In preparation for their game against No. 4 seed LSU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, the No. 13-seeded Iona Gaels can review the past to see where the Tigers have floundered this season.
In their eight losses, the Tigers (23-8) have allowed at least four players to score in double-figures in four of those games. In addition, LSU has only given up 20 or more points to a single player in four of those losses.
The high scorer against the Tigers this season is Baton Rouge native Oliver Lafayette of the Houston Cougars. Lafayette scored 32 points to lift the Cougars to an 84-83 win in late November.
Houston forced 22 turnovers and held LSU sophomore forward Glen Davis to 6-15 shooting and 15 points.
“We said if Glen Davis gets 30 points, we can’t win,” said Houston coach Tom Penders. “We are going to have to front him and pressure passes. We are going to have to give something up on the wings. We didn’t want little [Darrel] Mitchell killing us either. We tried to focus on those two guys defensively. In the second half, we went into a 2-1 match up press to try to slow them down.”
Iona is led by senior guards Steve Burtt and Ricky Soliver. Burtt has scored 25.2 points per game, which makes him sixth in the nation. Soliver contributes 16.2 points per game.
“I’m concerned about everything they do, but the key to the game is to guard their two perimeter players,” said LSU coach John Brady. “Their two perimeter players are good enough to play in our league. They are New York City guards, and they’ve got a lot of ball savvy, and we will have to be alert defensively to guard them. If we guard them well for consistent periods of time and make them miss shots that they normally make, we will enhance our chances of winning. If we don’t do that, it won’t be in our favor to win the game because we haven’t stopped their strength.”
LSU is a team that regularly rotates four freshmen into a tournament full of veteran squads.
“If I have any concerns about my freshmen being nervous about the tournament, it doesn’t do me any good,” Brady said. “The freshmen that have played all year are gonna play in this game, but I think we know how to play in pressure. We have played Ohio State and Connecticut on the road. We played Cincinnati in Vegas and West Virginia on the road and went 6-2 on the road in the SEC. Once we get down to Jacksonville, we really are preparing for a road game.”
In their losses, the Tigers have been defeated by a combined 64 points in the second half of those games.
LSU has committed 15 or more turnovers and has made less than 65 percent of its free throws in four losses.
Brady said his team is much improved in turnovers.
Two of LSU’s losses were to the University of Florida. The second loss occurred during the Southeastern Conference Tournament, where the Gators handed the Tigers their largest margin of defeat, 81-65.
LSU led 41-38 at halftime but Florida outscored them 43-24 in the second half.
“[Florida] got out of trapping [in the second half] because we shot so many layups,” Brady said. “We had 24 points in the paint the first half, and Glen only shot four balls, so somebody else was scoring around the goal. Florida was extending the defense, and we took care of the ball and got by them.”
But the Gators came out in a zone defense in the second half and forced the Tigers into shooting 12 3-pointers. LSU has shot less than 34 percent from behind the arc this season.
“Florida changed the game when they went to a half-court game,” Brady said. “They sat back in the zone, and we missed a few shots that we should have made. That was the difference in the game.”
Iona coach Jeff Ruland joked at a teleconference Monday when reporters asked about television commentators who picked the Gaels to ‘upset’ LSU.
“I pay all those guys, so it’s not unexpected,” Ruland said. “It’s nice, but talk is cheap. You still have to go out and do it. Every year, there are upsets, and we’d like to be part of that. But we have a tough opponent, so we have to try to prepare the best we can.”
 
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