The LSU men’s basketball team has a final chance in the Southeastern Conference tournament to turn around one of the worst seasons in school history. The winner takes an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. “This is the time of year where anything can happen,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “It’s a new season. I will address it with these guys as I always have — it’s another game, another opportunity.”LSU will have its opportunity Thursday as the Tigers (11-19, 2-14) take on No. 13 Tennessee (23-7, 11-5) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. “Tennessee is probably playing as good as anyone in our league right now,” Johnson said. “They are a hard matchup regardless of the fact we played them hard here. I say that based off their level of intensity and how they are playing and how their younger players have developed.”The numbers back up Johnson’s claims. The Volunteers come into the tournament riding a three-game win streak, including a win Feb. 27 against No. 2 Kentucky. Yet LSU has some positive experience with which to rely. Tennessee played in Baton Rouge against a conference-winless LSU squad and escaped with a 59-54 slugfest win. “It’s encouraging,” said LSU junior guard Bo Spencer. “We’re going to have to be a force on the boards. We’ve been playing pretty good in our zone and playing pretty good with that. We want to make them beat us on the perimeter.”The LSU zone attack has worked nicely. The Tigers, after losing their first 12 conference games, won two of their last four to end the regular season thanks to some stingy defense. On the other hand, some relish the zone. One only has to take a gander at LSU’s game against Auburn to see what a good shooter can do to a zone defense.Auburn senior guard Tay Waller torched LSU’s zone offering, hitting six 3-pointers en route to 26 points in a 74-59 win. “I know Tay Waller enjoyed the zone,” Spencer said. “We weren’t executing as well as we were supposed to, but they were making shots.” It was only one game. During LSU’s last five games, the Tigers only allowed 61.6 points per game. The Tigers don’t have much to lose. A loss likely ends their season. A win would only put an exclamation point on Johnson’s second campaign as coach. It’s happened before. Georgia, 4-12 in SEC play in 2007-08, made a whirlwind run through the conference tournament and played their way into the Big Dance. “Georgia did it,” said LSU senior forward Tasmin Mitchell. “They won four games in four days with a bad record. It’s open now. It’s really open. We’re going to just go out there, play hard and have fun.” The Tigers can also quash other team’s chances of March Madness. If LSU manages to knock off the Volunteers, waiting in the second round is Ole Miss. The Rebels are labeled by many as a bubble team. “It is an opportunity for us to spoil someone’s season along the way if we are fortunate enough to be successful the first night,” Johnson said. “It is a very stiff challenge for us because we aren’t very deep or strong.”Mitchell, the lone senior on this team, will try and extend his career as a Tiger. He ended his time in the PMAC on Saturday with a 50-48 victory against Georgia. Mitchell scored 20 points in the game, leaving him a mere 21 points from 2,000 for his career. He thinks he has 21 more points in him. “Probably a little more,” Mitchell said. “I’m not really worried about it. I’m just going to go out there and play my game, and Coach is going to put me in situations to do that and also to help our team win.”
 
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