Wade’s building it, now they’re coming

Published 7:00 pm Saturday, January 13, 2018

And LSU can’t disappoint fans

Tonight may be Will Wade’s most important game at LSU — and it has nothing to do with the opponent being Alabama.

This is basketball, after all, the long-neglected sport in Tigertown.

But Wade and the Tigers have LSU fans excited for a change after sweeping a two-game road trip that included a 35-foot winning shot to win at then-No. 11 Texas A&M and a total, 75-54 domination Wednesday of an Arkansas team that hadn’t lost at home all season.

“I had no idea we could play like this,” Wade said after the Arkansas game.

Wade made a lot of what seemed like pie-in-the-sky promises about near-perfect games just like that while being introduced around the state last spring and summer.

He’s not backing down now.

“This is just a taste of it,” he said. “We’re going to have this thing really going. I’m glad for our people, that they can turn on the TV and not turn it off.”

It certainly seems to have raised fans’ curiosity. LSU (10-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) sold an extra 1,000 tickets in the 24 hours after the Arkansas victory — and it was not all about getting a promotional T-shirt bearing Wade’s likeness.

But having piqued that rare interest, now the Tigers have to deliver at home to keep the fans around and make the program relevant again.

And LSU fans weren’t the only ones to notice.

“We’re playing against an LSU team that has a new attitude,” Alabama coach (and Louisiana native) Avery Johnson said. “They just have a freshness about them. Will’s done a nice job.”

But Wade said the eye-opener at Arkansas may make it a little tougher.

“I think it raises the stakes a little bit,” he said. “We are probably now going to get better shots from most teams than we have been getting. That is how you want to play.

“That is what you want to do on the road, just go in there and really make things happen and get our guys where they can execute like that in a tough environment. I thought it was really good. That is something that we can carry over as we move forward.”

Tonight’s game will feature arguably the two most dynamic freshmen in the league.

Alabama (10-4, 2-2) brings in the league’s leading scorer with Collin Sexton (19.5 ppg) to duel with LSU’s Tremont Waters.

Waters, who leads LSU and is fourth in the SEC in scoring (17.4 ppg) and leads in both assists and steals, hit the winning bomb at Texas A&M and totally controlled the Arkansas game while scoring eight points. He also had eight assists and eight rebounds.

“It is good,” Wade said. “It shows that we can win a couple different ways. They were rallying the ball a little bit on Tremont. He was finding open guys, trusting his teammates, and his teammates make plays. That is what you want.”

“He’s playing a balanced game,” Johnson said of Waters. “He scores when he needs to score, he passes, he gets steals. He’s difficult to defend against in single coverage.”

Alabama had lost three of four games before beating South Carolina 76-62 at home Tuesday. The Tide are 0-3 on the road.

Wade called Sexton a “dynamic player” who “draws a ton of fouls.

“He draws about eight fouls a game, top 10 in the country,” Wade said. “He is a major concern for us. He is big. He is physical. He has done that everywhere.”