By Hunt Palmer
LSU’s basketball team faces its first Power 5 test this evening as the Tigers travel to Kansas State for a showdown with the Wildcats.
It’s a homecoming for Cam Carter who spent two seasons in Manhattan and led Kansas State in scoring against LSU in the Maravich Center last season. He won’t be too familiar with Jerome Tang’s team, though, as the Wildcats welcomed 11 newcomers including eight Division-1 transfers in the offseason. The portal haul as ranked No. 1 in the country, and for good reason.
Tang’s tenure at Kansas State started brilliantly with a run to the Elite 8 in 2022. Last season things settled a bit, and Kansas State was bounced in the first round of the NIT. Tang has gone to Michigan, Villanova an Illinois among other places for impact players.
Bramlage Coliseum is expected to be full tonight for what should be a great matchup. Here are a few things I’ll be watching.
Big Man Battle
As I’ve written previously, LSU needs Jalen Reed to play at an all-conference level for the Tigers to make a tournament push. Tonight, he’ll see an all-conference player with a very similar game. Coleman Hawkins was second team All-Big 10 last season at Illinois. He worked out at the NBA Draft Combine but decided to play one more year of college basketball. LSU was in the mix to land Hawkins, but he chose Kansas State. Hawkins is a string 6-foot-10 forward who plays some on the wing. He’ll shoot the three ball (3-for-9 early on), and really wants to drive and finish at the rim. He hasn’t done that very well through two games, but the sample size of two years shows otherwise. He’s the only player in Illinois history with at least 900 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 100 blocks and 100 steals in a career.
Reed will likely see Hawkins for a lot of this game on both ends of the floor. How he stacks up will be a good barometer of where he is as a player in his third collegiate season. For Reed to have success, I think he needs to use his frame and strength near the rim. If Reed can put up something in the neighborhood of 18 point and 10 rebounds, that could be a huge step for him
Blanket Brendan
Brenden Hausen was brought over from Villanova to do one thing—shoot the three. And he’s awesome at it. Through two games, Hausen is 10-for-18 from deep including a 6-for-9 effort against Cleveland State. He’ll shoot the three off the catch from way beyond the arc. He’ll shoot it off the step back. He’ll shoot it in transition. Of his 20 field goal attempts, 18 have been threes. Two have been layups.
Threes swing momentum and pump up the home crowd. LSU needs to be sure Hausen is marked at all times. A couple of clean looks at the rim early can spell big, big trouble.
Does Size Matter?
Kansas State has started a back court of Max Jones and CJ Jones in both games this year. They both stand 6-foot-5. Jordan Sears is 5-foot-11. I know that Matt McMahon is going to play Sears a ton of minutes. I’m curious to see if Tang plays big or goes to Dug McDaniel, the 5-foot-11 Michigan transfer who has played a lot of minutes.
My guess is that Sears and McDaniel play the majority of the minutes. Sears will have to really control the action for LSU in the Tigers’ first road environment.
Veterans Week
Monday we honored our Veterans. McMahon will lean on his veterans on the road tonight. I would guess you see more of Sears, Carter, Dji Bailey, Jalen Reed, Derek Fountain, Damion Collins and Mike Williams than you see Robert Miller, Vyctorius and Curtis Givens.
On Sunday Givens showed his youth. He turned the ball over sloppily a couple of times. Against a really old group of Wildcats guards, I’d be surprised if he played more than six or eight minutes.
That is the beauty of college basketball and baseball, though. Maybe some seasoning is the best thing even if it costs you a little bit in November. LSU doesn’t play another road game for exactly a month when the Tigers go to Frisco to play SMU.
The game will tip off at 8:00 central time and is being streamed on ESPN+.
