Take a look at the LSU women’s basketball team, and one sees a pedestrian 18-win team with 11 losses. But look deeper and one sees a struggling team that has lost six consecutive Southeastern Conference games.
But listen to the team, and a different tune emerges. The story is not of a team trying to relocate its identity, but a team with a clean slate as it starts a new season.
“It is a completely different season now. It’s 0-0. That’s our record now going into the tournament,” said senior guard Jeanne Kenney. “SEC [tournament] play and [NCAA] tournament play is basically an entire new season. That’s kind of our mindset.”
LSU (18-11, 7-9 SEC) begins its new season against the team that ended its old season. The Tigers will face Alabama (14-15, 7-9 SEC) tonight in the first round of the SEC tournament in Duluth, Ga., after losing, 78-60, to the Crimson Tide on Sunday.
The Lady Tigers will have to solve many problems from their Sunday afternoon loss. The game was an example of the problems LSU has experienced during its losing streak, with the Lady Tigers committing 24 turnovers, going 2-for-19 from behind the arc and allowing 50 free throws to Alabama, a school record for an LSU opponent.
The game remained within five points until early in the second half, when the Tide pulled away through a combination of three pointers and free throws. Coach Nikki Caldwell cited many defensive breakdowns in the game, but is excited about the idea of getting another shot at Alabama.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a whole new ballgame,” Caldwell said. “What happened on Sunday is in the past, but what’s going to happen on Thursday will matter the most.”
One of the Lady Tigers’ few bright spots of the game came from senior forward Theresa Plaisance, who nearly recorded her first career triple-double, scoring 26 points, nine rebounds and nine blocks. Plaisance, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, earned All-SEC First Team honors Tuesday for the second consecutive year.
The Lady Tigers will receive a boost from freshman guard Raigyne Moncrief, who played only 19 minutes Sunday while still recovering from a knee injury. Caldwell said Moncrief, who earned All-SEC Freshman team honors Tuesday, had her best practice on Monday since her injury.
It has been a long downward spiral to the Lady Tigers’ season as the team has gone from being ranked 14th in the nation just over a month ago to falling to 10th in the SEC standings. Five of LSU’s last six losses have come either at home or to teams with losing conference records.
Plaisance said the key to their play in the tournament will be going back to who they are and avoiding shooting themselves in the foot.
But the biggest difference LSU will have to make may be its mentality. Caldwell said the Lady Tigers have the capability of doing great things, and it will be a process to get back to where the team once was.
“We want to put ourselves in position to be last man standing,” Caldwell said. “That’s our goal, that’s what we are trying to accomplish here going into the SEC tournament. But we’ve got to take it not just one team at a time, not just one possession at a time, but I told them we have to take it one breath at a time.”

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Richard Redmann

LSU senior forward Theresa Plaisance (55) fights her way toward the goal Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014 during the Lady Tigers' 72-67 loss to Tennessee in the PMAC.