The LSU basketball team’s game against Arkansas on Saturday morning seemed like a must-win after a much-needed midweek respite.
The primary objective against the Razorbacks was to ensure that the Tigers’ 3-1 SEC start didn’t entirely collapse. The team had a chance to take stock of what went wrong during a three-game losing run.LSU couldn’t afford another loss in this specific scenario, of course, because of a tough two-week stretch of games that would put even the best teams to the test.
The Tigers’ next five games, which begin on Wednesday night when they travel to No. 5 Tennessee, are all against clubs who, as of Sunday, were all ranked in the top 39 of the NET rankings.That would have been considerably more challenging if they hadn’t defeated Arkansas, a club with its own issues, 95-74 on Saturday.
Never one to look ahead, McMahon stated following the wire-to-wire blowout, “You hope it leads to more confidence.”
But after LSU emerged victorious from close defeats to Texas A&M and Georgia, as well as a subpar second-half showing in a 21-point loss to Alabama, it was worth mentioning.
Although there was no midweek game to worry about, McMahon pointed out that his team had to adjust to a few sicknesses and injuries, but they were ready.
Then, knowing what was ahead, it took the necessary actions to defeat Arkansas in a game it had to have.
With 17 assists on 29 completed field goals, LSU’s offensive performance was among its best in league play. This was mostly due to their stifling defense, which limited Arkansas to only 18 points in the first 16 minutes.
The Tigers were so dominant that they led by as many as 21 points in the first half and 28 in the second, and they maintained a double-digit lead for the final 33 minutes.
“We were really locked in to the game plan and the things we needed to do on the defensive end,” McMahon remarked. Next, in an aggressive manner,
Even though the season’s biggest challenges are coming up in the next two weeks, he at least knows they’ll be approaching them with some confidence.
“You can see that it works when you look at how hard our guys worked during the bye week, how much trust they played with, how much of the ball they shared on offense, and the quality of shots that resulted from that,” he added.
“Our guys need to have faith in themselves; we have excellent players; we just need to keep improving.”
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