All LSU has to do is beat Kentucky

Published 11:48 am Friday, March 4, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You can probably blame it on LSU having freshman Ben Simmons — if not the best college basketball player in the country, then apparently the one the NBA most covets.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it seems nobody wants to give up on seeing the Tigers (Simmons) in the NCAA tournament.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yeah, yeah. I know. It was supposedly settled once and for all when, still clinging to some hope, LSU promptly lost three consecutive games, rather convincingly in the last two, to Tennessee and Arkansas, teams that won’t be anywhere near the tournament.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Chances gone?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Probably. Almost certainly. Maybe.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Now, well, apparently the college basketball world has spent the last two weeks desperately searching for loopholes that might allow LSU (Simmons) in the Big Dance.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And, by golly, they may have found one, at least something they can work with. Who’d have thunk it?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s almost like an overly permissive parent saying, “OK, but this is absolutely your last chance, and I mean it this time.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Still, somebody noticed that LSU finishes the regular season at Kentucky on Saturday, and a light bulb, if not fireworks, went off.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">OK, Tigers (Simmons), this is it. No palms were greased in the fashioning of this Last Chance. No lab animals were harmed during the experiments. But some corners had to be cut, some normal rules and guidelines evidently suspended.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But here’s the deal: just beat Kentucky at Rupp Arena.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Sounds crazy. One game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yet no less of an authority than Dick Vitale said Thursday on an ESPN teleconference that a victory over the Wildcats would erase a lot of LSU’s sins of underachievement.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Got to go out and find a way to win,” Vitale said (screamed) of the Tigers. “A win at Kentucky is almost like a knockout punch. They win that game, they get in.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Just like that?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">One game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Some other national talking heads came up with the same scheme this week.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yeah. Just beat Kentucky.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Well, maybe the Tigers (Simmons) would still have to tack on an SEC tournament victory or two next week.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Still, even though Vitale and the others have no voting privileges on the NCAA tournament selection committee, it sounds like a pretty sweet deal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Beat Kentucky.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Otherwise, forget it. The normal rules are going to apply and LSU would have to win the SEC tournament for the automatic bid.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">You wonder if Joe Alleva got this new memo.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was just two weeks ago that LSU’s very own athletic director was painting a far darker picture — and he does have a vote as a member of the selection committee.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I don’t think (LSU’s tournament chances) are very good,” Alleva said at the time. “Frankly I’m concerned about where we are at this point in time.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And where they were then was one loss into that three-game skid.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“There has never been a team picked in the tournament as an at-large with an RPI over 80,” Alleva said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU’s RPI, even with a lackluster two-game winning streak that might have raised more questions than answers, was No. 88 as of Wednesday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But just beat Kentucky, right?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Don’t squawk. LSU isn’t in a position to be choosy. And it could be worse. This isn’t a truly vintage Kentucky team — 12-5 in the SEC —but it’s still Kentucky enough for silly Vanderbilt fans to rush the court following a victory over the ’Cats last Saturday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU beat the Wildcats in Baton Rouge, by something almost unexplainable, like 85-67, on Jan. 5 (without rushing the court).</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But that was not in Rupp Arena. That wasn’t senior day for the beloved Wildcats.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never mind how Kentucky stages a senior day with nothing but one-and-dones like Simmons on the roster. Supposedly the Wildcats rustled one up and are going to do it up right.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU has won six times in Lexington, lifetime, and never on UK’s senior day, a semi-religious ceremony in Lexington.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But let’s play along.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Let’s go with the notion that, so you’re saying there’s a chance …</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">How big of a lead does this LSU team need to hold on against Kentucky?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Tigers’ two-game winning streak has featured near meltdowns in the second halves of both.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">They came against an OK Florida team and an awful Missouri team.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU led by 18 in the second half against Florida — led by 15 with 10 minutes to play — and yet the Gators had two chances to either tie the score or take the lead in the final minute.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU led Missouri by 24 at the half and blew almost all of that lead, too — had to survive some white-knuckler free throws in the final 2 minutes.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So when does LSU get comfortable in Rupp? A 30-point lead? Forty? Fifty?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Could be interesting.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>