The last time the LSU men’s basketball team started 11-2 or better was the 2008-09 season. Those Tigers won the Southeastern Conference regular-season title.
Before that sort of conversation can start, LSU (11-2) must first battle through a grueling 18-game SEC schedule, which begins against Missouri (6-7) at 6 p.m. tonight at Mizzou Arena.
LSU enters its SEC-opener riding the momentum of an eight-game winning streak, the longest of coach Johnny Jones’ three-year tenure.
The recent surge has quelled some doubts that were raised following LSU’s alarming 1-2 finish in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam, which featured losses to Old Dominion (70-61) and Clemson (64-61).

LSU hasn’t lost in the eight games since falling to Clemson on Nov. 24, outscoring opponents by 13 points per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and a much-improved 39.6 percent from 3-point territory.
Through its efficient play, LSU has jumped to second in the SEC in points per game (75.6), third in assists per game (16.8) and fourth in field goal percentage (47 percent). Missouri, which has lost three of its last four, ranks in the SEC’s bottom two in points, assists and field goal percentage.
Despite having the team that’s favored on paper, Jones said statistics and records don’t have any bearing when SEC opponents clash.
“In conference play, I think one of the things that you can do is throw the records out,” Jones said. “A lot of times in conference play, the teams are scouted heavily. You know each other’s tendencies. You know what areas that you will be trying to attack and whatever success you’ve had against those opponents before. All of those things really come into play.”
If Missouri coach Kim Anderson has scouted LSU any this season, he’s seen Jones prefers to feed the ball inside to sophomore forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey.
Behind the All-SEC duo, the purple and gold have dominated opponents down low this season, averaging 11 more points in the paint per game than the opposition (41.8-30.8).
LSU has scored at least 50 points in the paint in four games this season and in each of the last two, with Martin and Mickey combining for 88 points and 41 rebounds in recent wins against Southern Miss and Savannah State.
But Missouri has its own big man who can score underneath — sophomore forward Johnathan Williams III, who’s averaging 13.5 points and 6.8 rebounds.

Martin, who leads the SEC in scoring at 18.2 points per game, said LSU should pound the ball down low against Missouri from the start because it’ll get the pace of the game more to LSU’s liking.
“I feel like we should come out from the jump attacking the basket,” Martin said. “That can get us going and bring our energy up.”
One player hoping to get his energy back to a pre-injury state is LSU junior guard Josh Gray.
Gray has dealt with a right ankle sprain since Dec. 13., and he said he’s “continuing to do treatment” but is not sure how close to 100 percent he is.
Against Savannah State on Saturday, the injured Gray scored only two points on 1-of-4 shooting but dished out a season-high eight assists to help LSU secure its eighth consecutive win.
As a team, LSU finished with a season-best 25 assists, and Gray said the team must display that unselfish play in order to prevail through the SEC and secure an NCAA Tournament bid.
“[Jones] just emphasized that you have to be tough to win,” Gray said. “You have to be tough and you have to be together. The team that wins the game, the more togetherness they have.”
With the non-conference portion of the season over, LSU has 18 SEC games to make its case for the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in six seasons.
Although Jones, who was a guard on LSU’s 1981 Final Four team, has been pleased with his team’s play thus far, he said his young squad has moved past the first chapter of the season and is looking ahead.
“We talk about the season being chapters and where do we stand,” Jones said. “That chapter of the non-conference portion of our schedule, it’s closed. This is the next chapter that we’ve got to really prepare for. It is conference play and how we will fare in it and what it will say about our basketball team at the end.”