Notes on LSU Basketball on a Sunday following two road wins over Florida and Vanderbilt as LSU heads back home to host South Carolina on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center:
OVERTIME/CLOSE ONES
The SEC has not been for the faint of heart this year with LSU having played three overtimes in the league and four over this year with a 3-1 record (W-Texas Tech, L-at Mizzou, W-Georgia, W-At Vandy) … The four overtime games marks the fifth time that LSU has played four overtime games in one season joining the 2011-12 (2-2 record), 2004-05 (2-2 record), 1983-84 (2-2 record) and 1968-69 (2-2 record).
LSU’s four league wins are by 3 in double OT, 4 twice and 18 points … LSU is 5-2 this year in games decided by five points or less this season and 17-10 in Johnny Jones‘ tenure as head coach.
The Tigers are 5-4 in Coach Johnny Jones‘ three-years in overtime games.
ROAD WINS
LSU is now 5-1 on the road this year and winners of three straight SEC games on the road (Ole Miss, Florida and Vanderbilt) … One has to go back to the 2008-09 season when LSU won six straight SEC road games en route to the title to find the last time LSU won three straight in the league on opponent’s home courts … LSU’s 5-1 start on the road in the season is the best since the 1985-86 season when LSU was 7-0 … Four of those wins came against non-D1 teams in Hawaii.
In the previous 20 years of LSU basketball, this is the fifth time that LSU has posted five wins on an opponent’s home court and for this LSU team five road games remain – Saturday at Mississippi State, Feb. 14 at Tennessee, Feb. 17 at Texas A&M, Feb. 24 at Auburn and March 7 at Arkansas.
Coach Johnny Jones has 13 road wins in his three years at LSU and 8 road SEC wins.
The wins this past week over Florida and Vandy mark the first time since 1984-85 season that LSU won in Gainesville and Nashville in the same season. LSU has won four straight overall against Vandy.
LSU is the only team in the Southeastern Conference with five road wins for the season and one of three with Kentucky and Tennessee to have three road wins in league play. There have been 19 road wins this season in league play.
TRAILING NOT SO BAD
The Vandy game stopped an eight-game streak of LSU leading at the intermission as Vandy held a 35-30 halftime advantage … But in the six games in which LSU has trailed after 20 minutes, the Tigers are 5-1 this season … LSU has won 11 games in Coach Jones’ tenure when trailing at the half.
THOSE BAFFLING FREE THROWS
Some nights the free throws just aren’t free as LSU was just 13-of-23 at the line, but it was two free throws by Jarell Martin in the final seconds of overtime that allowed LSU to breathe easily in the 79-75 win over Vandy. Ironically, Jordan Mickey made only one free throw in five attempts in the game, but his one make with 1:07 left that tied the game at 69-69 as LSU came from three down in the final 3:05, holding Vandy scoreless the rest of regulation.
Amazingly, LSU was 13-23 in both the Vandy game and the Mizzou game and the Vandy game followed a Florida game in which LSU was 17-of-18 at the line. LSU is 253-of-353 from the line for the season, 71.7 percent.
LEAGUE, NATIONAL NUMBERS
LSU’s 75.5 scoring average is ranked 30th in the country and second in the league behind only Arkansas … LSU is second in the league in blocked shots behind Kentucky and ranked seventh in the nation and the 117 total blocks is ninth in the country … LSU leads the league in steals and defensive rebounds (28.1) and the latter stat is fifth best in the NCAA stats … LSU’s total rebound average of 40.7 leads the SEC and is 10th in the country. For the record, Quinnipiac is the nation’s leader in rebound average of 44.79.
Individually, Jordan Mickey‘s 10.7 rebound average, which is second in the SEC, is 12th best in the nation, while Jarell Martin‘s third best SEC average of 9.0 ranked 36th in the nation.
Josh Gray‘s 4.8 assists average is third in the league and 56th in the NCAA while Mickey’s league leading block average of 3.61 is second in the nation to Robert Upshaw of Washington’s average of 4.39. Mickey’s 11 double doubles ranked ninth in the NCAA with four players at 14 double doubles.
SECOND HALF SHOOTING
The Tigers, in 13 of their 15 wins this season, has improved its shooting percentage in the second half from the first half. Against Vandy, LSU shot just 36.4 percent in the first 20 minutes (36.4 percent). In the second half, LSU was 15-of-25 (60.0%), the fourth time LSU has shot 60 percent from the floor in the second 20 minutes of games.
LSU outshot its opponent, in this case Vandy) for the 15th time this season making LSU 15-0 in those games and the Tigers under Coach Jones are 48-2 when outshooting the opponents.
70 IS GOOD
The Tigers are 14-0 this season when scoring 70 points or more this season and scored 79 points in both games this week at Florida and at Vanderbilt … LSU is 41-14 in the Jones’ era when scoring more than 70 points.
COUPLE OF NUMBERS WORTH WATCHING
The numbers to watch are 176 and 500 … Jordan Mickey goes into the South Carolina game with 171 career blocks … The sophomore who is on the mid-season watch lists for the Wooden and Olson awards needs five blocks to tie and six to move into second place on LSU’s all-time career block list … Chris Johnson, who completed his LSU career in 2009, finished with 176 blocks. Of course, the LSU leader is Shaquille O’Neal at 412. Mickey was the first player since O’Neal to be able to post 100 blocked shots in a season as a freshman and is on pace to get that number again this year.
The number 500 is the 500 rebound club at LSU and he enters the Wednesday game at 41 rebounds short of being the 39th player in LSU history to pull down 500 rebounds. Mickey had 267 total rebounds last year when he averaged 7.9 boards in 34 games. This year he has 192 boards in 18 games.
Mickey is also trying to be the first LSU player to average a double double in points and rebounds. Glen Davis was the last to do that in 2007, averaging 17.7 points and 10.4 rebounds.
RADIO SHOW RETURNS TO MONDAY NIGHT
The Johnny Jones Show presented by Capital One Bank on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network returns to its Monday night at 7 p.m. time slot at TJ Ribs on Acadian Thruway. The show was moved to Wednesday this past week because the Tigers were traveling to Florida on Monday evening.
Fans are invited to join Coach Jones and host Jim Hawthorne for the show and fans can ask questions either live, by phone or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LSUBasketball.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Tigers have one at home and one on the road in the week ahead as LSU plays four-of-the-next-five in the confines of the Maravich Center. LSU hosts South Carolina on Wednesday at 6 p.m. (SEC Network, LSU Sports Radio Network) and then faces Mississippi State in Starkville on Saturday in a 1 p.m. matinee.
LSU will then play at home against Auburn (Feb. 5), Alabama (Feb. 7) and Kentucky (Feb. 10). Tickets for all the games remain on sale at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and at LSUTix.net.
The week ahead gives LSU a standard Wednesday-Saturday week for the second time this season. With 4 days rest between SEC games, LSU has won four straight and is 12-5 since 2012-13.