What he said: Matt McMahon previews Florida, reviews UK, A&M losses

LSU dropped from 12-1 to 12-3 over the past week, with road losses to Kentucky and Texas A&M. The 1-2 start in SEC play is disappointing after the opening win over Arkansas, but a home game against Florida on Tuesday night puts immediate pressure on the Tigers to get back on track. The Gators also enter at 1-2 in SEC play, making it pivotal game for Matt McMahon’s LSU squad.

McMahon previewed that game and looked back at the struggles from the past week in his Monday afternoon press conference. Here’s what he said.

Opening statement…

“Really excited to be back home tomorrow night with a very talented Florida team coming to town. Our first home game against Arkansas had a huge crowd and an awesome environment and I’m hoping to have the same against Florida. This past weekend was a great learning experience for our team, but really a disappointing performance. The first time this season we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to win the game, so we’ll take a lot of lessons from that as we prepare for tomorrow night.”

How to get KJ more involved

Credit to A&M, they did a good job with their double teams and limiting his touches. We have to do a better job of identifying some of those passing angles to find him. On film, we had some opportunities where there were switches and instead of taking advantage of that on the inside, we took some tough shots on the perimeter against the big against the switch. KJ is also a willing passer, so he needs to touch the basketball to enable him to have scoring opportunities, but also open up shots for others.”

Building on Adam Miller’s start to SEC play

“Disappointing results on the road last week, but one of the positives takeaways was Adam going 10-of-21 from three in the two games, after a rough stretch of shooting. I felt we did a better job creating some looks and his movement without the basketball and his screening was much improved which led to good looks. I’m all for him shooting as many high quality threes as we can create for him.”

On 2-point shooting struggles

“First I would give Texas A&M a lot of credit for their verticality, making shots difficult at the rim, with that said, we have to do a better job of finishing those plays. We did settle for a couple tough mid range shots when we had an extra pass that could have led to an open three or a dump down to the basket. It’s a concern going into tomorrow night because one of Florida’s many strengths is their 2-point defense, anchored by Castleton’s ability to protect the basket.”

Is it a positive to come off of those two games so you can see how your team faces adversity?

“I don’t think it’s ever a positive to lose. I would rather us lose while finding ways to win games. There were a lot more positive takeaways from the loss in Lexington than the loss on Saturday. I expect we’ll have a great response.”

Trae Hannibal’s game vs. Texas A&M

“I thought you saw his explosiveness and his ability to get to the rim. He didn’t finish those plays as well as he did in the first two games, but he got there. He’s a guard that can rebound and he’s a guard that can get to the basket.”

Turnovers vs. Texas A&M

“We were averaging nine turnovers per game in the first two games and on Saturday we had 15 turnovers in a low possession game. One out of every five times down the floor we were turning it over and that’s not a good formula for us. The disappointing ones were the careless ones versus soft pressure, but then some of the teaching ones were on drives where we drew two defenders, but we charged on a few of those and we need to learn from those.”

Cam Hayes’ health

“He was banged up. Injured his lower leg on a play in the first half. Played some in the second half. He was really sore yesterday and was limited in practice. We’ll see how he is today. I expect him to be able to go, but he did have a lower leg injury in the first half.”