Kevin Nickelberry addresses technical foul for having too many players on court

On3 imageby:Steve Samra03/19/22

SamraSource

Kevin Nickelberry had the tall-task of righting the ship for LSU amid the firing of Will Wade. With a new voice at the helm, confusion reigned for the Tigers. One instance where it was prevalent was when LSU was assessed a technical foul for having too many players on the court against Iowa State.

After their loss in the NCAA Tournament, Nickelberry addresses the aforementioned blunder.

“I don’t know what happened, to be honest with you,” stated Nickelberry. “I went over and asked why we got the tech. He said we had too many people on the floor. I think probably tired — we subbed somebody in and the wrong person came out and he tried to get back onto the floor. It’s happened before. I’ve coached for 30 years, it’s not the first time I’ve seen somebody get a tech for having somebody on the floor.

“It’s unfortunate. It happens. We had to do some new rotations tonight with the foul trouble issues we had. Unfortunately, we got in foul trouble again early in the game. So, something that’s haunting us all year.”

It’s not the reason why LSU lost, but the technical foul is a microcosm of how the Tigers were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, a promising season was flushed down the drain — controversy reigning supreme over the 2021-22 LSU Tigers.

Kevin Nickelberry admits distractions made difference for LSU in first-round loss

Continuing, the LSU Tigers have dealt with a lot over recent weeks. Ahead of the start of the NCAA Tournament, LSU fired head coach Will Wade. Then, the team named Kevin Nickelberry as the Tigers interim head coach for the postseason. With a lot of distractions facing LSU, the Tigers lost in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round against Iowa State.

Nickelberry was hoping that the distractions wouldn’t have an impact on LSU during the tournament, but after the Tigers loss, he admitted that they played a role in the game.

“First of all, I would like to obviously thank these players for dealing with a tough week and coming out and fighting an entire game,” Nickelberry said after LSU’s loss in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round. “We had — the last one gave us a chance to get a win and we were in the game till the end. So I know to the normal person — I said all week it’s just basketball, but the distractions were a lot and these guys still fought through those distractions, went out and gave LSU a chance to win tonight.”

Sixth-seeded LSU scored just 19 points in the first half against No. 11 seed Iowa State, trailing 24-19 at the break. The Tigers scored 35 second half points, but it wasn’t enough to prevail against the Cyclones. Now, Iowa State moves onto the Round of 32 to face off against Wisconsin, the third seed in the Midwest Region.