Arizona and Florida recovered from slumps like this, can the Hogs?

[FineAsSwine]

I think they can but it's going to take some soul-searching and some leadership is going to have to emerge from somewhere if not from the seniors from somebody else because leadership on the floor is lacking.

[Breems]

Indeed. That's all we can count on. The good news is we grabbed some good wins before we decided to suck, and these losses shouldn't wind up as bad losses on the resume besides maybe MSU.

We better find an epic win streak near the end of the year.

[ishankem]

MA still has a lot of the season left to turn it around. This same team did some good things earlier this season, so, maybe there is some hope there. But man, right now they are a dumpster fire

[maxhog5]

Hopefully I'm wrong, but I don't thinks it can happen.  Teams have it figured out.  Just shut down either Macon or Barford, then where are the points going to come from?  Unless Gafford suddenly figures out how to stay on the court, there is no one to pick up the scoring slack.

[alohawg]

Florida will destroy this team .

[cardinalhawg]

Agreed.

The comeback against LSU at LSU last year sparked a turnaround late in the season and now a loss at home to LSU can lead to a spiral if things aren't turned around soon.

I remember the 2015-2016 season when Anderson turned to starting Hannahs and Bell together and playing them together how that led to a respectable conference season after a rough non-conference start.  I am not saying to reinvent the wheel, but we need a spark somewhere.  Whether that means a more unconventional lineup with younger players out there (Hall and/or Gabe O) with a couple of our veterans more to provide a defensive spark or getting CJ a start to see if we can get him going, or whether going to a faster lineup or even a bigger lineup with the two bigs and/or a combo forward out there together, I just hope we see an adjustment.  I do think breaking up the three guards from the current starting rotation would be good, while still having them in for plenty of minutes and in together late in the game.

Right now it seems teams have figured us out.  Like LSU, I would dare Thomas, Bailey, Gafford, Hall, and Thompson to shoot 15 foot jump shots and take my chances while getting after the likes of Barford, Macon, and Jones and trying to take away their strengths and packing the defense down inside.  I think we have gotten away from some of our strengths offensively both inside and regarding ball movement. We are now playing teams on the same level or above athletically and that along with game planning and execution seems to be exposing us.

There is still plenty of season left, but we have to get it going soon.  The key moment for me in this downturn was late in the Mississippi State game when we were playing zone along with letting them get good looks from the outside when we needed to be doing what we could to take the three point shot away.  One of my pet peeves is giving up decent to good looks to teams for three pointers at crucial times instead of getting up in someone's grill to force them to drive past.  I think sometimes both coaching and natural playing tendencies say guard the guy but don't let the guy get around you vs. making teams beat you on 15 ft two point jump shots.  Even hacking the one inside guy from Mississippi State who was a poor free throw shooter each time down would have given us a decent chance to have pulled out that win.  Letting that win slip away hurts.

We have to get it figured out offensively and defensively.  I remember last year getting a spark from Manny Watkins with some scoring and three point shooting later in the season.  I remember Barford playing better as the season progressed along with his free throw shooting improving.  If we make certain strides, we have to get better at free throw shooting as that pulled out a lot of the close ones last year, but is hurting us this year.  Even if we make the strides, we are still in danger of losing the close ones or letting teams back in the game late like against Fresno State or Tennessee in overtime.  If I was coaching against the Hogs, I would probably use some of the hack a strategy against some of our players due to poor free throw shooting. 

We have not been as dominant at home in recent seasons, but we have been a fair to good road team in recent seasons.  We need some road wins to make up for home losses like tonight.