Michael Bacigalupi
By Hunt Palmer
LSU has hammered its first two opponents of the young season.
Next up is a Florida International squad that lost to Nebraska by 30 on Saturday, 96-66. That doesn’t bode well for the Panthers’ chances in Baton Rouge on Thursday night. I do find humor in Florida International’s lone win of the season coming against…Florida National.
This portion of the schedule for LSU is about gelling a roster of 10 new faces and finding some rotations that look good to the coaching staff before the stiffer challenges arise.
Two weeks remain before LSU takes on Drake, Georgia Tech/DePaul, Boston College, Texas Tech and SMU in a 15-day stretch. That will be the real non-conference test before SEC play cranks up on January 3 at Texas A&M.
Here are a few things I’ll have my eye on tonight in the PMAC.
RETURN OF THE MAC
Max Mackinnon was stellar in the opener. He was 6-for-7 from the floor and made 4-of-5 threes to lead LSU in scoring with 19 points.
Against UNO, he missed all five field goals and only had one assist.
Floor spacing is going to be crucial for LSU, and it appears that Mackinnon is the two guard responsible for knocking down open shots to make sure the defense has to honor that. Marquel Sutton took care of that with four triples against UNO, but the more shooters on the floor, the better.
This is the smallest of samples, but Nebraska hit 17-of-34 threes against this FIU defense.
FREE FALLIN’
LSU is shooting free throws very well early on. The Tigers are at 75% as a team. Four of the 14 misses have come from center Mike Nwoko who is not going to be one of the better shooters on the team. He shot 61% both years at Mississippi State.
DJ Thomas is 8-for-8. Mackinnon is 5-for-5. Robert Miller is an impressive 8-for-10.
Pablo Tamba needs to shoot it better. He’s just 2-for-6.
Free throws are the same against Kentucky and Florida International. Have to knock them down.
POST PRESENCE
Florida International leans heavily on 6-foot-9 forward Hamed Olayinka. He’s 16-for-20 from the floor this year and leads the team with an 18.5 points per game average. He’s not the only size in the Panther front court. Eric Dibami is 6-foot-10, 235 pounds and will start, but he’s just a freshman. That means Jalen Reed and Nwoko will have to match up with guys their height and length.
This is far from an SEC test. So, it’s less about seeing who wins the matchup and more about LSU dominating it like Nwoko did against UNO on Monday.
I expect that to happen.
Tipoff from the Maravich center is set for 7:00 p.m.
More LSU Sports
