LSU football recruiting: Get to know signee Kyle Parker

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8

LSU early-enrollee freshman, Kyle Parker, put up stats his senior season that the high school football world isn’t used to seeing. In one game this past September, Parker hauled in 23 catches for 341 yards and three touchdowns.

Parker is a 5-foot-10, 175-pound wide receiver from Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas. According to 247sports, he is ranked as No. 48 wide receiver in the country, No. 59 recruit in Texas and No. 350 overall recruit in the country.

Parker came into his senior season knowing he had to back up all the expectations and hype people gave him in the summer before the season.

“I feel like the season went pretty good. I came into the season knowing that I had to produce numbers,” Parker said. “I think I played pretty good this year. I did some things that were like a dream come true to me.”

He finished his senior season with 72 catches for 1,091 receiving yards and 19 total touchdowns.

But for Parker, LSU was intriguing to him regardless of his performance. His love for LSU comes from his family and has been within him for as long as he could remember.

“I’ve watched LSU since I was a little kid…LSU was kind of put in me since I was born,” Parker said. “So me getting that offer in the summer, it was like ‘wow.’ But after I got it, you still have to make the right decision for yourself. I still had to go through the recruitment process and see how everything is.”

While he still considered other schools such as Oklahoma State and Louisville, Parker was sold on LSU when he stepped on campus

MEN’S HOOPS, from page 9

Until today, the Tigers had failed to score more than 30 points in the first half since that game against the Wildcats about a month ago. Before SEC play began, they were in the top 50 in first-half scoring. They’ve since dropped out of the Top 200, averaging just 32.2 points per first half after previously averaging 37.7.

But on Saturday, the Tigers entered the break with 33 points, which correlated with the resurgence of Adam Miller. After missing his first two three-pointers, he’d make four in a row, which played a large role in the team keeping up with Texas Tech’s offensive onslaught.

“I think I was less tense and more confident, and I just let it kind of come to me,” Miller said. “When I have a bad shooting game, it’s like ‘Okay, I got to get going for us to win, I’ve got to do this for us to win,’ when neces-

PARKER, from page 9 for his official visit.

“I took my official visit, I think it was like the second week of June, the official visit just wowed me,” Parker said. “Education wise, football wise, definitely me picking a school that I feel I can better myself at in the football aspect and the school aspect.”

Parker was also excited to join the 2023 class with the relationship they have as a group. Ahead of National Signing Day on Feb. 1, the Tigers hold the fifth-ranked recruiting class according to 247sports.

“The relationship with the sarily I just have to let the game come to me and everything will fall into place.”

That scoring success carried into the second half and even though they were down by eight points at the beginning of it, the Tigers quickly narrowed the gap. They’ve rarely had that opportunity in recent weeks.

Offensive Rebounding

Another point of improvement McMahon had at the top of his list was rebounding. The battle on the boards is a big reason why LSU lost to Kentucky in early January and it’s another category that the Tigers don’t crack the Top 200 in.

While Texas Tech eventually passed them in total rebounds, winning the battle 36-34, LSU controlled the boards on offense and that success carried over to the scoreboard. It attributed 17 offensive rebounds, which were converted into 20 second chance points, 30% of its total scoring output.

And on top of it creating sec- other signees is pretty great, we have a group chat where we just get to talk to each other about what’s going on in our lives right now,” Parker said. “Some of them are from up in the cold like Jaxon Howard, he’ll always show us how cold it is, they got snow everywhere. I think it’s just pretty cool how you get to meet people from different parts of the world.” ond chances offensively, it also decreases fast break opportunities, a point brought up by Adam Miller.

Parker is currently enrolled on campus, as he was part of the early enrollees that arrived at the beginning of the spring semester. Before he suits up in the purple and gold for the 2023 season, he’ll take part in the spring football season and camp this summer.

“In a lot of these games, they’ve been out of reach. People just get our rebounds and run it down the court,” Miller said. “When we get offensive rebounds, it gives us a chance of getting easy layups or easy kick-out threes, and the chance to give everybody a taste of their medicine.”

KJ Williams, Derek Fountain, Justice Williams and Jalen Reed each contributed multiple offensive rebounds, with KJ Williams leading the way with four. Continued overall team success in this category could help the Tigers end their losing streak.

Free throw Shooting

While not having the same level of impact of LSU’s games as the first two, free throws are still an important aspect of the game and another one that the Tigers have struggled with this season. It entered the game shooting just un-

TENNESSEE, from page 9 defeated in conference play, just like LSU.

Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston is the duo to watch for Tennessee. Jackson leads the Vols in scoring with 17.8 points per game along with 5.7 rebounds per game. Horston leads the team in rebounds per game with 6.9 rebounds per game along with 15.7 points per game. They complement each other, and LSU limiting them has to be the first order of business.

LSU and Tennessee are very similar; they rely on their production in the paint, but when der 70% as a team from the line, placing them in the bottom half of the category in both the SEC and nation.

While the team does have a few good free throw shooters, with KJ Williams, Cam Hayes, Miller and Fountain all shooting at or near 80% from the free throw line, the rest of the team doesn’t have amazing percentages. The Tigers have a clear lineup they would use whenever they’re expected to get fouled but they’re still losing a lot of points from the line in most games.

But on Saturday, they shot well from the stripe, converting on 15 of 19 free throw attempts, with most of that output coming in the second half where they’re most vital. In fact, after Adam Miller missed the team’s first free throw of the half, the team finished the game making 12 straight free throws.

This was a big reason why LSU was able to temporarily stay in the game amidst its late shooting needed they can hit from the perimeter. In Tennessee’s losses, it came down to them missing shots. LSU’s defense has been great all season, especially in their thrilling win over Arkansas. The Tigers would have to exceed that performance and lock down the Vols from the tip.

Similar to recent matchups, LSU has to be confident with the three-point shot. Any team the Tigers play from this point on will prioritize guarding and limiting Angel Reese. Tiger fans saw it against Alabama; a slow first-quarter start was because the Crimson Tide played extra physical against Angel Reese. If stretch. After a KJ Williams threepointer put the Tigers up by five with 9:03 left in the game, they failed to convert on a single field goal until there were 24 seconds left in the game. she is being contained, the shots will have to come from somewhere, and the perimeter shots will have to be where that is.

But they did make eight free throws, which kept the damage at bay for longer than it should have. And after falling behind by nine with under four minutes to go, it went 4 of 4 on free throws in back-to-back possessions to put them in a position to come back again.

While there’s still a vast list of aspects LSU needs to improve on, such as shooting in general, defensive rebounding and threepoint defense, the more they manage to eliminate, the better chance it’ll have at winning games.

LSU will get its next chance to show off improvements on the road at Missouri on Wednesday. Tip off is set for 8 p.m. and will be streaming live on SEC Network.

In other big games, since coach Kim Mulkey has been at LSU, the crowd has been a swinging factor in the game. With a sold-out crowd for Monday night’s game, that will be something LSU will take advantage of.

Regardless of gameplay and home-court advantage, the matchup is expected to be one for the history books in LSU women’s basketball and will be the toughest obstacle the Tigers face so far this season.