Tag: Adam Miller

LSU makes final 2 for Syracuse transfer Joe Girard

LSU made the final cut for the experienced sharpshooter.

A former Syracuse basketball player has LSU in his top two.

Joe Girard has narrowed it down to Clemson and LSU. Girard started 132 games in his four-year career with the Orange. He’d bring just the type of backcourt experience LSU needs.

He’s averaged 2.4 threes per game in that time and last year, he had a career-high in points with 16.4 per night. Girard averaged over double-digits per game in three of his four years.

A three-star in 2019, Girard was heralded for his shooting ability. With [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] gone, Girard would instantly become LSU’s top shooter. The Tigers struggled on the offensive side last year due to highly inconsistent backcourt play.

Coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] has been aggressive in the transfer portal yet again. A lot of the transfers LSU took last year didn’t work out and have already entered the portal again.

Now in year two, McMahon might have more ability to recruit the guys he wants whereas last year, LSU just needed to fill a roster.

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Former LSU forward Shawn Phillips to join Adam Miller at Arizona State

Phillips played in 20 games with no starts as a true freshman in 2022-23.

[autotag]Shawn Phillips[/autotag] and [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] are set to be teammates once again in 2023-24, albeit in the desert instead of the bayou.

Phillips, a 2022 signee who entered the transfer portal following his true freshman season, announced his commitment to Arizona State on Tuesday. Miller also committed to the Sun Devils earlier this offseason.

It was a bit of a surprising decision when Phillips entered the portal. Though the 7-foot Dayton, Ohio, native made no starts this season, he appeared in 20 games and seemed to be coming on toward the end.

He averaged just 1.4 points and 2.1 rebounds, but he recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in LSU’s SEC tournament win over Georgia.

Phillips was one of seven players who opted to enter the transfer portal following a frustrating first season under [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] in which the team finished with a losing record overall and went just 2-16 in SEC play.

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LSU loses starting guard Adam Miller to the transfer portal

Miller is the sixth LSU player to exit via the portal since the end of the season.

LSU is going back to the drawing board after a disastrous first season under coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag], and that means another offseason filled with roster turnover.

The latest transfer portal casualty was [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag], a redshirt sophomore guard from Peoria, Illinois. Miller started all 33 games for the Tigers in 2022-3, averaging 11.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists. Miller struggled with his shooting percentage as he shot just 34% from the field and 32% from three, but he was still one of the team’s more reliable scorers.

Originally a transfer from Illinois, Miller missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL. He entered the portal after [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag] was fired, though McMahon convinced him to stay. Like [autotag]Justice Williams[/autotag], who also exited the portal last offseason, Miller seems to be moving on for good this time.

Miller becomes the sixth LSU player to enter the portal since the end of the 2022-23 season, though the addition of a pair of talented backcourt scorers in Jalen Cook and Jordan Wright should help ease the loss.

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What to make of Matt McMahon’s tough first year at LSU

Matt McMahon’s first year at LSU is done. Where do the Tigers go from here?

The NCAA Tournament is set to begin soon, and LSU won’t be in it.

That’s different from these last few years. With [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag], aside from the COVID year, LSU fans got used to watching basketball in March.

The Tigers have made the last three NCAA Tournaments.

LSU never made a special run at a Final Four, though there was a Sweet 16 appearance. But after several years of struggles, the tournament appearances were enough to satisfy LSU fans in an ever improving SEC.

There was even an SEC title throw in there too.

Stars from those teams have now found success in the NBA, whether it be [autotag]Naz Reid[/autotag] or [autotag]Cam Thomas[/autotag].

LSU finished dead last in the SEC this year. Wade was let go a year ago after LSU received a notice of allegations and in the wake of it, LSU basketball has tripped, stumbled and fallen.

Several players from Wade’s team transferred out. At one point, LSU was without any scholarship player on the roster. LSU hired [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] from Murray State and he recouped some of the losses. Most notably, he convinced guard [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] to return.

McMahon brought a number of his players from a good Murray State team too, along with a couple of blue-chip recruits.

Things didn’t look that bad anymore. The team wasn’t overflowing with talent but it had experienced players who had won at a high level. LSU started 5-0 and moved to 12-1. LSU finished off December with a win over No. 9 ranked Arkansas.

Following the Arkansas win, fans celebrated McMahon’s quick turnaround. The group had gelled fast, and LSU was going to compete for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

In the next game, the Tigers put up a fight on the road at Kentucky. Not a win, but more evidence the program was trending up and worthy of conference-wide attention.

Then it started to crumble. LSU lost by seven on the road to a Texas A&M team that turned out to be pretty good. Still not the end of the world. Then LSU lost again, to a Florida team that frankly, wasn’t that good.

