When the NCAA announced seeding for the national gymnastics tournament, No. 3 LSU wasn’t watching.
Instead, the Tigers (15-5, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) spent Monday afternoon practicing after finishing third at the SEC championship Saturday night. LSU will host No. 10 Stanford, No. 13 Auburn, Arizona, Kent State and Iowa State in the Baton Rouge Regional on April 5, but that was the last thing coach D-D Breaux wanted the Tigers to focus on.
“We’re not watching the selection show because that’s one of those things we can’t control,” Breaux said. “Whoever they send here, that’s okay with us. We’re going to focus on getting back to business, getting back to basics and getting our gymnastics where it needs to be.”
The Tigers, who were No. 1 in the country just two weeks ago, posted their fifth-lowest team score and second-lowest beam score of the season at the conference championship. LSU also tied its second-worst floor score of 2014 despite junior all-arounder Lloimincia Hall winning a share of the SEC floor crown with a 9.950.
Junior all-arounder Jessie Jordan, who fell in the anchor spot on beam, said the Tigers fell short Saturday because they strayed from their mental process.
“The conversation does not need to be about the national championship now,” Jordan said. “It needs to be about the work we do in here to make that happen. That’s been our goal all season, but it was also our goal to win SECs and that didn’t happen. Now the conversation is shifting to what we can control.”
LSU has two weeks to get back in control and block out any distractions that might cloud it focus.
“We’ve got to get back to business this week and work hard, kind of blue-collar, and not think about being ranked one, two or three or whatever that ranking is,” Breaux said. “That’s got to become secondary in our minds, and we have to focus on the job at hand.”