During Southeastern Conference play, the LSU men’s basketball team had to avoid bad losses and pick up a few résumé-strengthening wins to make the NCAA Tournament.
It didn’t matter how ugly the wins were. The Tigers simply needed to avoid a black eye because an ugly win is better than a loss any day in college basketball.
In their first conference game, they picked up a bad loss on the road against Missouri, which is now 7-14 overall and No. 151 in the RPI.
An improbable comeback victory against Georgia followed by a nail-biter against Ole Miss put the Tigers back on track. A loss to Texas A&M derailed the momentum once again.
But once again, LSU bounced back with a blowout against Florida — its first win in Gainesville since 1992. Over the following week, the Tigers stayed immune to #SECBasketballFever and avoided a second ugly loss in close games versus Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
On Saturday, the second ugly loss was added.
Mississippi State threw a haymaker right to LSU’s tournament hopes in the form a 73-67 home win. You might think a road loss in this conference isn’t a big deal, but the Bulldogs’ RPI sits at 185, one spot behind Coastal Carolina and more than 30 spots worse than Missouri.
This loss hurts LSU’s tournament chances.
Before the game, LSU was a 10 seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest rankings. As of Sunday, LSU’s RPI is at No. 39, putting them firmly back on the bubble.
LSU isn’t done yet, make no mistake about it. It has plenty more opportunities to right its wrongs against Florida at home and Texas A&M on the road, and the Tigers’ biggest potential win of all comes one week from tomorrow against Kentucky.
The Wildcats are undefeated, No. 2 in the RPI and widely considered the best team in college basketball.
A win against Kentucky is as good as a handwritten letter of recommendation from the President of the U.S. for LSU’s application to the committee. Anybody with a moderately decent résumé that includes a victory against Kentucky is guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
If the Tigers do fall to the Wildcats, they still have a chance at an automatic berth by winning the SEC Tournament. This, however, will probably require them to beat Kentucky.
By no means does LSU need to beat Kentucky or win the SEC Tournament to get into the Big Dance. If the Tigers take care of business against everyone else and only drop some games against high RPI teams, they should still find themselves in the field of 68.
But one more bad loss like last Saturday’s, and the Tigers’ bubble just might burst.
Brian Pellerin is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Kenner, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @Pellerin_TDR.