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Ben Simmons’ stint at Louisiana State University has devolved into a mess, with the once-bulletproof Australian teenager under-fire and the team looking set to miss an invite to US college basketball’s end-of-season tournament.
Simmons and LSU hit rock bottom on Saturday in a game described as a “stinkbomb” by a Louisiana newspaper.
The 19-year-old was benched for the start of their 81-65 loss to a mediocre, injury-hit Tennessee team because of an “academic issue”.
The issue remains shrouded in mystery because LSU’s head coach Johnny Jones gave away few details and Simmons, regularly available for postgame interviews, did not front the press.
“I had to address some academic stuff with him,” Jones told reporters.
“It was early in the week and it was an attention-getter for him.
“We are hopeful this will help get him closer to concentrating on what he should be doing.”
To play NCAA basketball Simmons needs to attend class and maintain a level of academic work, but it appears he failed to do that and shrugged off requests from his coaches and teachers to pick up his effort.
Eyebrows were raised when Simmons dismissed offers from elite colleges including Duke, Kentucky and Kansas and went to second tier LSU where his godfather David Patrick is an assistant coach.
Simmons is likely to remain the top pick in June’s NBA Draft, making him an instant millionaire with a $US5 million rookie salary in his first year and lucrative shoe deals and other endorsements to follow.
NBA general managers will surely overlook Simmons’ “academic issue”, with his potential upside as a basketball player certain to supersede any concern.
Simmons is a 208cm tall, 109kg teenager who can play point guard, forward or centre and has been compared to and praised by Magic Johnson and LeBron James.
He largely fits the prototype of what is needed in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors-dominated era where lumbering seven-footer centres can’t run with smaller, highly-mobile units, although the Australian will have to dramatically improve his outside shooting.
What the LSU experiment has shown is Simmons can score 20 points, grab 10 rebounds and is an exceptional passer, but he apparently isn’t a locker room leader and has not been able to galvanise his team into being a consistent winner.
The loss in Tennessee dropped LSU to a 16-win, 11-loss record and likely out of contention for an invite to the 68-team end-of-season NCAA Tournament.
To win favour with selectors LSU will likely have to win their remaining four games, particularly their final outing against 14th ranked Kentucky.
If not, they’d have to win five straight at the knockout Southeastern Conference tournament starting March 9 to earn an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament, a feat that appears beyond the inconsistent Tigers.
The NCAA tournament begins March 15, with teams selected on March 13.
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