With the LSU basketball team on a five-game winning streak headed into the Southeastern Conference Tournament, there is a lot of speculation about what turned the season around propelling them for a likely invitation to the Big Dance.
Some people said it was the coaching staff’s decision to start Xavier Whipple at the point. Some of the players said it was the Brian Green bobble head doll in the locker room. Some other people said it was because the guys were tired of the Lady Tigers getting all the positive coverage.
They are all wrong.
After losing to then-No. 3 Kentucky 68-57 in Lexington, Ky., the Tigers sat at 14-9 and 3-8 in the SEC. They put up a valiant fight against one of the best teams in the country, only to suffer their seventh loss in their last nine games.
As they licked their wounds on the plane ride home, a lightning bolt struck the plane, caused disarray among the people on board and scared the losing touch out of the LSU basketball team.
Fear was not the only sensation instilled in the Tigers during the electric current strike at 30,000 feet above sea level. That gift from Zeus gave the Tigers an electrically charged game, allowing them to turn around what was a disappointing season.
Since that bolt of lightning struck the plane, making everyone on board fear for their lives, LSU is 5-0, averaging 80 points per game, shooting 53.4 percent from the field, shooting 53 percent from beyond the arc and holding a 17.6 point scoring margin.
Before that shocking ride home, the Tigers were scoring 65 points per game in SEC play, shooting 43 percent from the field, 30 percent from the 3-point line and getting outscored by an average of four points per game.
LSU is now 19-9 (8-8 SEC) and predicted to receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament by everyone in the college basketball world.
The hot offensive touch is not the only aspect of improvement the lightning bolt delivered to the Tigers. Their defense has been just as good.
Before the hysteria of the lightning strike, LSU yielded 69 points per game and since has given up only 60.
The ancient Greeks thought lightning was the result of Zeus hurling his flaming spears at his enemies above the clouds, and it has been rightfully feared throughout history, but the modern day LSU Tigers see lightning in a new light since that hair raising plane ride.
There is no known case of lightning causing an airplane crash, but now there is one known case of lightning transforming a losing basketball team into one of the hottest, most electric teams in college basketball.