Michigan Basketball: Who are the LSU Tigers?

Bench

LSU deploys a fairly deep bench as they have six players who average more than seven minutes per game. Leading the way is Mwani Wilkinson who is a 6-foot-5 freshman who predominantly plays on the wing. Averaging only 3.7 points per game he won’t fill up the box score, but he is efficient when he decides to put it up as he is 40/51 this season which is a 78.4 percent rate.

Next off the bench for LSU is junior forward Josh LeBlanc Sr. He primarily plays the Brandon Johns role when Isaiah Livers was healthy. He will get all of his minutes at either power forward or center and he converts at a 67.9 percent rate for an average of 3.3 points per night. LeBlanc Sr. is only a 28.6 percent shooter from the free-throw line this season as well — if the Wolverines need to foul someone late, he is the target.

The final true impact player off LSU’s bench is freshman guard Eric Gaines. Mainly a slashing distributor, Gaines averages 2.6 points and 1.3 assists per night. He also logs 1.1 steals per game too, one of four Tigers to average more than one steal per game.

Style

LSU doesn’t play quite as fast as Texas Southern did, but they still far outpace the Wolverines preferred style of play. As I said before, LSU’s rough profile is a run and gun, shoot the three and take care of the ball team which doesn’t have much of an interior presence but has the perimeter length to challenge each and every 3-point attempt that the opponent hoists up.

Michigan basketball will need to work hard to rebound the ball both offensively and defensively in order to get those easy second chance threes that can truly swing the momentum one way or another.