Tigers not content as wallflowers
Published 7:27 pm Friday, February 23, 2018
<p class="p1">Granted, it’s still a pretty fair long shot. Probably nothing to worry about, certainly nothing to get excited about.</p><p class="p1">But, gradually, sort of, LSU basketball is worth at least leaning forward in your seat a little bit for a closer examination under this teenage-looking, first-year head coach Will Wade.</p><p class="p1">Hmmmm. Is he on to something?</p><p class="p1">For sure the future looks bright under Wade.</p><p class="p1">But we’re talking about right now and … well … </p><p class="p1">Pipe dream or not, it’s not totally out of the question to kind of daydream about … the NCAA Tournament.</p><p class="p1">You know, the Big Dance. That bracket you fill out in the office.</p><p class="p1">OK, it probably is. It’s probably ludicrous.</p><p class="p1">But keep in mind that there were a few seeming false alarms earlier in the season.</p><p class="p1">Beat Michigan in Hawaii — get hammered the next night by Notre Dame.</p><p class="p1">Beat (RPI No. 19) Houston at home — lose to Stephen F. Austin two nights later in the Maravich Assembly Center.</p><p class="p1">Beat Texas A&M and Arkansas back to back on the road — come home and lay an egg in front of an expectant home crowd against Alabama.</p><p class="p1">That ended up being the start of the big lull, losing four out of five games, some of them ugly.</p><p class="p1">That was the LSU everybody was expecting. That was the LSU picked to finish dead last out of the 14 teams in the SEC.</p><p class="p1">But the Tigers just won’t quite go away. Not totally.</p><p class="p1">They’ve won two of the last three now, both in impressive fashion, including beating Missouri.</p><p class="p1">LSU’s current RPI of No. 75 is still way out of the normally accepted range for the NCAA Tournament.</p><p class="p1">And neither Jerry Palm nor Joe Lunardi -— the world leaders of the NCAA bracketology cottage industry -— ever mention LSU in their projections.</p><p class="p1">But some outliers of the trade, like BracketWAG and SB Nation, have LSU listed in some sort of purgatory called “First Four Out” and “Next Four Out,” respectively.</p><p class="p1">Whether that constitutes being on the “bubble” or not, we’ll have to check with the proper authorities.</p><p class="p1">But any mention at this point is quite an accomplishment.</p><p class="p1">It’s pretty impressive to be in the conversation, any conversation that mentions the Big Dance.</p><p class="p1">The main thing about it is that this isn’t the same SEC that LSU has muddled through, often stunk up, in recent years. It may or may not suddenly be the best conference in college basketball, but it sure appears to be unquestionably the deepest.</p><p class="p1">How balanced, you ask? Kentucky is just 8-7 in it right now.</p><p class="p1">The whole thing is also a jumbled mess.</p><p class="p1">There’s a few ways to look at it, specifically LSU’s spot in it.</p><p class="p1">The Tigers (16-11) at 7-8 in the SEC are alone in ninth place. </p><p class="p1">Doesn’t sound like that much.</p><p class="p1">But they are also just one game out of the 8-7 logjam of six teams -— count ’em, six —tied for third place.</p><p class="p1">Even keeping in mind that conference records aren’t a factor with the selection committee, a whole bunch of them will be going to the NCAA Tournament.</p><p class="p1">“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a logjam like this,” Wade said. “If you win, you come out of the logjam pretty good.”</p><p class="p1">Thus far, Wade has only checked off one box on his season goals. Tuesday’s win over Vanderbilt insured that LSU will have a winning record.</p><p class="p1">He said before that game that anything else this season would be lagniappe. He also laughed at the notion that he might even mention the possibility of the NCAA Tournament to his team.</p><p class="p1">He’s changed his mind.</p><p class="p1">He wants more.</p><p class="p1">“I don’t know what our odds are, but we need to win as many games as possible,” Wade said. “You have to dig out games in February.”</p><p class="p1">He did mention it to his team.</p><p class="p1">“I didn’t say it to put pressure on them,” he said. “But pressure is a privilege. It beats the (heck) out of not playing for anything.”</p><p class="p1">The Tigers last three regular-season games are on the road against Georgia (6-9) and South Carolina (6-9) and at home against Mississippi State (8-7).</p><p class="p1">All three are winnable, even on the road. Those three opponents no doubt view LSU in the same light. But win two of them, and maybe you’re talking about how many wins you need in the SEC Tournament to get somebody’s attention</p><p class="p1">“It’ll be good experience one way or another,” Wade said. “We can learn from it or use it for next year. And next year maybe it’s not the same pressure. Maybe it’s a chance to be in the conference championship race.”</p>
