If LSU still plans to make good on its preseason goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009, it needs to start notching signature wins against quality opponents.
And with Missouri visiting the PMAC on Tuesday night, there’s no time like the present.
It’ll take far more than a win against Missouri to ensure a trip to the Big Dance, but another home loss to an unranked foe could put LSU in too deep a hole to dig itself out.
Recent struggles have caused LSU to backslide after looking like a solid lock for a tournament berth early in the season. The Tigers were knocked off the bubble in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest version of Bracket Math.
LSU dropped back-to-back home games against Rhode Island and Tennessee earlier this month. The Tigers then hit the road, barely holding off an awful South Carolina team before losing a heartbreaking game in overtime at Ole Miss.
A comfortable win against an outmanned Vanderbilt team on Saturday stopped the bleeding, but it’s not the kind of victory a tournament team would list high on its résumé.
Conveniently for LSU coach Johnny Jones, the next stretch of schedule will offer plenty of opportunities to author the kind of wins that look good come Selection Sunday.
Sandwiched around a trip to Alabama, LSU will play three of its next four games at home against teams that Lunardi pegged as either solidly in the field or just off the bubble.
If LSU can navigate this stretch at 3-1 or better, it would climb up the Southeastern Conference standings and give itself a fighting chance heading into February.
That’s what makes beating Missouri so paramount. A loss could quickly spiral into another home losing streak with No. 14 Kentucky and Arkansas coming to town next week.
All three teams, Arkansas in particular, are more vulnerable away from home. LSU must start taking advantage of playing key games in the PMAC while it can. The road will only get tougher from here if it lets these opportunities slip away.
“Road” is the operative word in that sentence.
Next month, LSU will make return trips to Kentucky, Arkansas and a presumably healthier Vanderbilt as well as paying a visit to No. 6 Florida.
It’s unrealistic to expect LSU to break .500 in those five road games, especially if it can’t take care of business at home these next two weeks.
Quality wins are much easier to pull off within friendly confines. So if LSU can’t start rattling off wins this week, there’s no reason to think it ever will this season.
Considering all the preseason hype that surrounded this team, a tournament-less March would have to be looked at as a disappointment. Jones brought in talent and created excitement, and fair or not, that hype will always be coupled with raised expectations.
The expectations may have been a bit high for such a young roster, but the lack of progress as the season goes forward is troubling.
The offense has been maddeningly inconsistent because it lacks any kind of offensive identity in the half-court. It flashed its capabilities from time to time, but the Tigers’ propensity for offensive dry spells show up in their record.
LSU has talent, but talent alone can’t carry a team in March.
Only wins can do that.