LSU junior guard Katherine Graham predicted the fate of the Lady Tiger basketball team before anyone else in Tiger Stadium’s Lawton Room on Monday night.Graham whispered LSU’s future to freshman guard Adrienne Webb while the rest of LSU’s players waited nervously.”Once they called the teams right before us, I told Webb, ‘We’re going at seven,'” Graham said.Graham’s prediction came true as LSU was unveiled as a No. 7 seed pitted against 10th-seeded Hartford in Durham, N.C., in the first round of the NCAA tournament.The No. 21 Lady Tigers will face No. 25 Hartford on Saturday at 11:06 a.m. in LSU’s 12th-straight NCAA tournament appearance.LSU coach Van Chancellor expected a slightly higher seed, but he said he was satisfied with his third trip to the NCAA tournament with LSU.”I didn’t have us going to Durham,” Chancellor said. “I thought we were going to be in at a six [seed]. We better be ready to play.”Hartford posted a 27-4 overall and 16-0 record in the America East Conference and won its fourth regular-season conference title this season. The Hawks fell in their conference tournament final to Vermont, 55-50.”I like the fact that we’re playing Hartford,” Chancellor said. “Our athletes will give them a lot of problems.”Senior guard Allison Hightower said she is excited about her final postseason as a Lady Tiger.”I was nervous just to see our name pop up,” Hightower said. “I was excited.”Hightower averages 18.5 points and 32.3 minutes per game, both team highs. The Lady Tigers advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season with a 69-59 win against Green Bay at the PMAC. LSU went on to fall to eventual national runner-up Louisville, 62-52, in the second round.Sophomore forward LaSondra Barrett said the team always talks about maintaining LSU’s legacy as a great women’s basketball program.”You want to continue to carry that legacy,” Barrett said. “It was good to see that we made it again. We are very proud of our legacy.”Barrett, a second-team All-SEC player, adds 12.6 points per game and leads the team with 6.7 rebounds.Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Georgia also earned tournament berths out of the Southeastern Conference. “The SEC gets us prepared the closer we get to the NCAA tournament,” Hightower said. “It’s all about preparation.”The No. 1 seeds are Connecticut, Stanford, Nebraska and Tennessee.The winner of LSU-Hartford will play either Duke or Hampton in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Duke is a No. 2 seed playing in its hometown of Durham.The Lady Tigers have experienced a long layoff since their last game a week and a half ago.LSU’s last game was March 5 against Vanderbilt in the second round of the SEC tournament, where the Commodores handled the Lady Tigers, 63-61. The Lady Tigers had won five out of six games before entering the conference tournament.Chancellor said his team has been picking it up in practice because every game in the tournament will be a test.”We had the best practice to date in over six weeks,” Chancellor said. “You have to play good teams when you get [to the NCAA tournament].”
 
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