The parity between the ideas of hope and hopelessness is a recurring theme in sports, and it’s the storylines of pathetic and inspiring teams that take center stage among fans.
Perhaps, there’s no better example of this than the LSU men’s basketball team.
One year ago, LSU fans looked upon a basketball program hopelessly floundering in the abyss.
The 2016-17 Tigers finished the year with a dreary 10-21 (2-16 Southeastern Conference) record, including a repugnant 2-18 record in their last 20 games.
After an early departure in the first round of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament via a 27-point shellacking by Mississippi State, the Tigers’ chances of making a postseason appearance were about the same as an LSU student finding a parking space at noon on a Tuesday—statistically impossible.
Former LSU coach Johnny Jones was swiftly fired at the season’s embarrassing conclusion, and LSU basketball was without a leader in its darkest hour.
The task of prying the Tiger program from the jaws of extinction fell upon the shoulders of newly minted coach Will Wade, a Nashville native known for bringing an unmatched level of energy and passion to the hardwood he paced.
After a roller coaster ride of a year, Wade’s first regular season is in the books, and what a difference a year makes.
Although the LSU’s 17-13 (8-10 SEC) record may be modest, the program has something at the conclusion of this season that it didn’t have last season — hope in the future.
The Tigers soundly defeated Mississippi State in the last game of the season and received some help around the league to obtain a first-round bye in this year’s SEC Tournament.
Now, LSU has realistic hopes of entering the conference tournament and bolstering its resume for a possible berth to compete in the National Invitational Tournament.
The NIT is on the saner end of the March Madness spectrum, but there’s hope that the Tigers will go the distance should the team receive an invitation.
“I think we’d be good enough, if we got in there, to make a run and maybe have a chance to go to New York,” Wade told reporters after the Mississippi State game.
I’m sure there are jaded LSU fans out there complaining about the team falling short of an NCAA Tournament bid, but there’s no doubt a deep run in the NIT would be a huge morale boost for a program that was dead in the water a year ago.
Not to mention, the Tigers would be one of the first NCAA teams to receive exposure to a brand new rule set. This year, the NIT is experimenting with a longer three-point line, a wider free-throw lane, quarters instead of halves and a shorter shot-clock reset.
That’s not to say that playing in the new rule format will give LSU a leg up on the competition, since any proposed rule changes won’t manifest until 2019.
However, being a participant in the rule experiment will be much more fun for the players and fans as opposed to watching other teams be guinea pigs from our television sets.
One could argue that fun was always part of the proposed equation when Wade arrived on LSU’s campus. Theoretically, a fun and exciting program will appeal to elite high school prospects around the country ready to be a part of the positive atmosphere.
Better players lead to a better program, and winning tends to follow.
With so much hope, excitement and fun still left in this season, I’d say the sun is beginning to dawn on a basketball program that was seemingly lost in the darkness.
