LSU Preview

#6 Texas A&M vs. #9/11 LSU Preview
Tuesday, December 5th
8:00 CST - FSN Southwest
Line: LSU by 3.5
(see link below for important TV information – cable subscribers in Dallas are not going to get the game – GO MAVS!)

Well – What I do not want to do is spend a whole bunch of time recapping the last game between these two schools.

I am sure you all remember what happened last March in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

As we also mentioned in the season preview - Darrel Mitchell hit a three pointer with 3.9 seconds to hand the Aggies a heart-breaking 58-57 loss and ending the most memorable season of Aggie Basketball any of us have ever seen.

That was a tough pill to swallow for everyone and I guarantee you the 2006-2007 Aggies have had this game circled on their calendar for quite some time.

Alright - Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and break down this game.

This year’s LSU team has a somewhat different look than last year’s Final Four team as they lost two key members, one to graduation and one to the NBA.

The before mentioned Darrel Mitchell (16.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.4 assists) graduated, and Tyrus Thomas (12.3 points, 9.2 rebounds) was the 4th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

While these two guys represented nearly 40% of LSU’s offense last season, do not let that fool you into thinking this is a rebuilding year or reloading year for John Brady’s group.

LSU returns one of the most dominant big men in the country in Glenn “Big Baby” Davis, and he is complemented nicely by Sophomores Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple and Senior Darnell Lazarae.

LSU comes into the game with a 4-1 overall record and ranked #9/11 in the nation. Three of their wins are over a group of Nichols State, Louisiana-Monroe, and McNeese State. Their 4th win came on the road Saturday afternoon when they rallied from an 11 point deficit to get by Tulane 74-67.

Their lone loss was at the hands of #10/16 ranked Wichita State out of the Missouri Valley conference. The Shockers went into Baton Rouge and took it to the Tigers 57-53 on November 25th.

For being the #9 ranked team in the country, you could easily say that LSU has been rather unimpressive so far in the early going. They’ve beat up on 3 cupcakes, lost to WSU and had to rally late to get by a pretty poor Tulane team.
Before we get too far along in analyzing these matchups, I need to let you guys know I am not sure what to do with Josh Carter. I can not decide where to put him, in the backcourt or in the frontcourt. Is he a big guard? Is he a small forward?

I think the problem is that A&M will run a 3 guard (Law, Kirk, Carter), 2 forward (Jones, Kavaliauskas) set, and LSU will primarily run a 2 guard (Temple, Mason) 3 forward (Davis, Lazare, Mitchell) set.

I guess we will include Josh in the frontcourt section below. (Let’s all hope the mismatch works out in Josh’s favor.)


Backcourt Match-up

The two guys that start in LSU’s backcourt have above average size as both Sophomore Garrett Temple and Senior Dameon Mason (a transfer from Marquette) are listed at 6’5”.

Temple is averaging 12 points and 4.2 assists per game while Mason is adding 8.6 points and 4.4 rebounds.

Coming off the bench for the Tigers will be Tack Minor (Jr., 2.4 points, 2.4 assists) and Ben Voogd (So., 3.6 points, 3.0 assists)

Garrett Temple will be the guy pushing the ball most of the day and will likely be picked up by Acie Law. I would therefore look for Dominique Kirk to pick up Dameon Mason.

I will be curious to see whether Mason’s size gives Kirk problems or whether Kirk’s quickness gives Mason problems. Should be a good matchup to watch.

Coming off the bench for the Aggies will be Donald Sloan, Derrick Rolland, and Logan Lee.

With Acie Law being one of the premier guards in the Big 12 and Dominique Kirk being one of the best defeneders in the nation, I will give a moderate backcourt advantage to the Aggies.

Advantage – Moderate Edge For The Aggies (+3)

Frontcourt Match-up

Any discussion of the frontcourt matchup between these two teams has to focus on both teams’ big men - - LSU’s Glen Davis and Texas A&M’s Joseph Jones.

Simply stated, Big Baby is one of the best big men in the nation. Glen put in a ton of work in the offseason and dropped 20+ pounds and is all the way down to a published weight of 289.

