GREENSBORO, N.C. — For the briefest of moments, the attention of the entire college basketball world will be on the LSU men’s basketball team.The No. 8-seeded Tigers (26-7, 13-3) begin the NCAA tournament today against No. 9-seeded Butler (26-5, 15-3) at 11:20 a.m. from Greensboro Coliseum. The early tipoff is the first of the entire first round.”We’re looking forward to competing against a very well-coached and very good Butler team tomorrow morning,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson.Johnson doesn’t make excuses, and few would want to hear about an early tipoff if the Tigers are the first team bounced from the field of 64. LSU has cooled to 1-3 since clinching the Southeastern Conference regular season championship, and the No. 8 seed they received from the selection committee was not expected for a conference champion.”The SEC has been kind of down as far as teams that have been ranked in the top 25 and stuff like that. And we were the only team ranked,” said junior forward Tasmin Mitchell. “We do feel a lack of respect, but we’re not going to talk about that. We’re just all here to play ball.”Butler has been a fixture in the AP Top 25 all season, and the Bulldogs’ tandem of sophomore forward Matt Howard and freshman guard Gordon Hayward is likely keeping Johnson awake at night.Howard averages 14.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Hayward is a 6-foot-8-inch hybrid who averages 13.2 points and 6.5 boards who still finds time to shoot 45.5 percent from 3-point range.This may be LSU senior guard Garrett Temple’s — the Tigers’ SEC All-Defender — last time guarding a shooter for the Tigers.”He’s a very mature freshman. It’s going to be tough because of his length,” Temple said. “But I’ve had to guard great players for a long time.”The Bulldogs boast the nation’s seventh-best scoring defense, allowing 57.4 points per game. They’ve also limited the opposition to 38.2 percent shooting from the field on the season, good enough for sixth nationally.Johnson said the Bulldogs’ defensive style reminds him of Washington State, whom the Tigers downed, 64-52, on Dec. 27.”They’ll be very position- and detail-oriented. And defensively they force you to take bad shots, so we’re going to have to be disciplined in our offensive approach and take good shots,” Johnson said. “[Offensively] you have to be patient, you have to have a level of discipline because going down on the other end offensively they’re going to take good shots. They don’t take bad shots.”Whether the Bulldogs don’t take bad shots is debatable – their offensive field goal percentage ranks No. 160 in Division I – but the comparisons to Washington State are spot on.Neither team plans to outscore the opposition. The Bulldogs average about 67 points per game, and the Cougars don’t even average 60. Both Butler and Washington State rank in the top 10 in both scoring and field goal percentage defense while shooting about 43 percent on offense. LSU is coming off two of its worst shooting performances of the season in the last three games.But with one tipoff between him and the possible end of his college career, Temple didn’t seem too concerned with past performances.”If you can’t get up for this game, if you can’t gain your mojo back and find your mojo for this game, you’re in the wrong business,” Temple said.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]