The LSU women’s basketball team has the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Coach of the Year on its sideline and a perfect 14-0 Southeastern Conference record going into the SEC Tournament. But history does not favor the Lady Tigers this weekend in Nashville, Tenn. Regular season conference champions rarely win the tournament. The most recent time it happened was eight years ago, and since LSU has not won the tournament since 2003, no player on the current roster has won an SEC Tournament Championship – one of the few holes in the senior class’ impressive four-year resume. “I just want to go out and win the tournament,” said LSU senior guard Erica White. “I don’t believe we’ve ever won the regular season and the tournament, so that’s my goal.” The top-seeded Lady Tigers received a bye Thursday and will play its first tournament game today against eighth-seeded Ole Miss. LSU faced Ole Miss on Feb. 17 and easily downed the Lady Rebels by 30 points. Other teams opening play today are No. 2-seeded Tennessee, No. 3-seeded Vanderbilt and No. 4-seeded Kentucky, which gave LSU a 52-48 scare Feb. 21. In the Lady Tigers’ past three trips to the tournament, they have advanced to the championship game but been unable to grab the final win. LSU lost 51-45 to Vanderbilt in the 2007 tournament in the championship game. Tennessee took out LSU In 2006, 63-62, in a come-from-behind win to clinch the tournament championship. Tennessee also edged out LSU in the 2005 tournament final, 67-65. White said the causes for the close losses in recent years are difficult to pin-point. “It seems like it’s always slipped away for us in the last couple of minutes of the game,” she said. “Like my sophomore year [in 2005], we were up by five points with a minute to go, and Tennessee made some plays. The next thing you know, we were in the locker room and not celebrating on the court.” Many fans might be looking ahead to a potential Tennessee vs. LSU matchup for the championship. But don’t tell that to senior center Sylvia Fowles. “A lot of opponents tend to do things we’re not expecting in the SEC tournament,” she said. “We have to be prepared for it all.” Senior guard RaShonta LeBlanc also said LSU must be wary of teams looking to pave their way to the NCAA Tournament. “First place gets an automatic NCAA bid, so the tournament feels a lot more competitive than regular SEC play,” she said. LSU coach Van Chancellor said he is ready for that increased competitiveness and said he missed that competitive nature during his 10-year absence from collegiate coaching. He predicted an impressive performance from LSU senior guard Quianna Chaney, who averages 14.9 points per game. “She’s going to shoot the ball well,” Chancellor said. “We’re going to be fine.”
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