The focus of the LSU attack is centered around Davis who is averaging nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Helping Davis inside for LSU are starters:
Darnell Lazare - 6’8” 240 – Senior – 12.2 points and 5.6 boards
Tasmin Mitchell – 6’7” 230 – Sophomore – 13.6 points and 6.8 boards

And reserve:
Magnum Rolle - 6’10” 215 – Sophomore – 4.0 points and 5.6 boards
Mitchell and Lazare bring more of an athletic style to the floor and make a great complement to the bruising style that Davis brings to the table.

Davis, Lazare, and Mitchell are a very good unit and watching them battle inside with the Aggies’ big men should be a lot of fun.

It goes without saying (for sure to this audience) that Joe Jones will also have a major impact on this game and his battle with Davis will be one of the best matchups of two of the nation’s premier big men that you will see all season long.

To me, I think this game is not going to be decided by the Davis / Jones matchup; I think it is going to be decided by each team’s frontcourt supporting cast.

How will Josh Carter match up with Tasmin Mitchell?

Will Tasmin be able to keep up with Josh on the perimeter? Will Josh be able to guard Tasmin when he catches the ball with his back to the basket on the inside?

Despite it all, I think the biggest question is how will Antanas Kavaliauskas, Bryan Davis, and Junior Elonu matchup with Lazare and Mitchell.

I can not be entirely objective about it, but if AK plays like he did last Saturday against Pacific (23 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists – 9 of 16 from the field and 1 of 1 from the 3 point line) and you get an ounce out of anything from Davis and Elonu, then I can not help but think that there may be a slight edge here for the Aggies if for no other reason, just on depth alone.

If anything else, Davis and Elonu may be able to come in and just be physical and use their 10 fouls to wreak havoc on the LSU big men.

Advantage – Slight Edge for the Aggies (+2)

#6 Texas A&M vs. #9/11 LSU Preview
Tuesday, December 5th
8:00 CST - FSN Southwest
Line: LSU by 3.5
(see link below for important TV information – cable subscribers in Dallas are not going to get the game – GO MAVS!)

Well – What I do not want to do is spend a whole bunch of time recapping the last game between these two schools.

I am sure you all remember what happened last March in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

As we also mentioned in the season preview - Darrel Mitchell hit a three pointer with 3.9 seconds to hand the Aggies a heart-breaking 58-57 loss and ending the most memorable season of Aggie Basketball any of us have ever seen.

That was a tough pill to swallow for everyone and I guarantee you the 2006-2007 Aggies have had this game circled on their calendar for quite some time.

Alright - Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and break down this game.

This year’s LSU team has a somewhat different look than last year’s Final Four team as they lost two key members, one to graduation and one to the NBA.

The before mentioned Darrel Mitchell (16.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.4 assists) graduated, and Tyrus Thomas (12.3 points, 9.2 rebounds) was the 4th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

While these two guys represented nearly 40% of LSU’s offense last season, do not let that fool you into thinking this is a rebuilding year or reloading year for John Brady’s group.

Josh Carter with another nasty dunk. This time against Pacific last Saturday. (© Stacy Reeves/2006)
LSU returns one of the most dominant big men in the country in Glenn “Big Baby” Davis, and he is complemented nicely by Sophomores Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple and Senior Darnell Lazarae.

LSU comes into the game with a 4-1 overall record and ranked #9/11 in the nation. Three of their wins are over a group of Nichols State, Louisiana-Monroe, and McNeese State. Their 4th win came on the road Saturday afternoon when they rallied from an 11 point deficit to get by Tulane 74-67.

Their lone loss was at the hands of #10/16 ranked Wichita State out of the Missouri Valley conference. The Shockers went into Baton Rouge and took it to the Tigers 57-53 on November 25th.

For being the #9 ranked team in the country, you could easily say that LSU has been rather unimpressive so far in the early going. They’ve beat up on 3 cupcakes, lost to WSU and had to rally late to get by a pretty poor Tulane team.
Before we get too far along in analyzing these matchups, I need to let you guys know I am not sure what to do with Josh Carter. I can not decide where to put him, in the backcourt or in the frontcourt. Is he a big guard? Is he a small forward?

