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The formal arrival of conference play across the Power Four delivered a rude awakening to several top-ranked programs that had cruised through their non-conference schedules.
Formerly No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Maryland and No. 10 Iowa State all entered 2026 undefeated or with one loss, but by week’s end, each had suffered stunning defeats. While the final scores told one story, the film and analytics painted a much more revealing picture of what really went wrong.
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A lack of a clear offensive hierarchy is a huge issue for LSU
Now-No. 12 LSU’s perfect season crumbled in spectacular fashion with back-to-back losses to now-No. 6 Kentucky and No. 7 Vanderbilt. Against Kentucky on New Year’s Day, the Tigers fell victim to one of basketball’s most fundamental battles: the glass. Kentucky grabbed 17 offensive rebounds leading to 18 second-chance points, while LSU managed a paltry four second-chance points.
For a team that struggled on the glass in non-conference play, LSU’s rebounding troubles shouldn’t have been surprising, but to be this bad is concerning. Kentucky’s frontcourt size and length completely overpowered the Tigers.
Three days later against Vanderbilt, it was more of the same, in addition to a complete absence of a scoring hierarchy. The play-type breakdown is damning: LSU managed just 0.51 points per possession on rim attacks, meaning their bread-and-butter play was completely neutralized by the Commodores. Flau’Jae Johnson failed to establish any offensive rhythm, going scoreless, and the team had no clear offensive hierarchy.
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MiLaysia Fulwiley has struggled to start this season, and her skillset is redundant next to Flau’Jae and Mikaylah Williams. Turnovers also plagued the Tigers in their loss to Vanderbilt, a bigger reason for their second-straight defeat than Mikayla Blakes’s 32-point outburst for Vandy.
If LSU can’t improve on the margins, it makes it very tough to put them in conversations with No. 2 Texas and…
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Publish date : 2026-01-07 12:00:00
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