By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Matt McMahon would like to rest senior transfer forward Marquel Sutton here and there, so he can catch his breath.
But he has not been able to find the right times amid the Tigers’ 3-0 start and dominating play going into Monday night’s game (7 p.m., SEC Network+) against Alcorn State (0-5).
Sutton (6-foot-9, 225 pounds) can do it all. He leads the Tigers in rebounding with 9.7 a game that is second in the Southeastern Conference. He is second in scoring with 15.7 points a game, and he scores inside and out.
A Tulsa, Oklahoma, native who transferred from Omaha, Sutton leads LSU in three-pointers made (among players with four or more attempts) with nine in three-point shooting percentage at .474 in 19 attempts.
“It’s hard to take him off the floor, because we can play him at the three (wing), and he can play up front,” McMahon said. “Because he shoots so well, it still works fine from a spacing standpoint.”
In the Tigers’ 93-58 win over UNO last Monday, Sutton scored 15 points with 15 rebounds and registered +45 in the +/- NCAA statistical category on the far right of the traditional box score. There were only two other Tigers with scores as high as the 20s.
Sutton started the game, and at the time he first left midway through the first half, LSU was up 26-13. So, his +/- was +13. His +/- clock would then re-start when he went back in, and so on. After a few more ins and outs, his total reached 45 by game’s end as the Tigers built their large lead and final margin of 35 points.
“Where he really deserves a lot of credit since he got here is his three-point shooting,” McMahon said. “Initially, it was a lot of catch-and-shoot threes. Now, he’s flying off staggered screens and base line screens and shooting with a lot of confidence. He impacts winning in every phase of the game.”
LSU has not played a difficult schedule by any means, but it is clearly playing more physically inside. Transfer junior center/forward Michael Nwoko (6-10, 261) of Mississippi State leads LSU with 17.3 points a game and is No. 1 in the SEC in shooting percentage at .769 as he is 20 of 26 from the floor. He is also averaging 5.0 rebounds a game.
Junior returning forward Jalen Reed (6-10, 245) is scoring 12 points with 6.0 rebounds a game off the bench, and senior transfer forward Pablo Tamba (6-7, 206) is scoring 6.7 a game with 7.3 rebounds.
“It’s the way we want to play,” McMahon said. “We want to play with physicality and take advantage of our size in the front court.”
LSU also has its best point guard since McMahon got here before the 2022-23 season in junior transfer Dedan Thomas Jr. of UNLV. Thomas leads the SEC in assists with 7.3 a game and is scoring 13.3 points a game. And senior transfer shooting guard Max Mackinnon is scoring 12.7 points a game.
LSU is averaging more than 90 points a game through its first three games at 95.7 for the first time since the 1990-91 season with center Shaquille O’Neal when the Tigers finished 20-10 and 13-5 in the SEC for second and reached the NCAA Tournament under coach Dale Brown.
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