re: What in world are we doing in Men’s basketball

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Fan support would help! If we want to recruit players fans must be supportive

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He recruited players. What are you talking about?
The fans don't coach the team. The fans don't win game.

There's a lack of offensive skill.
Dean, Fountain, and Hannibal play with a lot of effort, and will do dirty work. But they really lack offensive skill and overall talent relative to other SEC teams.
Reed and Wright have some offensive skill, but they're both not that fast, and they don't play as hard.
Williams boosted the offense last night, then kind of went cold and had some turnovers. Not a good passer at this point.

To me, LSU basketball rosters should not lack talent and offensive skill to this degree.
An average football roster has ~7 times as many players as an average basketball roster. Just from a numbers standpoint, it's easier to recruit and put together a talented basketball team. That's why you see so many colleges have good teams that would really not be able to have the same success in football.

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Well we didn’t, but Miss State lost to Southern

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So we are swimming in the Miss State basketball end of the pool.

Great, grand, fantastic.

Just two seasons ago we were battling with Arkansas, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee for top of the conference.

McNeese has the best men's basketball program in the state.

So is Will Wade "cheating" again at McNeese State, or did he build a team, in one offseason, while facing draconian sanctions from the NCAA, that is better than the team that McMahon has at LSU in year 2, far removed from any questions of NCAA penalties?

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Dean, Fountain, and Hannibal play with a lot of effort, and will do dirty work. But they really lack offensive skill and overall talent relative to other SEC teams.

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Derek Fountain is arguably the most skilled offensive player on the roster lol. It's not his fault McMahon doesn't let him play his game.

Well, the 2023 McNeese team isn’t recovering from a coaching scandal is it?

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No, Reed, Wright, and Baker have more of an offensive repertoire for scoring. (Although, each have limitations. That's the whole point here.)
Fountain has length, and can hit 3s at times. But the length will get neutralized against other SEC teams, and he's not a player that's going to be a volume shooter on 3s. There's just not a lot to his offensive skill set. Not close to being NBA-level offensive skill. It's not meant to be a knock specifically against him. He plays hard, and he can be a good role player who contributes points at times, but he's just not a consistent scorer. That's not his game.

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I respectfully disagree. Fountain can be a volume 3pt shooter and he showed that at times last year. The Alabama game last year he scored almost 30 points. He has an ability to score in the post (although it isn't his specialty), he can attack off the dribble on all three levels, and can hit three pointers off the catch.

I implore you to go back and watch his highlights from Mississippi State, you'll see that he played a very different game there. The first half of last season he was forced to bang down low and play like a big man when that's just not his game. Fountain, in my opinion, was going to be our best player this year, but unfortunately he's fallen in the rotation and has not had an opportunity to showcase his skillset.

But I promise you, there is a difference between his skillset not existing and it not being there at all.

He only made two 3s vs. Alabama.
He has only ever made more than two 3s in a game one time. That was as a freshman against LSU. His game isn't conducive to being a consistent volume shooter, or consistently creating off the dribble.

Don't misread me on this. He's a solid role player. I thought he should've been playing more from the beginning of the season. But he's not a high-level offensive skill player. And that's the point I'm making. The team overall lacks talent and high-level, consistent scorers.