Tigers travel to Boston College for ACC-SEC Challenge

By Hunt Palmer

The ACC punched back on Tuesday.

A year after being whitewashed 14-2 in the ACC-SEC Challenge, the ACC won six of nine games on Tuesday night including four wins by three points or less. Seven games remain on Tuesday including LSU’s trip to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College.

The Tigers are 7-0 against a weak schedule. The Eagles are just 4-4. It’s an opportunity at a Power 5 road win for LSU which opened as a 7.5 point favorite.

Boston College has already taken some ugly losses thus far. The Eagles lost 93-90 to Tulane at home and only scored 49 points in a 10-point loss to Davidson the game prior. Central Connecticut came to Chestnut Hill and won 60-59, and FAU dealt BC a season-opening loss 83-78.

REPLACING REED

LSU is moving on without junior forward Jalen Reed who suffered a second straight season-ending injury before Christmas. Reed tore his ACL last December in the ACC-SEC Challenge against Florida State. He suffered an Achilles injury in LSU’s tournament in Florida last week.

Reed was averaging 9.5 points per game coming off the bench for the Tigers. Last season LSU simply didn’t have the front court depth to replace Reed. Daimion Collins was too slender to handle himself in the post. Corey Chest was only 6-foot-6, and Robert Miller was a freshman.

This season, LSU is better equipped.

Michael Nwoko is off to a sensational start both offensively and defensively. He’s clearly LSU’s most physical presence on the floor. Marquel Sutton is 6-foot-9 and has been LSU’s most versatile front court option. He’s LSU’s leading rebounded and has knocked down 12 threes early on. Miller is a year older and stronger, and wings Pablo Tamba and Rashad Kings are older players with some size and strength on the wings.

Reed will be missed. No doubt. But LSU is in a far better position to offset his loss this time around.

HAND BALL

Donald Hand Jr. is a 6-foot-5, fourth year wing who leads the Eagles in scoring at 16.6 points per game. He averaged 15.4 last season for the BC, so he’s clearly their go-to player. Tamba has drawn the toughest wing assignment early in games for LSU, but the Tigers switch most screens defensively, so that matchup gets washed out on a lot of possessions.

I do have some concerns about scoring wings against this LSU team. Tamba and King are the best defensive options on the wing. It reamins to be seen if they’re elite SEC defenders because LSU’s schedule has not been very tough.

Hand is a strong player who lives at the free throw line. When you average more than six free throw attempts per game and shoot under 20 percent from three point range (that number was 37% last year, it’s just been a brutal start), your intentions are clear. Get to the line. LSU’s wing defenders will have to be ready for Hand’s physicality off the bounce to slow him down and keep him off the foul line.

NWOKO NOW

LSU needs to feature Nwoko early and often. I think he’s shown enough in the early season that he should be a focal point of LSU’s offense early in games. He’s scored in double figures in every game and is shooting 74 percent from the floor. Make Boston College declare how they’re going to guard him, and attack based on that. If they leave him one-on-one with Jayden Hastings, see if Nwoko can get him in foul trouble or score early. If they double him, use numbers to attack off the perimeter. There are enough capable shooters and drivers to make double teams hurt.

Dedan Thomas will control the pace, and he’ll likely be the focal point of the offense with high ball screens. That another way to see how BC wants to defend, but I’d start through Nwoko.

Tipoff is at 6:15 central time on ACC Network.