LSU then lost again and again and again. A team that was 12-1 was 12-15 and any hope for postseason play had long disappeared.

You could chalk that 12-1 start up to mostly weak opponents. But Arkansas is No. 19 in KenPom, and the Tigers beat a Wake Forest team that won 19 games.

LSU’s lone loss in that stretch was by two points to a Kansas State team that’s 23-9. It really doesn’t make sense. But that’s how Year 1s are sometimes. This was a team with a new coach at a new place that’s never played together before.

This season is now in the rearview mirror. I don’t want to get caught up on diagnosing every issue.

Where does LSU go from here?

There’s sure to be plenty of turnover again. [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag], LSU’s best player, will be gone. He was responsible for so much of LSU’s production this year.

Replacing him in a normal situation will be tough. Replacing him in a rebuild, even tougher.

McMahon was hired as a developmental guy. [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] didn’t turn to the proven Power Five winner like he did with football and baseball. With McMahon, Woodward’s playing the long game and the contract McMahon received reflects that.

McMahon signed three four-stars last cycle: [autotag]Tyrell Ward[/autotag], [autotag]Jalen Reed[/autotag] and [autotag]Shawn Phillips[/autotag]. That’s LSU’s future core. It’s pivotal that McMahon holds on to them.

If they leave, that’s when I’d start questioning if McMahon is right for this rebuild.

The pieces for improvement are here. You just have to believe McMahon is a guy capable of developing at LSU like he did at Murray State.

You don’t need elite recruiting classes to win in college basketball. Teams have made runs strictly on developing players.

McMahon added a slew of transfers last year and getting their veteran presence back would be nice, but LSU needs to mine talent in the portal, especially at the guard position.

LSU has a couple of top 200 recruits on their way in. [autotag]Corey Chest[/autotag] and [autotag]Mike Williams[/autotag]. Based on how McMahon treated the freshmen this year, don’t expect a ton from them next year.

It’s too early to make big declarations on what the roster could look like. This is still a program in flux, and in this era, anything can happen.

This offseason, even more so than last, is critically important for McMahon and staff. Last year was excusable. Finishing last in the SEC again next year won’t be.

This is the new SEC. It doesn’t matter if you’re a football school. Athletic departments with money are expected to be relevant in basketball.

Fans want to see this program competing for conference titles once again.

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LSU basketball players grateful for fans sticking by team during rough season

Tigers players thanked the fans for their support this year despite the team’s struggles on the court.

There’s no way to spin it. It’s been a tough season to be an LSU basketball fan.

Wednesday’s senior night contest against Missouri felt like a microcosm for the whole campaign, in which the team lost 14 straight games after starting the year 12-1. The Tigers had a chance to take a step forward, leading a likely tournament team for nearly 39 minutes, but they couldn’t finish it out and lost by five in the final home game of the season.

After the loss — which dropped LSU to 13-17 (2-15 SEC) in Matt McMahon’s debut campaign — senior [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag] took the opportunity to thank the fans after his final game at the PMAC.

“With this being my first year, it is one of the things I was looking forward to coming to LSU,” he said in a release. “That’s why I came here because of the great fans they have and great fan base. And I’d like to thank them for their support of us throughout the season.

“Knowing what the outcome was, they still came out and supported and gave us great energy.”

A transfer from Murray State who followed McMahon, Williams could have declared for the draft after winning the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year in 2021-22. Instead, he signed on for what McMahon was building in Baton Rouge.

Williams became one of the best players in the SEC this season. His 17.3 points per game ranks second in the league, and his 7.5 rebounding average ranks seventh. He’s been the Tigers’ best player, but it clearly wasn’t the year he had in mind when he came to the SEC to join a team coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Guard [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] also made a crucial decision to be a part of this team. A transfer from Illinois, Miller missed all of last season with a torn ACL. He initially entered the transfer portal after the Tigers fired coach Will Wade, but McMahon convinced him to stay.

He’s also had a solid season in spite of LSU’s struggles, asserting himself as the team’s most reliable sharpshooter. He averages nearly 12 points per game, and his 70 made threes ties for third in the SEC.

Miller echoed Williams’ sentiment, and he said that the opportunity to play in front of the fans at the PMAC was a primary reason he chose to come back.

“Everyone in the stands support us,” he said. “Majority of the reason I came back to LSU was because I didn’t get to play in front of these fans. So, for the ones that supported and stuck with us through the season, trials and tribulations, it was heartfelt for me because we had a duty to those fans.

“I just wanted to come out and do my best for them every night and do my hardest. First season back, being able to do that for them, I just want them to know I gave it my all.”

