The Lady Tigers are hoping Tennessee finally starts to show some good old Southern hospitality this weekend for the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville.
LSU earned the No. 4 seed with a 10-6 conference record this season, but the team endured its own personal house of horrors in Tennessee, as this will mark the fourth time LSU has traveled to the state this season.
The Lady Tigers will take on Arkansas tonight after the Razorbacks beat ole Miss, 67-47, on Thursday to advance to the tournament.
In a 10-day period in January, the Lady Tigers dropped contests to Tennessee by 10 and Vanderbilt by nine and squeaked out a win against East Tennessee State in overtime.
If the Lady Tigers run the table, they’ll claim the third SEC Tournament championship in their history and their first since the 2002-03 season.
But the team is taking a one-game-at-a-time approach, and LSU coach Nikki Caldwell has a simple goal for her team heading into the tournament.
“Our mentality is to prepare this week and for us to be better,” Caldwell said.
The Lady Tigers’ chances in the conference tournament might hinge on the success of their lone All-SEC player, senior forward LaSondra Barrett.
Barrett scored 12.7 points per game this season — 0.1 points away from tying a career high — to lead the Lady Tigers, but she’s been more than just LSU’s best scoring punch.
The 6-foot-2 Barrett is among the Lady Tigers’ best post players, but Caldwell has taken advantage of her versatility by using her at point guard after senior Destini Hughes went down for the season Jan. 19 with an injury against Tennessee.
Although the Lady Tigers have seen success with Barrett running the offense, Caldwell knows the team will have to get production from others at the point for LSU to advance.
“I’ve challenged [sophomore] Jeanne Kenney and [junior] Bianca Lutley because we cannot run LaSondra Barrett at the point guard 35 percent of her minutes,” Caldwell said. “We’ve got to be able to move her in that situation some of the time to give relief to them, but not for her to be our primary ball handler.”
Which Lady Tiger team shows up to the tournament is the key question. LSU went on prolonged winning streaks of 10 and six games this season, including a win against No. 1 seed Kentucky at home on Feb. 5.
But LSU has also gone into prolonged slumps where nothing seems to go its way.
“We know we’re an LSU team that can beat anybody we put our minds to,” said senior forward Courtney Jones. “We have to be ready to commit to what the coaches want us to do. At the end of the day, it’s about what you want to do and what you want to accomplish.”
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]