Last chance to make it to The Dance

Published 2:13 pm Friday, March 11, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe the most telling quote of LSU’s basketball season came from a freshman — but not THAT freshman.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">No, it wasn’t Ben Simmons.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But as the Tigers plodded into the end of the regular season, freshman guard Antonio Blakeney, who has been playing pretty well of late, was asked if the Tigers perhaps needed more vocal leadership.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“No,” Blakeney said. “We’ve got plenty of talkers.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That they do.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And they’re at it again.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Talking a good game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">There is idle chatter that they are of a mind to — why not? — just go ahead and win the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That would appear to be their only hope of getting anywhere near the NCAA tournament, which might spare them going down as the most disappointing basketball team LSU has ever seen.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nobody outside the program is really buying into it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But that’s what’s got to happen for LSU to be spared the embarrassment of not getting to the NCAA tournament with Simmons, who is projected to the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The NIT surely will be happy to have to have him.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never mind, for the moment, the odds of winning the thing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">More interesting is how they got into this pickle.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They never did seem to be clicking, certainly not during an awkward preconference schedule, not even when they finished the first half of SEC play 7-2 and most decidedly not while losing four of their last six games.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It took a lot of blown second-half leads, a lot of fading down the stretch, a bunch of standing around on offense and, gosh, how many uncontested layups allowed after another?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It has, to be honest, been a hard team to watch (although many did, as Simmons alone kept them coming back and packing the Maravich Assembly Center like the Deaf Do</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">me of old).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If the Tigers are to make any noise in Nashville, they’ll have to do it without the glue of the team, senior Keith Hornsby.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He missed the last three games with a sports hernia, and any hope of a return ended when surgery this week ended his career.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But let’s play along with this folly for a moment.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Even if the Tigers were to really put their minds to it, winning the SEC tournament is something LSU has only down once — 36 years ago.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Dale Brown had some notable miracle runs in the thing — not having Hornsby is the kind of thing he would latch onto like a pit bull and get ready to sell the movie rights.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, for the most part, Brown looked at the SEC tournament as a nuisance if he could, and didn’t take it seriously unless forced to.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Even with that, his memorable runs only meant making the finals. The only time he won it, 1980, he didn’t really have to, the NCAA bid was already sealed.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But let’s look at the SEC tournament road anyway.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The powers that be really do seem to be giving LSU more and more chances, almost begging the Tigers to get their act together, maybe even play some help-side defense.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But this is absolutely the final option.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Win and go to the big kid’s table, or fall short and be banished to the NIT.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So far the SEC is doing its part for LSU.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Tigers somehow conned their way into a No. 4 seed, which in this gerrymandered bracket is a good thing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It gives you a double-bye, no reason to show up until about 2:30 p.m. today for a tournament that technically started Wednesday with one game low on fanfare and devoid of any hint of pomp and circumstance.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It got better Thursday when Tennessee upset Vanderbilt for the right to be LSU’s first opponent.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It not only spared LSU playing the Commodores in their home town, it means the Tigers will get to play a Tennessee team that will be playing its third game in three days.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Also, in this case the No. 4 seed was probably better than the No. 3 would have been.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Since Texas A&amp;M is No. 1, it means avoiding No. 2 Kentucky until the final.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">A&amp;M would be no bargain, but you’d take your chances there over the Wildcats.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Unlike some other top teams, UK does take the tournament seriously — many ’Cats fans use the tournament as their only chance of the year to see their beloved Big Blue in person.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But, in this case, when you have no margin for error, this time it’s going to most likely mean you still have to beat Kentucky at some point rather than just getting to the final.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Again, there would be worse years for that fate.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Not only did LSU beat Kentucky this season, but both of the teams that were reduced to Wednesday’s play-in game, Auburn and Tennessee, also beat the Wildcats.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">First, though, LSU has to win two games to get there.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nothing in the last month suggests that’s likely to happen.</span>