If LSU was picking an opponent to shake the doldrums of a three-game losing streak, Texas A&M would probably be pretty far down the list.
But the schedule isn’t negotiable — and the Aggies have a bone to pick with the Tigers.
The highlight of LSU’s early tease in the SEC schedule was opening with two straight road wins, beginning with 69-68 win at Texas A&M on Tremont Waters 35-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Tigers (11-7, 2-4 SEC) followed that with a road rout at Arkansas but have since lost their last three to settle in near the bottom of the conference standings.
The Aggies (13-6, 2-5) were actually ranked No. 11 in the nation for the first meeting, but the LSU loss was the third of five straight to open SEC play.
Texas A&M, however, has gotten back on track with two straight victories over Missouri and Ole Miss heading into tonight’s
game.
The Tigers lost home games to Alabama and Georgia before falling on the road at Vanderbilt Saturday.
“We don’t have much consistency,” LSU head coach Will Wade said. “We’re hanging in there, hanging tough. We’re not getting our doors blown off. We’re going to get there.”
In three of the four conference losses, the Tigers had a lead in the final three minutes of the game.
“We’ve shown we can close games out,” Wade said, mentioning early wins against Michigan and Memphis. “But the final step is you’ve got to close out conference games.
“We don’t know who’s going to play well. The closest thing we have to consistency is Skylar Mayes. You pretty much know what you’re going to get from him.”
“We have to do some stuff on the fly because we don’t know going in who’s going to play well.”
A key would be getting Waters turned around.
In the first meeting, he also hit a long-range trey with 12 seconds to play as the Tigers overcame a late 5-point deficit.
But since then the two-time SEC player of the week has only cracked double figures once in his last four games.
The freshman doesn’t have to score to have a big effect on games, but it wouldn’t hurt.
“We need him to be aggressive,” Wade said. “He’s just got to continue to grow, get better. He’s a freshman. He’s learning what it’s like. it’s a little different when you get into conference. He’s responded to all the other challenges. He’s just got to continue to improve.”
“It turns,” Wade said. “It aways turns. What we do works. We’re in games at the finish. We’re right there, we’ve just got to finish.
