LSU in search of home win
Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Road warrior Tigers have little luck in Baton Rouge
It was head coach Will Wade who issued a personal apology, but LSU as a whole has some making up to do with fans tonight when the Tigers host Georgia.
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Mainly, they’ve got learn how to win in front of the home folks — who are suddenly paying attention.
Fresh off two impressive road wins, the Tigers packed the Maravich Assembly Center with raucous crowd for Saturday’s Alabama game — and didn’t give them much to cheer about in a 76-64 loss to Alabama.
They’ll get another chance tonight when Georgia visits for a 6 p.m. kickoff — yes, the Tigers get the football national championship finalists in back-to-back basketball games.
“I feel like I let everybody down,” said head coach Will Wade said. “I thought our crowd was great. I just wish we could have delivered for them. They came out in full force. We asked them to come.”
The Tigers (11-5, 2-2 SEC) beat Texas A&M and Arkansas on the road last week before the clunker against Alabama. They opened conference play at home with a 74-71 loss to Kentucky.
LSU also won its only true road, non-conference game, 71-61 at Memphis.
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“We just haven’t played very well in our two home games in conference,” Wade said. “We can win on the road, but we can’t win at home. “The fans were awesome. I feel terrible. We haven’t figured it out at home yet.”
The Tigers biggest problem against the Tide was the 40-24 deficit in rebounding.
That likely won’t get any easier against Georgia (11-5, 2-3).
“Georgia is a phenomenal rebounding team,” Wade said. “If we don’t get that corrected, Tuesday is going to be ever worse. Georgia is a phenomenal defensive team that is very, very tough and very, very physical.”
Georgia, a defensive-oriented team, is third in the SEC with 40.8 rpg, while the Tigers are dead last at No. 14 with 35 per game.
“You have to play,” Wade said of the home woes. “You have to show up, and you’ve got to play.”
Wade promised to be on his best behavior,
Whatever chance the Tigers had Saturday against Alabama disappeared when Wade got a technical foul after LSU cut the lead to six with just over a minute to play. He was angry about a kicking call moments earlier on point guard Tremont Waters that negated a steal.
“It was a lot of frustration built up,” Wade said. “I’m always passionate. I’m always going to fight for our players and fight for our team. But you can’t go overboard.
“I let my emotions get the best of me. That’s not the way to represent our program, our school, our state. I do apologize about that. That’s not the way to go about that. There’s a lot of different ways you go about things besides that.”