LSU is by no means a basketball blue-blood, but this is a program that has had pockets of success over the years. McMahon had to rebuild this roster almost entirely from scratch, and he’ll certainly get some leeway as a result. Still, he’ll likely enter Year 2 with a short leash after this team’s collapse in SEC play.

Based on the players’ sentiments, it’s clear LSU fans aren’t the only ones unsatisfied with the way this team performed on the court in 2022-23.

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LSU wastes major opportunity in failed upset bid against Missouri on senior night

The Tigers led for nearly 39 minutes of this game, but that wasn’t enough in the final home game of the season.

Despite leading for nearly 39 minutes of game-time, LSU came up short against a Missouri team that is likely tournament bound. The Tigers lost 81-76 on senior night, dropping the team to 13-17 (2-15 SEC).

Coach Matt McMahon’s squad has now lost back-to-back games after ending a 14-game losing streak against Vanderbilt last Wednesday night.

The Tigers flipped the script in this game, eschewing their typical slow start in favor of a red-hot one. They made four of their first seven shots and jumped out to an early 13-2 lead. Missouri would cut into that, but it never led in the first half.

LSU shot 48% in one of its better offensive first halves in recent memory, maintaining control of the lead and stretching it out to as much as 19 before carrying a 13-point advantage into the locker room.

Missouri took back the momentum coming out of the locker room, opening the second half on an 11-2 run that cut the LSU lead to four. The Tigers managed to extend that lead back out to eight, but an 8-0 Mizzou run erased it and tied the game at 59 at the under-12 media timeout.

LSU made 14 threes in this game, but the shots stopped dropping in the second half in which the team shot below 40%. Missouri, meanwhile, shot over 50% in the final 20 minutes, and it took its first lead of the game on a three-pointer with 1:37 to play.

Mizzou made its free-throws down the stretch, and LSU missed the chance to knock off one of the league’s stronger teams. [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag] recorded a 24-point, 14-rebound double-double in his final game at the PMAC, while fifth-year senior [autotag]Parker Edwards[/autotag] made his first career start and scored six points in six minutes.

[autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] scored 17 and knocked down five threes, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. The Tigers will conclude the regular season on Saturday when they hit the road to take on Florida.

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LSU basketball embarrassed by coachless Ole Miss team on Saturday night

The Tigers couldn’t string together another win against a struggling Ole Miss team on Saturday.

Any hope that Wednesday night’s win over Vanderbilt was going to spark a strong close to the season for the Tigers was dashed on Saturday night.

Facing a previously 10-18 Ole Miss team that had fired head coach Kermit Davis the day prior, LSU was embarrassed on the road in an 82-69 loss in Oxford.

The Tigers (13-16, 2-14 SEC) had one of their stronger starts to the season. The opening minutes were competitive, but LSU controlled for much of the first half and led by as much as seven. However, the Rebels (11-18, 3-13 SEC) stormed back and ended the frame on a 13-5 run that allowed them to take a nine-point lead to the locker room.

“Number one, credit to Ole Miss. They had had a lot go on here in the last 48 hours and I thought they came out really inspired and played together with great energy,” coach [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] said in a release. “They just really manhandled us on the perimeter. Bumped us off every cut, really physical. Then, as you saw there, especially in the second half, unable to guard them. Just got beat time and time again off the dribble.

“In the first half, you get off to the great start, 15-8, obviously they were trying to double KJ (Williams), they were trying to take him away in the post. We got some good looks on those doubles, we were unable to knock them down and then we also took a couple of just horrific shots off the dribble that really hurt us in that stretch. Then to close it out there, every time we got it down to six or seven, we just couldn’t get a stop. They scored on almost every possession in the second half.”

[autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag] had another big game on offense, leading the team with 29 points while [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] had 15. But while the Tigers were good on offense in the second half, Ole Miss was even better and shot north of 60%. LSU had 13 turnovers, seven of which came in the second half, and that resulted in 16 total points going the other way.

LSU scored the first five points of the half and cut the lead to four, but it never got that close again.

“Really unfortunate, I thought we made some progress there,” McMahon said. “We had some untimely turnover and those 13 turnovers, the turnover battle pretty similar, but they (Ole Miss) convert theirs into 16 points. We only turned our forced turnovers into four. That ended up being a big difference in the game as well.”

With the loss, LSU is back in sole possession of last place in the SEC. With remaining regular-season games at home against a good Missouri team and on the road against a Florida team it lost to in Baton Rouge earlier this season, the Tigers will likely be the bottom-seeded team in the SEC Tournament, barring something surprising.

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PHOTOS: LSU takes down Vanderbilt for first win since Dec. 28

The Tigers ended their 14-game losing streak against the Commodores on Wednesday night.

