ABOUT LSU • LSU brings a 5-2 record into Wednesday’s game following its 97-84 win over UNC Wilmington in Baton Rouge, La., on Sunday afternoon. • Was the Tigers’ second straight victory… Last LSU loss was a 94-84 decision vs. Marquette during final day of Maui Invitational on Nov. 22. • Tigers have posted a 4-0 record inside Maravich Assembly Center this season. • Against UNC Wilmington, senior forward Duop Reath came off the bench to lead all players with 30 points on 13-of-17 shooting… Sophomore guard Skylar Mays added 14 points with two rebounds and three assists… Sophomore forward Wayde Sims posted 11 points with six rebounds, while senior forward Aaron Epps tied with freshman guard Brandon Rachal for game-high honors with seven rebounds. • This season, Tremont Waters averages 18.3 points per game to lead four Tigers in double digits and tops LSU with 6.6 assists per game… Reath ranks second with 14.6 points per game but leads the Tigers with 4.9 rebounds per contest… Mays ranks third with 12.1 points per contest, while Sampson is fourth with 10.0 points per game. • Head Coach Will Wade is in his first season at LSU and his fifth season as an NCAA collegiate head coach. • Has compiled a 96-47 record during his career and is 5-2 at LSU. • Previously built a 51-20 record at VCU (2015-17) and a 40-25 mark at Chattanooga (2013-15). • Wednesday’s game will be the first time that Wade has faced Houston during his career. • Wednesday’s game will be the first time that Wade has faced Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson during their respective careers.
“We don’t have a go-to stopper, so we’ll just have to run a couple different bodies at him,” Wade said of Gray. “He does a really good job, and they’ve got some shooters around him.”
So the Tigers, who rank 290th among 351 D-I teams in field-goal defense, have their work cut out for them in what will be their third-toughest test of the season behind Notre Dame and Michigan.
The Tigers fell hard to Notre Dame 92-53, but upset Michigan 77-75 one night earlier.
“Obviously, we have to get back in transition because they push the ball and play up-tempo,” LSU point guard Tremont Waters said of Houston. “We pretty much feel like we just have to go out and do what we know how to do; play like we did against Michigan … play with a chip on our shoulder.”
Talks about how this is turning into a nice OOC rivalry. CKS says it makes sense especially with the regional aspect of it.
Lot of respect for LSU and Will Wade and know that they’ll do well with him.
Goes into detail in regards to some of their players; says that they’re well coached
Gordy runs down their resume, to include the wins over Wake Forest and Arkansas. CKS talks about how they had 8 new guys coming in and having to get them spun up on getting indoctrinated into the culture. Takes awhile.
Talks about the win at Baylor in the scrimmage (“not supposed to talk about it”)
Started off a bit shaky, mentions the bad shooting against Drexel, but have started to come together.
Each game, they’ve been able to gel. Good character kids which makes it easy to get them to gel
Don’t get carried away with anything this early, good or bad
Will Wade mentioned that the Coogs are very physical and that are bigs are good rebounders and very physical. CKS talks about how in any sport, you try to find an identity. Coogs work on rebounding.
Don’t have one individual player that’s great, but depth is important in getting rebounds
– No Mariano Rivera, but have a committee of guys that can get the job done when it comes to rebounding
Likes how Gray is being more efficient. Averaging more points this year on less shots. Curently shooting 50%/40%/90% on the year. Had an 8 assist/0 turnover game this year.
Been fun building this program. Can’t really count the first year with only 5 scholarship players when he arrived
2nd year was fun, beat every team in the conference
Last year, really hurt by Devin Davis’s injury
As long as the right guys are shooting the 3 pointers, they’ll continue to have a good percentage
Mentions how when he was with the Rockets, the free throw percentage was bad because Dwight Howard was shooting most of the free throws.
Talks about James Harden and how great of a player he is. Does what he needs to do to win. Says he loves that Harden wants to win and that he would get upset when guys around him didn’t want to win as bad as him. Talks about how getting Chris Paul is a great move, and talks about Gordon a bit.
