The LSU Tiger basketball team dropped their just their second home loss of the season on Wednesday night, the latest a 82-77 defeat to the Florida Gators in overtime.
Following the game the Tigers spoke to the media and addressed their problem areas:
LSU Head Coach Will Wade
Opening statement…
“We could just never get in rhythm tonight. The was played at Florida’s pace and their way. We could never get ourselves gong and Florida was able to impose their will and their style of play on us. KeVaughn Allen was phenomenal for them. Obviously hit some big shots in the second half. I thought they really hurt us on the offensive glass in the second half. That was something that came back to bite us. We didn’t finish well enough at the rim; we didn’t shoot free-throws like we normally shoot free throws. We weren’t very crisp tonight. We weren’t as crisp as we needed to be with our execution.”
On what Florida was able to do…
“I thought they beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls. I thought they were more physical. I told our guys all week that Florida was going to give us unbelievable resistance defensively and I don’t think some of our guys believed us. I think some of our guys just thought we would show up and do what we do, but that wasn’t the case.”
On how the Tigers tried to change from playing at Florida’s pace to at their pace…
“It’s tough. We changed our defenses a little bit. The pace that you need to create with them is not – you’ve got to create pace on offense, with your offense. You have to be able to get the ball up the court quicker. We sat there against 1-2-2 a couple times with the ball. We didn’t create any pace with our offense. It’s hard to create pace with your defense with them because they’re a good shooting team. You’ve got to be able to create pace with your offense, and we weren’t able to do that.
LSU Guard Skylar Mays
On feelings during pregame warm ups and shoot around…
“It was not the level of desperation we needed. They came out more desperate and you could tell in the first few minutes of the game that it was going to be a street fight. Credit to them, they just played harder than us. They got all the 50/50 balls. When things go like that, it is hard to win that way.”
On the physicality of Florida…
“They are a very physical team. That is probably the most physical team we have faced, I do not want to say this year, but in a while. They definitely woke us up. We have to get back to the drawing board and get to work and prepare for Saturday.”
On struggle from the free throw line tonight…
“I would say that is not like us, but obviously we have to shoot better from the free throw line. I do not think that was the only deciding factor in the game. Just going back to how they played harder than us. They got a lot of extra possessions and offensive rebounds. Obviously, missing free throws does not help, but it was a big part of it.”
On using a game like tonight to get better…
“We made a lot of mistakes today. Obviously, we have to go through the process of film and see what we can do better. At the end of the day, we are not getting this game back so we cannot let this game beat us twice. We have done that in the past before, but I think we have matured past that point. We are just going to come out and play a lot harder on Saturday.”
LSU Forward Naz Reid
On getting hit in the mouth…
“I just wanted to keep playing. You get nicks and bruises in basketball.”
On physicality of Florida…
“They are a really tough team. I cannot say much besides the fact they clearly wanted it more than us.”
On Tremont Water’s shot on the last possession…
“Just go up and get the ball and fight for box outs. We obviously did not hit and did not get the rebound, so we did not fight hard enough.”