I think the problem is that A&M will run a 3 guard (Law, Kirk, Carter), 2 forward (Jones, Kavaliauskas) set, and LSU will primarily run a 2 guard (Temple, Mason) 3 forward (Davis, Lazare, Mitchell) set.

I guess we will include Josh in the frontcourt section below. (Let’s all hope the mismatch works out in Josh’s favor.)


Backcourt Match-up

The two guys that start in LSU’s backcourt have above average size as both Sophomore Garrett Temple and Senior Dameon Mason (a transfer from Marquette) are listed at 6’5”.

Temple is averaging 12 points and 4.2 assists per game while Mason is adding 8.6 points and 4.4 rebounds.

Coming off the bench for the Tigers will be Tack Minor (Jr., 2.4 points, 2.4 assists) and Ben Voogd (So., 3.6 points, 3.0 assists)

Garrett Temple will be the guy pushing the ball most of the day and will likely be picked up by Acie Law. I would therefore look for Dominique Kirk to pick up Dameon Mason.
I will be curious to see whether Mason’s size gives Kirk problems or whether Kirk’s quickness gives Mason problems. Should be a good matchup to watch.

Coming off the bench for the Aggies will be Donald Sloan, Derrick Rolland, and Logan Lee.

With Acie Law being one of the premier guards in the Big 12 and Dominique Kirk being one of the best defeneders in the nation, I will give a moderate backcourt advantage to the Aggies.

Advantage – Moderate Edge For The Aggies (+3)

Frontcourt Match-up

Any discussion of the frontcourt matchup between these two teams has to focus on both teams’ big men - - LSU’s Glen Davis and Texas A&M’s Joseph Jones.

Simply stated, Big Baby is one of the best big men in the nation. Glen put in a ton of work in the offseason and dropped 20+ pounds and is all the way down to a published weight of 289.

The focus of the LSU attack is centered around Davis who is averaging nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Helping Davis inside for LSU are starters:
Darnell Lazare - 6’8” 240 – Senior – 12.2 points and 5.6 boards
Tasmin Mitchell – 6’7” 230 – Sophomore – 13.6 points and 6.8 boards

And reserve:
Magnum Rolle - 6’10” 215 – Sophomore – 4.0 points and 5.6 boards
Mitchell and Lazare bring more of an athletic style to the floor and make a great complement to the bruising style that Davis brings to the table.

Davis, Lazare, and Mitchell are a very good unit and watching them battle inside with the Aggies’ big men should be a lot of fun.

It goes without saying (for sure to this audience) that Joe Jones will also have a major impact on this game and his battle with Davis will be one of the best matchups of two of the nation’s premier big men that you will see all season long.

To me, I think this game is not going to be decided by the Davis / Jones matchup; I think it is going to be decided by each team’s frontcourt supporting cast.

How will Josh Carter match up with Tasmin Mitchell?

Will Tasmin be able to keep up with Josh on the perimeter? Will Josh be able to guard Tasmin when he catches the ball with his back to the basket on the inside?

Despite it all, I think the biggest question is how will Antanas Kavaliauskas, Bryan Davis, and Junior Elonu matchup with Lazare and Mitchell.

I can not be entirely objective about it, but if AK plays like he did last Saturday against Pacific (23 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists – 9 of 16 from the field and 1 of 1 from the 3 point line) and you get an ounce out of anything from Davis and Elonu, then I can not help but think that there may be a slight edge here for the Aggies if for no other reason, just on depth alone.

If anything else, Davis and Elonu may be able to come in and just be physical and use their 10 fouls to wreak havoc on the LSU big men.

Advantage – Slight Edge for the Aggies (+2)

Bench Match-up

LSU has 9 guys that average double digits in minutes, and their 5 starters account for 78% of their offensive output. The 5 Tiger starters also account for 73% of their team’s minutes.

The Aggies also have 9 guys that average double digit mintues. The A&M starters account for 77% of their offensive output and 68% of their minutes.

I am just not too sure that there is much here to differentiate between the two benches.

