After landing their first SEC win of the season against Georgia the Florida Gators (8-7, 1-2 SEC) will head to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers (12-3, 1-2 SEC). It’s early in the season to talk about league standings and the implication of individual games but the Tigers and Gators are two of five teams that currently sit at 1-2, and with both teams projected to finish in about the same range of the league, games like these can be major differentiators.
LSU is in their first season under Matt McMahon who took the job after a successful run at Murray State. When prior head coach Will Wade was dismissed from the program essentially the entire Tigers roster entered the transfer portal but McMahon did an excellent job at putting together a roster that can be competitive in the SEC. Currently 12-3 they have stacked up some wins, but some of that is due to a non-conference schedule that was relatively soft. Entering conference play their best win was against Wake Forest, the only high major opponent they saw. To open SEC play the Tigers did grab a huge win, taking down an Arkansas team picked to finish around the top of the league. They have avoided the bad loss, only coming short to a talented Kansas State team on a neutral site and then dropping a pair of road games to Kentucky and Texas A&M. Those two losses came in their last two contests, so they’ll be riding a short two-game skid into Tuesday’s matchup.
Maravich Assembly Center has been extremely kind to LSU as they are 9-0 at home, which again is partially due to the schedule, but is still an impressive mark and included in that is a win over Arkansas who has performed much better than the Gators so far this season.
As of January 8th, the Tigers are 89th in the NET rankings, making this a quadrant-2 game for the Gators. Florida sports an 0-6 record against quadrant-1 opponents and they are desperately looking for that quality win, but they likely won’t have that chance against the Tigers as this one will likely stand as a quadrant-2. Surprisingly, this will be Florida’s first Q-2 game of the season, so it’s unknown exactly how they’ll respond to this level of competition and atmosphere.
Known at Murray State for being a brilliant offensive mind, coach Matt McMahon has shifted his focus to the opposite side of the ball in his first year at LSU as he tries to be competitive right away. They have had success on that end, particularly against Arkansas where they held the Razorbacks to only 57 points and outlasted them for the win. The Tigers play an aggressive brand of defense, often playing three smaller guards at once who aren’t going to win with physicality or length but are extremely quick and active with their hands in the passing lane. While the Tigers don’t have length on the perimeter they do have it on the inside, and between KJ Williams (6’10”), Derek Fountain (6’10”), Jalen Reed (6’10”) and Kendal Coleman (6’8”) the Tigers constantly have two quality post players on the floor that can protect the rim.
Mid-major to high-major transfers don’t always work out, but KJ Williams following Matt McMahon from Murray State to LSU has been a smashing success. He leads the Tigers in a number of statistical categories including points (18.2), rebounds (7.7), steals (1.6), and blocks (0.9) and is the engine behind what they want to do both offensively and defensively. Unlike a lot of mid-major transfers he has high-major size at 6’10” and 250 pounds and he is skilled as well, adding a lethal 49% three-point shot to his arsenal this season. While LSU has been better on the defensive side of the ball then the offensive side McMahon is still drawing up brilliant plays and a lot of them will finish with a Williams dunk or catch and shoot three.
Among returners, guard Adam Miller has been the most impactful with 13 points and 2 assists per game. Miller is a three-point gunner averaging just under 8 three-point attempts per game and McMahon loves to draw up plays that have Miller sprinting off screens to get open behind the arc. While he’s only shooting 34% from three on the season, don’t let that number fool you–he is actually shooting 46% in conference play and considering his incredible amount of volume that makes him one of the best shooters in the league.
A familiar name to Florida fans will be Jalen Reed who originally committed to the Gators under Mike White but reopened his recruitment after the coaching change and ended up choosing LSU. Reed was known as a 6’10” scorer in high school but at LSU is yet to get things going offensively, though he has been a useful defensive piece with his length and athleticism. He’ll likely be matched up with a player who has a similar body type in Alex Fudge who will be returning to LSU after starting his career there before transferring to Florida.
The key to the game defensively for the Gators is being prepared for the off ball actions that Matt McMahon likes to run. Early in the season the Gators struggled to defend off ball screening and have started to handle those actions better, but they haven’t faced a team that’s going to run as much for shooters as LSU is.
Offensively the Gators will have to figure out how to navigate the pesky LSU guards while also contending with the length that the Tigers have at the rim. Florida was able to put up points against Georgia but it was largely in transition which is still a good sign for the team, but it doesn’t take away some of the concerns with half court execution.
This game takes place Tuesday, January 10th at 7 PM ET and it will be televised on SEC Network.