By Hunt Palmer
When Jalen Reed hit the floor on Tuesday night, the entire building knew it didn’t look good.
The 6-foot-10 forward dropped in an early lay up against Florida State and, without contacting another player, dropped to the floor and grabbed his knee.
That generally doesn’t end well.
It didn‘t. LSU announced on Wednesday that Reed would miss the rest of the 2024-25 season with a torn ACL.
The injury is a huge blow to this LSU team that has roared out of the gates to a 7-1 record with three Power 5 wins. With Reed, LSU has a little bit of everything.
Cam Carter and Jordan Sears provide veteran backcourt leadership and scoring. Vyctorius Miller has bolstered that scoring from the freshman ranks.
Dji Bailey and Carter have played excellent defense. As have frontcourt depth pieces Daimion Collins and Corey Chest. Those two have been animals on the glass, as well.
What Reed provides is a scoring punch to the frontcourt, something Chest and Collins really haven’t.
Through seven games, Reed was averaging 12.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
Those seven and a half rebounds can be taken care of. Against a team with a pair of frontcourt starters over 6-foot-10 and without a starting guard under 6-foot-5, Collins and Chest combined for 13 rebounds. Robert Miller III chipped in with three offensive rebounds including a pair of putback buckets.
It’s the scoring and floor spacing that Reed offered that may be very difficult to replace.
Reed was adept and putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim. Neither Collins nor Chest feature that as part of their games. Last season Reed shot 42 percent from three-point range. He was a threat to beat you from downtown, so opposing bigs had to wander out to the three-point arc to defend, vacating the lane.
Chest hasn’t attempted a three. Collins has made one in 64 collegiate games. They’re screen-and-roll players who can clean up around the rim.
Derek Fountain may offer some assistance on the offensive end. He’s battled some nagging injuries early on this season, but over his first four collegiate seasons he was a 33 percent three-point shooter. He’s averaged 6.6 points per game over two seasons at LSU playing about 20 minutes per game.
Fountain is not the defensive force Chest and Collins can be. Those two smothered Florida State at the rim, helping force a 9-for-29 effort on layups by the Seminoles. But Fountain may help some on offense.
As is generally the case, LSU will have to fill Reed’s shoes with a variety of skillsets.
Matt McMahon has built some depth on this roster, and that will have to shine through. Undoubtedly McMahon is gutted by the loss of his lone remaining signee from that first class. McMahon gushed about Reed in September. He felt a real breakout season was afoot.
Reed scored 24 in the season opener and helped with 21 more in the huge comeback over UCF.
LSU has some time to adjust to life without the junior forward. Conference play begins exactly a month from his being ruled out for the year. The Tigers will play five games over that span, and only SMU should pose a significant threat.
As they adapt without Reed, the likelihood is that LSU will need the frontcourt reserves to score four or five more points per game than they had and erase five to seven from the opposition with defense and rebounding.
That’s oversimplifying things but works in theory. It’s a huge loss for the Tigers with a brutal conference slate to come.
If there’s one characteristic this team has shown, it’s been resilience. The Tigers will need more of that facing their new reality.
