After a lethargic start, this game picked up in the second half and finished as an exciting back and forth between two of the more talented teams in the country. Neither team has performed up to their talent level thus far, and with SEC play starting they’re going to need to turn things around quickly for a shot at the big dance. In the end, LSU got its best win of the year by far and finally started to look like the team they are capable of being.
Vanderbilt Commodores
With 7-0 Luke Kornet sidelined due to injury, Damian Jones functioned as the sole big man surrounded by four sub 6-6 players in Vandy’s starting lineup. Without Kornet, there is a lot of pressure on Jones to anchor the Commodores defense and his flaws on that end of the court were exposed in this game. LSU shot 54.3 percent from 2-point range and scored 90 points despite making only five 3-pointers in large part because of Jones’ apathetic defense. Whenever LSU managed to get to the rim from the perimeter they were met with little deterrence, as Jones hugged too tightly to his man and simply waved at the ball.
Later in the game, head coach Kevin Stallings switched to zone defense, presumably as an attempt to keep Jones at the rim. But Jones lost track of LSU players sitting behind him and gave up far too many easy looks around the basket. Jones has the size and athletic ability to be a quality rim protector, but until he improves his positioning and awareness Vanderbilt is going to continue to struggle against dribble penetration.
When Jones was guarding the ball and not forced to make rotations he was much more impressive. His lateral quickness for a big man is fantastic, and he generally did a good job staying with Ben Simmons and was able to switch onto and contain LSU guards in pick-and-roll situations. On the offensive end, Jones should’ve been able to cause a lot of problems for LSU — no one in their starting lineup has the size to bother him. However, the few times he got it on the block he settled for tough hooks and jumpers without getting into the lane, and in pick-and-roll situations LSU shaded towards him so heavily that he didn’t get many looks.
Jones’ activity and awareness problems were also evident on the glass. He was the longest and strongest player on the court for most of the game but came up with only four rebounds and allowed LSU’s undersized frontline to outrebound Vandy, 40-29. Jones is an athletically gifted prospect with some real skills on the offensive end but the way he fades out of games is a huge issue. He’ll need to turn it around for Vandy to have any chance of competing with Kentucky.
Vandy’s other prospect, sophomore point guard Wade Baldwin, was more impressive, but also not without his flaws. In the first half Baldwin dominated the game in both the halfcourt and transition. Off LSU misses, Baldwin pushed the ball to the middle of the court and found shooters to consistently get good looks for his team. In half-court situations, Baldwin and Jones ran pick-and-roll and LSU couldn’t do much to stop it. Baldwin knocked down pull-up 3s when LSU went under on pick-and-rolls, and either found open shooters over the defense or got into the lane and drew fouls when Tim Quarterman tried to fight over screens. LSU picked up the effort defensively in the second half and many of the passes Baldwin so easily made in the first started to get tipped. It also looked like he was forcing things. Down the stretch, he struggled to get good looks for the team, and he needs to up his creativity with the ball to consistently create against engaged defenses.
Baldwin was his typically great self on the defensive end. For most of the game he shut down LSU point guard Quarterman with his length and quickness, and in the last seven minutes Stallings showed his confidence in Baldwin’s defense by switching him onto Simmons. Simmons didn’t once score on or go by Baldwin, but Vandy continued to switch ball screens so Simmons took advantage whenever Baldwin switched off him. With his strong frame, Baldwin does a good job fighting over screens, so I’m not sure why Vandy kept switching screens — he could’ve fought through.
LSU Tigers
Guards Tim Quarterman and Antonio Blakeney are considered LSU’s two best NBA prospects outside of Simmons, but neither did much to show their merit as NBA guys. Quarterman is a big and athletic point guard who was matched up against another big and athletic point guard in Baldwin, and he was thoroughly outplayed. He played solid defense on a couple key plays at the end of the game but generally wasn’t able to stay with Baldwin on defense and lacked the dribble moves to create anything on the offensive end.
Blakeney started off this season playing like the McDonald’s All-American recruit that he is, yet he has struggled as of late. His outside shot hasn’t been falling and he seems to have lost confidence in the rest of his game — he barely looked to attack against Vandy. As an undersized and weak two-guard Blakeney is never going to make his name on the defensive end, so he needs to start playing with some more confidence on offense. He’s got the athleticism and ball skills to make plays, he just needs to start looking to make them.
Outside of Simmons the only LSU player who looked like he might be an NBA guy is 6-4 senior guard Keith Hornsby. He can shoot the ball and has some explosion to his strong body, but he lacks quickness on defense and can’t do much with the ball outside of hitting jump shots. I would’ve liked to see him guard Baldwin because his only hope of an NBA future is if he can leverage his strength to become an effective defender.
The big story in this game was obviously Ben Simmons. He put up a ridiculous 36-14-4 line on 10-15 shooting from the field and 16-19 (19!) at the free throw line. This was arguably Simmons best game to date this season (factoring in competition level), but still showed a lot of his flaws. The first play of the game he took a 15-footer from the baseline and air balled it wide and proceeded to not even look for his midrange jumper for the remainder of the night. His defense was also typically less than stellar as he stuck to his man on the perimeter far too often, failing to realize that LSU’s small lineups require him to rotate over and help protect the rim. He lazily gambled for a couple steals that took him out of position, too, and didn’t do a good job of containing Vandy’s guards from penetrating in closeout situations. Nonetheless, he did pick it up defensively to get some deflections towards the end of the game and outworked Damian Jones on the glass for the entire contest.
Simmons’ offense was great, but he got a lot of his points off offensive rebounds and wide open looks at the rim due to Vanderbilt’s negligence in protecting the paint. When he actually created offense he was usually playing in semi-transition, though he did do some true half-court creating. His transition offense was his typical breathtaking combination of speed and passing vision, and he did a great job drawing fouls by just barreling down the lane. In the half-court, Simmons ran a lot of pick-and-roll at the elbow area and used his speed to navigate around defenders.
One particularly interesting play was when LSU isolated him on the left side of the court in the mid-post, and he blew by his man baseline for the bucket. Simmons lack of a jump shot means teams can just go under on screens, but if LSU starts isolating him in the high post and mid-post on the wings he should be a lot more successful at consistently creating half-court looks. Much like Carmelo Anthony, there just aren’t many guys who can guard him in the 15-18 foot range because he either has the speed or the strength to beat almost anyone at the college level. One guy who will be a great physical matchup for him is Kentucky’s Alex Poythress, and watching that matchup on Tuesday is going to be fascinating.