In need of a little rest
The Lady Tigers played five games in a stretch of eight days, starting with the Nov. 22 contest at Arizona and ending with the Nov. 30 contest at the Florida International University Thanksgiving Classic versus host FIU.
To say LSU is tired would be an understatement. The squad is exhausted.
“Very [tired],” said point guard Temeka Johnson. “I’m pretty sure that everybody’s tired. The one thing we have to concentrate on is Alabama State [on Saturday] and finals. We had a lot of work to catch up on being gone all that time.”
Freshman sensation Seimone Augustus said the travelling has been even harder for her.
“I know the veteran players have been through this,” Augustus said. “But me — as a freshman and coming from high school — this is very tough to be travelling then come home for a couple of days then go back on the road. But you have to do it.”
Head coach Sue Gunter said she knows why the team is tired and said it is not such a bad thing.
“They should have been [exhausted],” Gunter said. “They had a very hard workout [Wednesday]. We ask a lot out of them. That’s good because if they are exhausted at the end of practice then they’ve been giving what they should during practice. It’s a matter of getting better conditioned, better execution when we’re tired and playing well when we’re tired.”
LSU will get some rest after Saturday’s game. The Lady Tigers will not play for the following 11 days until they host the womenhoops.com Classic, which will include LSU, Louisville, New Orleans and Ohio.
No. 2 in the polls
In case you did not notice, LSU moved up to No. 2 in the latest Associated Press poll, as voted on by the national media.
However, LSU remained at No. 3 behind Duke and Connecticut in the ESPN/USA Today poll, as voted on by coaches.
Augustus said the team is staying attentive to the task at hand and on the court.
“We don’t try to focus on the polls and everything,” she said. “I just found out [Tuesday] that we were up in the polls at No. 2. Polls don’t really mean that much. We can go out Saturday and lose to Alabama State and what’s a ranking if you’re not going to put forth all of your effort.”