Before the start of the season, the LSU men’s basketball team was assigned a handful of descriptors: underdogs, undersized, undermanned.
All signs pointed to coach Johnny Jones’ first go-round at the helm of his alma mater as a rebuilding year. The Tigers weren’t supposed to do much because — as preseason voters indicated — they didn’t have much.
Now, after a season rife with gritty performances and scintillating comebacks, LSU (18-11, 9-9 Southeastern Conference) must once again embrace its underdog status as the No. 9 seed in the SEC Tournament. The first tournament test for the Tigers will come at noon today against eighth-seeded Georgia in Nashville, Tenn.
“We’re the underdogs going in,” said sophomore guard Anthony Hickey, a member of the All-SEC Defensive Team. “The underdogs won it last year, Vanderbilt won. You never know what may happen, so you’ve just got to take it a step at a time and try to get the wins a day at a time.”
Georgia (15-16, 9-9 SEC) bested LSU 67-58 earlier this year in the final defeat of the Tigers’ four-game losing streak to open up conference play. The Bulldogs rode the hot hand of sophomore guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who dropped 22 points on the Tigers.
Caldwell-Pope was recently named the SEC Player of the Year and is the second-leading scorer in the conference with 18 points per game. He also utilizes his 6-foot-5 frame to pull down just under seven rebounds per game.
“We just have to really make some adjustments to [Caldwell-Pope] and try to keep him out of his comfort zone,” Jones said. “He’s really good, talented, crafty. He’s excellent with the basketball in terms of his ball-handling skills. He’s a good passer as well, and I just think he’s a really tough matchup.”
Sophomore forward Johnny O’Bryant III said LSU’s guards should be used to defend dynamic players, as they face a top SEC scorer for the third game in a row. For the final two games of the season, the Tigers were tasked with guarding Texas A&M senior guard Elston Turner, who is ranked third in the SEC with 17.7 points per game, and Ole Miss junior guard Marshall Henderson, whose per-game average of 19.7 points is the best in the league.
O’Bryant, who earned a First Team All-SEC selection and is tied for the most double-doubles in the league, had a strong outing against Georgia in January. O’Bryant recorded 16 points and 14 rebounds en route to one of his 14 double-doubles, and his rebound mark equaled almost half of the Bulldogs’ 29 total team rebounds.
LSU was missing a vital player the first time it tipped off against Georgia, as senior guard Charles Carmouche sat out of the game with knee tendonitis. Carmouche, who has scored 20 points or more in five of the last seven games, may be key to a deep LSU tournament run.
In addition to Carmouche’s scoring capabilities, his size may be a boon for the Tiger defense. Jones said he plans to use Carmouche’s height to hinder Caldwell-Pope, who had little trouble scoring over the smaller LSU guards in the first matchup.
“We can have an opportunity to show [Caldwell-Pope] some different looks we weren’t able to show the first time that we played him,” Jones said. “With the addition of Carmouche and the way that he’s played – not only defensively, but offensively – I think he gives us some other dimensions that will really help us as well.”
The Tigers are currently projected to be in the running for a National Invitation Tournament seeding. A path to the national tournament would probably only be cleared by making the run through the SEC Tournament and coming out victorious in the final game on Sunday to clinch an automatic bid.
With those circumstances in mind, the Tigers plan to play like the underdogs they are — just as they have all season.
“No matter what the numbers say, what guys are shooting or what we’ve done defensively, we’ve just got to line up and play,” O’Bryant said. “You give your all and at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens.”
“No matter what the numbers say, what guys are shooting or what we’ve done defensively, we’ve just got to line up and play…You give your all and at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens.”
