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Women's Basketball Mid-Season Review: Looking For Positives

A look at what has gone wrong for the women's basketball team

By Saltzman and briafelicien
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

What stands out at this point in the season?

briafelicien

So many negative things stand out right now. The most glaring are the bad losses to Tulane, Maine, and most recently Samford. LSU is down its best players in Raigyne Moncreif and Ayana Mitchell, but someone on the team is going to have to step up and become a consistent scorer before the SEC season spirals out of control.

Saltzman
Entering this season, even though the Tigers lost a bunch of key players from last year, there was enough returning to make one think that this team could be competitive. That is not the case anymore with so many injuries. One can only hope that the 6-7 mark LSU has entering conference play will stabilize around .500 and not dip much further below .500 in the second half of the season.


The big issue with the Tigers so far is the offense, which is one of the worst in the nation (271st in PPG entering Sunday), if the Tigers are to improve in this area what needs to happen?

briafelicien
When the team lost its scorers it lost its leadership.

Even before Moncrief's injury, the team had trouble scoring. But after, Jenna Deemer and Aexis Hyder had a few consecutive games where they, as individuals, showed hints that they were gonna take over as the team's go-to scorer and possibly the leader.

Now, both have essentially disappeared as producers in games and on the stat sheet. For LSU to improve in scoring, there needs to be a defined player that the team can count on game in and game out to not only score and defend, but also be that vocal person if her shots aren't falling.

Saltzman

It seems that most issues with the LSU offense will come back to Deemer and Hyder not being able to carry the scoring. Deemer's 3-pt % is about where it was a year ago. Hyder on the other hand averaged close to 14 points her final season at North Texas, but is averaging under ten points so far this season. It's not as if Deemer and Hyder not getting enough scoring chances as Hyder and Deemer are third and first, respectively in field goal attempts.

Still, Rina Hill and Akilah Bethel are two players who need to be able to step in as that third scoring option if one of the other two is having a nice off.


How do you see LSU doing in conference play?

briafelicien
Luckily, the first games are against Alabama and Ole Miss, so it's not the hardest hitting teams right out of the gate. But, the games against Texas A&M, Tennessee, South Carolina & Kentucky could possibly resemble the UConn loss unless a switch turns on for the Lady Tigers.

LSU may be able to put together some crucial winning runs like it has in previous seasons and shock opponents. It's done it with 8 players, who says it can't be done in 2016.

Saltzman

It's difficult to see how the Tigers come out of the second half with a winning record. Maybe they can secure a little momentum in the first half of the schedule against some weaker SEC opponents. But, it's hard to see how a team with three bad loss already entering conference play is going to shake up the conference. Perhaps the familiarity factor helps the Tigers a bit.


What positives are you looking for in the second half of the season?

briafelicien
The positive: It can only go up from here.

Saltzman
Yeah, this season has been pretty miserable, one can only hope it gets better from here.