What a difference one year can make. In mid-March 2006, the LSU men’s basketball team was sitting on cloud nine – fresh off a 14-2 Southeastern Conference record, an SEC regular season championship and a No. 4 seed handed out by the NCAA selection committee. Fast forward 12 months. After enduring a disappointing 17-15 record and five wins in conference play, the Tigers are left mulling over what went wrong in the 2006-2007 season and what will become of 2007-2008. With junior forward Glen Davis heavily considering leaving LSU for the glitz and glamour of the NBA, the Tigers’ abrupt fall from grace might well continue into next season. After finishing last in the horrid SEC West, LSU fans prematurely assumed the Tigers were a lock for the National Invitational Tournament. NIT support, whether it be sarcastic or complimentary, began long before the Tigers’ season ended, with fans displaying “NIT or Bust” signs at the Tigers’ final home game March 3 against the University of South Carolina. But when the NIT selections were unveiled Sunday night, LSU was noticeably absent. The SEC West has three teams in the tournament: the University of Alabama, Mississippi State University and Ole Miss, and a run to the finals of the SEC Tournament earned the University of Arkansas, which finished 7-9 in conference play, an at-large NCAA bid. The NIT bid seemed like a lock for a team with the resume of LSU, but looking at the season and the teams that did make the tournament, the Tigers deserved to be left out of the postseason equation. Certainly LSU has showed they have the talent, at times, to play with the top teams in the nation. With wins against Texas A&M University and the University of Florida, the Tigers showed flashes of the squad that shocked the world on the way to the Final Four in 2006. But a 5-11 regular-season conference record, which included a six-game midseason losing streak, was ultimately something from which the Tigers could not recover. LSU finished the season two games above .500 with 17 victories, while 25 of this year’s 32 NIT participants finished with 20 or more wins. The NIT’s recent rule change also did not help the Tigers’ slim postseason chances. Beginning with the 2006 tournament, all teams that won their regular season conference championships but failed to take home the conference tournament title are automatically invited to the NIT if the team is not given an at-large bid by the NCAA. This season, eight teams automatically qualified for the NIT, reducing the number of actual at-large invites from 32 to 24. A popular postseason prediction Web site, NIT-ology.com, lists LSU as the last team left out of this season’s field. The disappointment of this past season is sure to sink in during the next couple of weeks, and if Davis decides to make himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft, that feeling will be made even more apparent. Sure, LSU will have experience and talent returning next season, and sophomore guard Garrett Temple and sophomore forward Tasmin Mitchell can expect to step to the forefront as leaders of the team if Davis decides to skip town. But in the paint, LSU will be shorthanded and forced to hand the legacy of Shaquille O’Neal, Tyrus Thomas and Glen Davis to players such as sophomore forward Magnum Rolle and sophomore center Chris Johnson who, despite their raw talent, have yet to reach their full potential. Looking back at this past season, try not to think about the blown leads and scoring droughts fans saw far too many times. LSU lost 10 games by 10 points or less this season and had three losses by more than 16 points. The Tigers could have easily thrown in the towel midway through the season, but they did not. They remained focused and pulled one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season against No. 1-seed Florida at the end of the season and did so, amazingly, without Davis. The past year has been a series of peaks and valleys for the Tigers and their fans. From Final Four Cinderella to NIT on-lookers, the Tigers have a long time to figure out how to rise from the most recent valley they find themselves in. Unfortunately, without postseason participation the time they have is longer than anyone could have imagined.
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