Lenny Kravitz, once sang, “Life is all about guns and roses” on Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse” album.He was right.Life is full of terrible moments no one wants to relive and the special moments that brought everyone joy.Throughout its 100 years of life, the LSU men’s basketball program has had its fair share of guns and roses as well. The guns: the 13-win seasons and NCAA sanctions.The roses: the top-10 moments in LSU basketball history.No. 10The recruiting classes spearheaded by former assistant coach Butch Pierre and former player Collis Temple, Jr., have to be on this list. The entire starting lineup of the 2006 Final Four team can be attributed to this tandem.Most of the players had played together in their youth in the BREC park system.Two of the starters are starters on LSU’s team this season and are still bringing success to LSU basketball.No. 9The 1935 national championship.The Tigers went 14-1 en route to an American Legion Bowl win and a “mythical national championship,” that season under former coach and athletic director Harry Rabenhorst. The school’s only basketball national champion should be higher, and it would be if was worth anything.The American Legion Bowl was one of many “national championship games” that season, and the NCAA does not officially recognize the title.Sometimes you have to make your own roses.No. 8 This is actually a series of moments. Three of the past five Southeastern Conference Freshmen of the Year played forward at LSU.Brandon Bass won the award in 2004, Glen Davis won in 2005, and Tyrus Thomas rounded out the trifecta in 2006 when he brought home the hardware.The three players have all gone on to have moderate success in the NBA with Davis winning a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008.No. 7This rose is brought to us by Tiger great Rudy Macklin.The then-freshman forward grabbed a school record 32 rebounds in a 1976 contest against Tulane.While it is nowhere near the national record of 53, 32 rebounds in a single game for one player is serious business.I’ve seen games where LSU didn’t have 32 boards as a team.Hats off to Macklin.No. 6Former center Shaquille O’Neal blocked 12 shots against Loyola Marymount in 1990 to set a school record.O’Neal also holds the school record for blocks in a season with 157 and career blocks with 412.Not only can “Shaqovic” now shoot free throws, he does serious work on defense.No. 5The 1980-81 SEC championship squad.After falling to Arkansas in the third game of the season, this team rattled off 26 straight wins setting a school record that probably wont be matched anytime soon. The team beat three ranked teams in the span and missed out on perfection in conference play by losing to then-No. 9 Kentucky by two points on the road in the final game of the regular season.In terms of wins, this is the most successful team in LSU basketball history. Those kids were good. No. 4This rose happened in 1971 when Collis Temple Jr. broke the color barrier. Temple was the first black person to play basketball at LSU, and only the second black athlete in the entire school. Temple endured things no man should, all because he wanted to play a game. Without men like him to show that race doesn’t matter when playing sports, the history of the sports world would be completely different.No. 3The legendary “Pistol” Pete Maravich cracks the top three.The Pistol dropped 69 points on Alabama in 1970, setting a school record that is not likely to be broken. Of the five times a Tiger scored 60 points, Maravich did it four times. In addition to his four 60-point performances, he had 24 50-point games and 29 40-point games. It’s pretty absurd to think he did all of this without a 3-point line. He makes the kids who go out an score 35 today look like jokes. No. 2 The four LSU Final Four teams are arguably the four best teams in the program’s history.The 1953 Final Four team was coached by Rabenhorst and lost one regular season game.Dale Brown coached the 1981 and 1987 teams and now has his name hung in the PMAC as one of the greatest LSU coaches of all time.The most recent team to make a Final Four run to the Final Four was led by John Brady and featured the five Baton Rouge-area players mentioned in moment 10. No. 1The sweetest smelling rose in LSU’s 100 years takes us back to the very beginning.The Tigers played in — and won — their first game, a 36-20 barnburner vs Dixon Academy in 1909. LSU had to learn to crawl before learning to walk, and from it’s humble beginnings has evolved into the entity we know today.Maybe over the next century, the Tigers can pick another bouquet of roses for everyone to enjoy. ——Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]