LSU Basketball: 3 reasons why Tigers fell to Saint Louis Billikens

Shareef O’Neal was a non-factor

To be honest, I didn’t really take the time to look into Shareef O’Neal’s disappointing debut with LSU on Thursday, when he scored just three points on 1/3 shooting (33%), in 13 minutes of play. Why is that? Well the answer is simple, the Tigers didn’t need O’Neal to impact that game offensively, because they were facing an inferior opponent (no offense to SIUE, but it is the truth).

However, the Tigers needed O’Neal to be a little more a factor against Saint Louis, but they didn’t get the kind of production from him that they were hoping for during the contest.

The UCLA transfer, and son of 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee, Shaquille O’Neal, went scoreless in in 12 minutes of action, and committed three fouls to make matters even worse. It is bit troubling that O’Neal didn’t attempt a single field goal in the ball game, and didn’t really force the Billikens to respect him as an offensive threat.

There is one first half play that perfectly sums up O’Neal’s day in a nutshell. With around 1:30 remaining in the half, O’Neal executed a textbook pump fake to get Jimmy Bell (who forget to chop his feet and close out correctly) in the air, and then proceeded to take two dribbles, and plow right into Terrence Hargrove Jr. (who was waiting for him to take that extra dribble, and miss a wide open Ja’Vonte Smart, who was all alone at the top of the key).

O’Neal was whistled for an offensive foul instantly, and the Tigers came up empty on a very important late first half possession.

I think that because O’Neal wasn’t involved offensively early on, he felt the need to press on this possession, so that he could finally score his first points of the game (which is never the way to go). It’s easy to say that O’Neal should have attempted to get himself going in the flow of the Tigers offense, but there really was no flow.

Yes, LSU’s strongest offensive weapons began to heat up, so that they could keep the game interesting, but that does mean that the offense itself ran smoothly the entire game.

It may be too early to make this bold statement, but O’Neal may have chosen the wrong school to continue his college basketball career, because unless he goes and demands a bigger role in the offense, he may not have the kind of success that he is looking for.

It is truly an odd situation at the moment, because there is no doubt that LSU needs more from O’Neal, if they want to stay near the top of the SEC, but Will Wade (the Head Coach at LSU) doesn’t seem to be too keen, on utilizing O’Neal to the best of his abilities.

Even if O’Neal had been able to avoid committing his 3rd foul, I still believe that he would have been reduced to standing in one of the corners, and staying prepared to release timely threes, if someone was struggling mightily to take their man off the dribble.

At the end of the day, it is going to be difficult for the Tigers to consistently win games, if O’Neal plays double-digit minutes, and doesn’t provide any assistance on the offensive end. I am not saying that Will Wade needs to abandon the Tigers current offense, and come up with a completely different plan, but Wade does need to figure out a way to make sure that spectators won’t go minutes, before realizing that O’Neal is even on the floor.

I will say that LSU’s up-tempo style of play does benefit O’Neal, because he is the kind of athlete that can run and jump at a high level, and potentially terrorize opposing teams in transition, if he gets the chance to. However, when it comes to playing in the half-court, I don’t know how O’Neal is going to be able to fit in nicely moving forward.

I wouldn’t advise LSU fans to brush off O’Neal’s performance on Saturday afternoon, because it could be a sign there will be major problems in the foreseeable future (but hopefully adjustments are made on the fly).