The only angle you can maybe pull on is that the LSU bench has a Freshman, two Sophomores, and a Junior whereas the Aggies bench features 4 Freshman.

How will the young Aggies respond in their first trip away from the friendly confines of Reed Arena? This may be the key to the bench play of both teams.

Advantage – Minor Edge for the Tigers (+1)


Coaching Match-Up

John Brady took his team to the Final Four last year and is maybe one of the most unheralded coaches in all of College Basketball. Brady is in his 10th year at LSU.

I won’t speak too much about Coach Gillispie, but he has proven himself to be one of the best young coaches in the game. Gillispie and his staff have also shown a knack for getting their team ready to play and putting together a solid gameplan.

While Brady has a touch more experience, I’m not convinced that there is enough here to separate these two coaches, both are great for their respective programs.

Advantage – Push +/- 0

Miscellaneous

Travel
As we mentioned above, how will the Aggies fare in their first game away from Reed Arena? LSU has already lost to one ranked opponent at home and if Wichita State can go in there and win, so can the Aggies. That being said, LSU and A&M have a healthy regional rivalry with each other (for two teams who rarely play each other in any sport anymore). I’ll give a slight nod to the Tigers here for being at home.

Experience
Can A&M’s experienced starting group get the support they will need from their young bench? Can LSU handle the pressure defense they will see from the Aggies? I’m not sure there is much here to set the groups apart. Both teams have played in plenty of big games over the past couple of years.

Advantage – Minor Edge for the Tigers (+1)

I hope this report helps for tomorrow - This should also be a great game.

Old Army Fight!
BTHOLSU!

The Aggie Hoops Report’s Game Outcome Prediction -

Texas A&M Aggies – 57
LSU Tigers - 54

Television Information:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/index2.php?&CAT=BCST&pageID=1676

Game notes and full media release:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/pressRelease.php?SID=&PRID=12141

Carry on.
-sb
LSU has 9 guys that average double digits in minutes, and their 5 starters account for 78% of their offensive output. The 5 Tiger starters also account for 73% of their team’s minutes.

The Aggies also have 9 guys that average double digit mintues. The A&M starters account for 77% of their offensive output and 68% of their minutes.

I am just not too sure that there is much here to differentiate between the two benches.

The only angle you can maybe pull on is that the LSU bench has a Freshman, two Sophomores, and a Junior whereas the Aggies bench features 4 Freshman.

How will the young Aggies respond in their first trip away from the friendly confines of Reed Arena? This may be the key to the bench play of both teams.

Advantage – Minor Edge for the Tigers (+1)


Coaching Match-Up

John Brady took his team to the Final Four last year and is maybe one of the most unheralded coaches in all of College Basketball. Brady is in his 10th year at LSU.

I won’t speak too much about Coach Gillispie, but he has proven himself to be one of the best young coaches in the game. Gillispie and his staff have also shown a knack for getting their team ready to play and putting together a solid gameplan.

While Brady has a touch more experience, I’m not convinced that there is enough here to separate these two coaches, both are great for their respective programs.

Advantage – Push +/- 0

Miscellaneous

Travel
As we mentioned above, how will the Aggies fare in their first game away from Reed Arena? LSU has already lost to one ranked opponent at home and if Wichita State can go in there and win, so can the Aggies. That being said, LSU and A&M have a healthy regional rivalry with each other (for two teams who rarely play each other in any sport anymore). I’ll give a slight nod to the Tigers here for being at home.

Experience
Can A&M’s experienced starting group get the support they will need from their young bench? Can LSU handle the pressure defense they will see from the Aggies? I’m not sure there is much here to set the groups apart. Both teams have played in plenty of big games over the past couple of years.

Advantage – Minor Edge for the Tigers (+1)

I hope this report helps for tomorrow - This should also be a great game.

Old Army Fight!
BTHOLSU!

The Aggie Hoops Report’s Game Outcome Prediction -

Texas A&M Aggies – 57
LSU Tigers - 54

Television Information:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/index2.php?&CAT=BCST&pageID=1676

Game notes and full media release:
http://www.aggieathletics.com/pressRelease.php?SID=&PRID=12141

Carry on.
-sb