Four days, four games, four wins.
That’s what it’s going to take for the LSU men’s basketball team to come out of Atlanta with its first Southeastern Conference tournament championship since 1980.
The Tigers start what they call the “third season” tonight against No. 10 seed Alabama, after securing the No. 7 seed in the conference tournament with a loss against Georgia in the regular-season finale Saturday.
“It’s a four game season right now, and you take one game at a time,” said LSU junior forward Johnny O’Bryant III.
The new season begins with a rematch against Alabama today. The Tigers suffered a close loss to the Tide in late January in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in which three Crimson Tide players posted 17 or more points. Senior guard Trevor Releford led the Tide with 21 points.
LSU junior guard Anthony Hickey said the Tigers plan to keep Releford out of the lane this time around, but for Hickey, having a plan and executing it are two different things.
“We can’t talk about it, we have to be about it,” Hickey said. “We have an opportunity in front of us again, it’s laid out there. We just have to go out and get it.”
More importantly for a middle-of-the-pack LSU team, this weekend needs to supply a trophy to bring back to Baton Rouge if the Tigers want to avoid spending March Madness at home.
Bracketology experts across the nation have dropped LSU from NCAA tournament contention, after going .500 in a conference that might not find itself with a third team receiving a bid.
For the first time all season, LSU coach Johnny Jones alluded that his team will need to outright win the SEC tournament to avoid a National Invitation Tournament appearance.
Prior to LSU’s loss to Georgia, Jones said he thought a deep run could possibly be enough to put the Tigers into the big dance.
“I think it will really help [our NCAA tournament chances] tremendously if we could take it out of the hands [of a selection committee] and win the tournament or get to the finals and play extremely well in the championship game,” Jones said.
But Jones said regardless of where LSU finishes this weekend, he believes this was a successful season considering everything the team has been through.
One of the main obstacles Jones referred to is going to be brought to the forefront this weekend, with the Tigers’ rotation narrowed to seven men because of injury.
The issue has never been more pressing for LSU this season than heading into the SEC tournament, where it will potentially have to play four games in four consecutive days.
“We don’t really have a lot of options right now because, unfortunately, we’re only playing about seven guys right now,” Jones said. “You’d like to find some time to get a little bit deeper in your rotation and teams that can do that, good things generally happen to them.”
The depleted bench will put more on the shoulders of O’Bryant, who was named First Team All-SEC on Tuesday. O’Bryant finished fourth in the SEC in rebounding and ninth in scoring.
But this weekend could mean more for O’Bryant, who faces another decision of leaving for the NBA following this season.
O’Bryant said he hasn’t made up his mind yet, but believes having gone through the process last year better prepares him to make a more expedient announcement this time.
“I’m just trying to finish the season however I can finish it and give it everything I’ve got,” O’Bryant said. “If this is my last time, I’m going to play hard, and if it isn’t, I’m still going to play hard.”