There’s a definite Mississippi alliance on the LSU women’s basketball team, and Lady Tigers coach Van Chancellor couldn’t be happier.Swayze Black, a 6-foot-3-inch forward from Brookhaven High School, and LaSondra Barrett, a 6-foot-2-inch forward from Jackson’s Murrah High School, could make an immediate impact as freshmen on a very young LSU squad.Chancellor, a Louisville, Miss., native, signed the two forwards as part of his nationally ranked 2008-2009 recruiting class. He jokingly calls the self-included trio the “Mississippi mafia.””Van just oozes Mississippi,” said LSU associate head coach Bob Starkey. “He’s tickled to death to have a couple of pretty good Mississippi players on the team.”The Tigers return just four players from their 2008 Final Four team, giving Black and Barrett a chance to earn significant playing time early on.Barrett, ranked the No. 12 prospect nationwide, said Chancellor’s name recognition in Mississippi was definitely a positive.The former WNBA and Olympic coach, who led the U.S. team to gold in the 2004 Athens games, also coached at Ole Miss for nearly two decades.”He was humble, and he was Southern, too,” Barrett said. “I think of him as an icon in basketball. It was a dream just to meet him and to actually play for him. I never thought I would.”Barrett was a top target for LSU’s recruiting efforts because of her rebounding ability and versatility in positions.”We really went after Barrett,” Chancellor said. “We knew she was a player who was going to bring it every night. She’s really athletic, long and lean.”Barrett underwent surgery this summer to repair the meniscus in her right knee. She missed the team’s preseason tournament in Canada but vows she will be at full strength by the regular season.Black, whose first name was given because her mother loved actor Patrick Swayze, may be the most athletic player on the team.”They’re being hard on us, but we can’t use that as an excuse,” Black said. “We all know how to play. We just have to work, be prepared, concentrate and communicate. You just have to be ready.”Coaches say Black needs polishing but has the ability to make her presence be known. “She has made a lot of progress,” Starkey said. “She is like a sponge. She just soaks things up.”Barrett and Black share a friendly rivalry inside the Mississippi alliance. Their high school teams played twice in a tournament, splitting the outcomes 1-1.”[Swayze] was great,” Barrett said. “Of course I didn’t like her then, on the court. But I was excited to see she was coming to LSU and to have someone from home.”Chancellor said he’s unsure which Mississippi player will impress the most. Barrett showed an initial upper hand, but surgery could have slowed her progression. “Both of them have tremendous upside,” he said. “It’s just a question of which one makes up her mind first that she can play at this level.”Starkey said the Mississippi connection will be fun to watch as the team grows closer through the season.”It’s a good thing they signed,” he said. “We used to tease Van and say, ‘If we recruit a couple of kids in Mississippi, and you’re the LSU coach who was born and raised in Mississippi, and you can’t go up there and get two players, then we [have] a problem.'”
 
 
 
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