There’s been a trend over the last two seasons when it comes to the women’s basketball rivalry between LSU and Tennessee.
And if it continues when the two teams play Sunday in the Final Four in New Orleans, the Lady Tigers will find themselves playing for the national championship the following Tuesday.
The trend is the following: The last two seasons, LSU has lost to Tennessee in their Southeastern Conference regular-season game.
Tennessee dropped the Lady Tigers 79-67 in 2002, and in 2003 the Lady Volunteers won again 68-65 before an all-time attendance record of 15,217 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
However, the Lady Tigers rebounded both years to beat Tennessee in the postseason, including the championship game of the 2003 SEC Tournament where No. 6 LSU stomped the No. 3 Lady Vols 78-62.
In the 2002 SEC Tournament semifinals, unranked LSU stunned No. 3 Tennessee 81-80.
Part one of the trend is already set in stone for this season, with Tennessee beating the Lady Tigers in Knoxville 85-62 Feb. 29.
Now, LSU gets its shot at redemption, and it all happens Sunday night in the New Orleans arena.
This will be Tennessee’s third straight appearance in the Final Four and its 15th overall. Under coach Pat Summitt, the Lady Vols have hauled in six NCAA championships. They expect to be there every year.
LSU, who looked like anything but a Final Four caliber team at the end of the season, has gotten hot at the right time to blitz through the West Regional and clinched a trip to New Orleans with a 62-60 win over Georgia in Seattle.
Tennessee will be heavily favored because it’s Tennessee — bottom line.
That’s good news for the Lady Tigers, because they have relished the underdog role this past week.
If the Lady Tigers beat Tennessee and advance to the championship game on Tuesday, the baseball game scheduled between LSU and Tulane on that same Tuesday will be moved to Wednesday so LSU fans can see the Lady Tigers.
This is an outstanding gesture by Smoke Laval, the baseball program and the LSU Athletics Department.
Baseball
Speaking of baseball, the No. 2 Tigers (22-4, 4-2 SEC) travel to the plains of Auburn this weekend. Auburn (20-6, 3-3), which is ranked No. 15 by Collegiate Baseball, is coming off a 20-5 at Georgia Tech.
LSU trails No. 4 Ole Miss (20-3, 5-1) in the SEC West Standings, and taking two out of three against Auburn on the road would be a nice weekend for Smoke’s boys.
Ole Miss is off to a hot start, but it is doubtful the Rebels will be able to keep it up. They play Mississippi State in Starkville this weekend.
Football
The defending national champions have their first spring scrimmage on Saturday, and this will be the first opportunity to see what redshirt freshmen quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Matt Flynn can do on the field.
Senior Marcus Randall will more than likely get the majority of snaps, but Russell and Flynn will see a significant amount.
The Spring Game is April 24 in Tiger Stadium.