Behind the Boxscore: St. Bonaventure

Coming into Saturday’s game I did not feel great about LSU’s chances. As Poseur and I laid out, the things that St. Bonaventure did well were mainly in areas LSU has struggled with all season long. I even picked the Bonnies to win on this here website.

So I am pleasantly surprised and frankly a little giddy that our boys are still dancing in Indianapolis. Let’s look back at how LSU not only adapted to St. Bonaventure’s style, they beat the Bonnies at their own game.

+19: LSU’s rebounding margin

Even now, nearly 24 hours later I still can’t believe LSU was this good on the glass. Especially against a team that was one of the best in America at attacking the boards and getting offensive rebounds.

The 49 rebounds is not a season high for LSU, that was 53 which came against Southeastern back in November. But considering the caliber of opponent and just how good St. Bonaventure is on the glass, I’d argue this was LSU’s most impressive rebounding effort of the season. And we can chalk most of that up to...

3: Tigers with double-doubles

Just a fantastic effort from the LSU front court. Darius Days, Trendon Watford and Aundre Hyatt have LSU a presence in the interior we haven’t seen all season long.

We need to shoutout the game Aundre Hyatt had. 13 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. By far and away his best game as an LSU Tiger, and if he can recreate even a sliver of those numbers against Michigan then the Tigers may be hanging in Indy longer than most expected.

0: Number of first half threes by St. Bonaventure

Nobody will confuse St. Bonaventure with the 2016 Golden State Warriors, but as a team the Bonnies were shooting at about 35 percent from three. That’s pretty good, especially for a mid major. But look how good all those x’s in brown look.

The Bonnies weren’t much better in the second half either, going 3-10. So for the entire game St. Bonaventure was 3-20 from three. I’ll repeat what I said about the LSU rebounding, if LSU is going to be defending like this they should be playing into the tournament’s second weekend and maybe even beyond that.

27: Cameron Thomas points

The best pure scorer LSU’s had since Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. It’s comforting knowing when games get tight, the Tigers have a certified bucket getter on hand. Thomas also showed some playmaking ability, handing out three assists and had a really good two-man game going with Trendon Watford.

1: Step closer to the national championship

There’s now 32 teams left in the field and LSU is one of them. On to the next one.