some put backs was huge.

Individually speaking, Alexis Morris and Angel Reese were excellent as always, but LaDahzia Williams scoring 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting over Liz Kitley was incredible to watch. Williams is such a savvy veteran that always stays even and is incredibly reliable.

We’ve all harped on the disappointing 3-point shooting throughout this tournament, but if anything it speaks to how great LSU is in all of the other areas. Who knows, maybe on Sunday the shooting comes around too.

Resilience

It’s one thing to win a game when down nine entering the fourth quarter with all of the momentum against you, but it’s another to completely dominate like LSU did. It’s a team filled with personalities and stars, sure, but for this team to pull out tough win after tough win and reach the title game speaks to a trait instilled from the leaders on this team and its head coach. 

Virginia Tech was more experienced, the higher seed, and had the game in its hand and LSU just took it. They were just tougher.

Making history

It’s the first LSU basketball team to reach a national championship game, information that surprised Kim Mulkey when she found out after the game. We all know about the four-straight Final Fours LSU women’s basketball – and that was with two hall-of-famers on those teams.

It’s hard to overstate what this team, these players, and this coach have accomplished this year, but historic is a great place to start.

“Angel pretty much said how I feel right now too,” Morris said. “It still hasn’t hit me. Maybe if we’re the standing champions at the end, then maybe I can just let go and just be like ahhh, like relief. But I’m super excited. It’s amazing. We just made history too, the first LSU basketball team to ever compete for a National Championship. Men or women.”

Next up: Iowa on Sunday afternoon for the title.