It was starting to feel like LSU basketball’s losing streak — which reached 14 games — was never going to end.

But the Tigers (13-15, 2-13 SEC) finally got over the hump, beating Vanderbilt 84-77 at the PMAC on Wednesday night to earn their first win since Dec. 28 and just their second victory in conference play.

[autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag] had a huge game, notching a double-double with a season-high 35 points, while [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag] also scored 18, nine of which came at the free-throw line. LSU will try to start a winning streak now as it travels to play a struggling Ole Miss team on Saturday.

Here were the best photos from LSU’s streak-snapping victory against the Commodores.

LSU basketball finally snaps 14-game losing streak against red-hot Vanderbilt

The Tigers got their first win since Dec. 28 on Wednesday night.

For the first time in nearly two months, LSU’s basketball found itself on the winning side of a basketball game on Wednesday night.

Facing a Vanderbilt team that entered on a five-game winning streak that included wins against Tennessee and Auburn, the Tigers controlled the game nearly the entire way en route to an 84-77 win. It was LSU’s first since Dec. 28 in the SEC opener against Arkansas, and it snapped a 14-game losing streak that has largely defined coach Matt McMahon’s first season.

The Tigers (13-15, 2-13 SEC) had another trademark poor offensive start, missing their first five shots and falling behind 11-5 in the early minutes. But LSU started heating up and was particularly effective from three, hitting 6 of 13 attempts in the first half from behind the arc.

Between the three-point shots falling and a Vanderbilt field-goal drought that lasted more than five minutes, LSU took control in the half. It led by as much as 10 and ultimately took a seven-point lead to the locker room.

The Commodores (15-13, 8-7 SEC) began the half on an 8-2 run that largely erased that lead. But they only retook it briefly, and LSU controlled the game in the second half. It made nine threes in this game, five of which came from [autotag]KJ Williams[/autotag], who finished with a season-high 35 points and 10 rebounds.

The Tigers took advantage of opportunities at the line, scoring 21 points from the charity stripe, nine of which came from [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag], who shot 90% on free throws while scoring 18 points.

LSU’s postseason hopes remain dead in the water, but the team will look to string together some wins and end the season with momentum. Next up is another winnable contest on the road against Ole Miss on Saturday, and the Tigers will look to turn their losing streak into a winning streak.

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Matt McMahon, Adam Miller not satisfied with comeback effort in loss to Texas A&M

The Tigers aren’t giving up on the season despite the ongoing losing streak.

In a different world, one could be impressed with what LSU did on Saturday night.

Coach Matt McMahon’s team could have easily folded against a better Texas A&M squad after falling behind 26-4. It didn’t, fighting back to make the game competitive in the final minutes.

But in the world we live in, LSU has now lost 12 games in a row. Moral victories won’t cut it; not for a team that is way too talented to be sitting at 1-11 in SEC play. After the game, McMahon shared in the fans’ frustrations.

“In the first half, obviously it’s incredibly disappointing,” McMahon said about the ugly start, per a release. “I just don’t understand not coming out ready to play. I thought we missed some easy ones there early around the basket. We missed a layup, we missed a couple of threes and we let that dictate our defensive energy, intensity and attention to detail. They just carved us up there.

“Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and talk about the second half, that’s how you should play. I thought our guys came out and played with a lot of passion, energy and toughness. It was probably our most efficient offensive half of SEC play. It’s going to be hard to win when you don’t give yourself a chance there in the first half.”

Guard [autotag]Adam Miller[/autotag], who led the team with 18 points and was one of the few offensive bright spots as he hit 4 of his 10 shots from behind the arc, was as frustrated as anyone with LSU’s inability to get over the hump.

“It’s a cycle we have to break,” he said. “We just have to keep leading, pushing each other. It’s hard. If you see our practices, we practice hard every day, but it’s the little things we have to put together. It’s on the players, it’s not on the coaches or anyone, the players chose to play 20 minutes today. Myself included.”

It’s been a tough season nobody quite expected for a team coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance under coach [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag], who was fired prior to the tournament. It’s a transfer-heavy squad, but it features several veteran transfers from Murray State who have familiarity both playing with each other and for McMahon.

LSU is still looking for its first win since the calendar turned to 2023, and with upcoming matchups against Georgia and South Carolina, there are opportunities to end the losing streak.

Still, the team remains motivated to turn things around however it can, and the leaders on the team are on board for that mission.

“We’re going to keep working regardless of what the record is,” Miller said. “For me, it hurts a bit more because coming back and having those three letters across your chest means something to me. Not being able to put on for those fans hurts me differently.

“We’re going to keep working. We have to keep going. We’re LSU.”

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