LSU makes noise in Deaf Dome

Published 8:41 am Friday, January 8, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe it wasn’t a tease after all.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe LSU basketball will not only be relevant but perhaps even worth paying attention to.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe Ben Simmons didn’t choose the Tigers for his one-year, pre-NBA residency due to a lifelong dream of being the NIT MVP.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Perhaps LSU didn’t waste the marketing campaign based almost solely on Simmons’ arrival and presumed brief toe tap on campus.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, seriously, is it really that easy to flip the switch and morph from being an overhyped flop to a legitimate basketball factor on the national scene?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Who knew?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU isn’t there quite yet — not with what is a pretty pedestrian a 9-5 record.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But all of a sudden the Tigers are 2-0 in the SEC and … maybe, just maybe, ready to make something of themselves.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“They feel very confident,” Tigers head coach Johnny Jones said after an out-of-nowhere 85-67 semi-rout of Kentucky Tuesday night.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s certainly a switch from what we saw in December.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And it’s probably not as simple as the ever-popular “team meeting” shortly before conference play began amid accusations of being the year’s biggest disappointment in college basketball.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s usually the last resort of a team in total disarray and often as not a short-term quick fix at best.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But don’t argue. Something surely happened.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Everyone got sick of what was happening,” Simmons said after the Kentucky victory. “We all laid it out.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Whatever happened, the Tigers suddenly look like a basketball team, a contender.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU went on the road and beat Vanderbilt, the preseason pick to finish second in the SEC.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That’s probably not going to happen for the Commodores, but few expected LSU to win the game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It at least made you go, hmmmm. Nothing in the 7-5 December suggested it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But to follow it up with a semi-rout of Kentucky, the annual default pick to dominate the league and the preseason No. 1 team in the country, now that opens some eyes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">True, it didn’t appear to be the kind of Kentucky team we’re used to seeing, certainly not vintage Big Blue.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU’s control and dominance of the game may have raised as many questions about the Wildcats as it answered for the Tigers.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But that’s not LSU’s fault.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For the Tigers, it’s enough for now to hint that they aren’t going to fritter away the one-year window they have to enjoy Simmons’ skill set.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Jones’ up-tempo teams generally find a way to score. But it wasn’t hard to figure out where LSU’s problems were.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Tigers didn’t play a lick of defense and even the occasional rebounds they ended up with seemed to be totally by accident.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Throw in a lot of final-minute yips against some good-but-not-great teams and you start the conference a mere 7-5 — without, really, a signature victory as a reference point.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Jones never seemed to be panicking. In fact, if anything, he was faulted at times for not showing enough concern as a season was seemingly going down the drain.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“These guys were trying to get better,” Jones said of his patience. “That’s a huge part of it. I don’t think it should be overlooked that these guys have done a tremendous job of trying to buy in. You have to believe to buy in. They believed in what we were doing.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So you snap your fingers and, voil?, outrebound Kentucky by 14 (after and 11-board edge against Vanderbilt).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Defense?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Vanderbilt shot just 36 percent, Kentucky just 32 percent in the first half.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Where in the world did that come from?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That wasn’t even the most impressive thing about beating Kentucky.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was obvious in the preconference schedule that, regardless of how the Tigers’ games are promoted for national telecasts, Simmons has no interest in being a one-man team.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He probably could stand to be a little more selfish at times, but it’s better than having a precocious prima donna on you hands.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU can make this work.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That was evident against Kentucky, when Simmons was mostly a cheerleader while missing the final 11 minutes of the first half after picking up a ticky-tack second foul.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was quite a risk Jones took sitting him that long — and Simmons never did pick up a third foul in the second half — but LSU made it work by increasing the lead in his absence.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Simmons is a star and he knows it but doesn’t seem worried about proving it every night.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He’ll be the focal point of the LSU season, but the ultimate team success will turn on how guys like Keith Hornsby, Tim Quarterman and Craig Victory take advantage of how Simmons, as they say, “makes those around him better.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU fans appear to really want to like basketball again.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">All it took was the Vanderbilt victory for them to pack the Maravich Assembly and call up the Deaf Dome days of yore.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If the start of conference is any indication, the Tigers might be worth the attention.</span>