Matt McMahon considers whether teams have ‘figured out’ LSU

It has not been an idea start to conference play for LSU.

While they did open with an impressive victory over Arkansas, the Tigers have now lost three straight games to start the calendar year. The first two were back-to-back road defeats to Kentucky and Texas A&M.

The latest setback occurred Tuesday at home when visiting Florida outscored the Tigers by 14 in the second half to win 67-56.

Coach Matt McMahon broke down afterwards what he thinks has contributed to the rough start to 2023 for LSU.

“I think Texas A&M was really physical with us and bothered us with some of their switching,” McMahon said. “As I mentioned with Florida, they do a good job of running you off the 3-point line. When we did create some open looks, we didn’t take advantage of those. I think that’s part of it. Teams have now seen this play 14, 15 — whatever it is — 16 times. We’ve got to really come together and figure out what gives us the best opportunity to win and obviously get back to work on that tonight.”

Matt McMahon’s LSU team shoots only 32% in loss

Tuesday’s loss to Florida, which is not just 9-7 on the season, is a game LSU and Matt McMahon will hope to forget quickly.

The team shot only 32.2% from the field and 17.9% from beyond the arc. KJ Williams was the lone Tigers player in double figures as he finished with 23 points on 8-for-20 shooting plus seven rebounds. But he was only 1 of 9 from 3-point land.

The rest of the starting five was 7-for-31 from the field.

Defensively, LSU was solid throughout the game and held the Gators to under 40 percent from the field and to just about 20 perfect from 3-point territory. The issue was they fouled at inopportune times, leading to 32 free throw attempts for Florida.

Colin Castleton, who had a team-high 18 points for Florida, led the brigade and finished 12-of-15 from the free throw line.