By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s non-conference slate is weak.
That’s not entirely the Tigers’ fault. But it’s true.
Drake won 31 games last year, including an NCAA Tournament game. Their head coach took the Iowa job and six players with him. Boston College was assigned to LSU in the ACC-SEC Challenge. The Eagles are bad. DePaul isn’t much better.
There are some name brands on the schedule, but they’re lacking substance this season.
That said, LSU has taken care of business. The Tigers are 9-1 with a nice win over SMU at a neutral site. Their NET ranking is 32 on Monday.
ESPN ranks the Tigers’ non-conference strength of schedule at No. 188. That’s right about in the middle of the pack. It could be much better. It could be worse.
As long as LSU doesn’t stub its toe in the last three non-conference games, the Tigers will enter SEC play in a good spot.
If you’re going to play a weak non-conference slate, your efficiency numbers need to be very good. LSU’s are. The Tigers are 15th nationally in offensive efficiency and 61st in defensive efficiency. Those numbers will prop LSU up until the 18-game league slate bolsters the schedule strength.
As far as the quadrants, LSU finally got a Quad 1 win on Saturday night in New Orleans. The Texas Tech loss was also in Quad 1. Everything else on the schedule has been Quad 3 and 4. The Tigers are 3-0 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4.
That’s not ideal, but the SEC gives the Tigers plenty of opportunities.
Warren Nolan has the SEC ranked No. 3 in conference RPI. The Big 10 and Big 12 are stronger. That’s a metric the selection committee uses, but for now it’s just an indication that the SEC isn’t quite the monster it was a season ago.
Last year at this time I started to put these reviews together on Mondays, and I stopped three weeks in as LSU went into free fall.
We’ll see if the Tigers can keep this segment going this time around.
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