The LSU men’s basketball team can breathe a sigh of relief.
For the first time in six years, the Tigers are going dancing.
LSU (22-10) was selected as a No. 9 seed in the East Region and will face No. 8 seed NC State in the second round of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, the NCAA Selection Committee announced on Sunday.
The Tigers will tip off against the Wolfpack (20-13) at 8:20 p.m. Thursday at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. If LSU wins, it will play the victor between No. 1 seed Villanova (32-2) and No. 16 Lafayette (20-12).
It’ll be the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Tigers since the 2008-09 season and only the second in the last nine years.
But it’ll be the third NCAA Tournament appearance for LSU coach Johnny Jones, who took the University of North Texas to the Big Dance twice during his 11 years with the program.
“With our body of work and being in one of the top conferences in the country and finishing in the top three in the league, I think warranted for a lot of consideration,” Jones said. “With that, I was hopeful that on Sunday at 5 o’clock something good would happen for us.”
Entering last weekend’s Southeastern Conference Tournament, experts believed the Tigers needed to collect one more win to solidify their spot in the tournament.
But LSU’s 73-70 loss to Auburn was its fifth of the season to a squad ranked worse than No. 100 in the RPI, putting the Tigers’ chances of making the tournament in serious jeopardy.
Prior to Sunday’s selection show, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had the Tigers pegged as one of the “last four in,” meaning they would’ve had to win an additional game Tuesday or Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, to make the round of 64.
CBS bracketologist Jerry Palm looked more favorably on LSU, pitting the Tigers as a No. 10 seed going against Iowa in Charlotte.
But LSU’s 12 top-100 wins — including road victories against top-25 clubs West Virginia and Arkansas — were perhaps too much for the Selection Committee to ignore, Jones said.
“People know the challenges [we present] and how tough that we’ve been,” Jones said. “Although we’ve had some setbacks because of the inexperience on our team, our guys have done a tremendous job of bouncing back and getting ready for their next outing.”
Jones will confront a familiar face on the opposing bench when his Tigers meet the Wolfpack and coach Mark Gottfried.
Jones coached under Gottfried for one season at Alabama in 2000-01 and said the two spoke on the phone and gave each other words of encouragement the morning of Selection Sunday.
“When I saw [NC State] come up, I was excited for him and where they were, and then our name popped up underneath, so it was kind of ironic.” Jones said. “It certainly will be an interesting game for the both of us.”
Four other SEC squads will join LSU in the NCAA Tournament: Kentucky earned the No. 1 overall seed and will play in the Midwest Region, Arkansas was named a No. 5 seed in the West Region, Georgia earned a No. 10 seed in the East Region, and No. 11 seed Ole Miss will play a “play-in” game against No. 11 seed BYU in first round Tuesday.
After an up-and-down season, Jones doesn’t think he’ll need to do much to get his team motivated for the Big Dance.
“When they sign on for college and you’re sitting in the living room talking to them, one of the things you’re talking about is not just postseason play, but you’re talking about playing in March Madness,” Jones said.
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.