Seven minutes. 
That’s all the experience the 2014-15 LSU men’s basketball team has in the NCAA Tournament. 
When he was a freshman at UNC Asheville in 2012, current LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby played seven minutes in the Bulldogs’ 72-65 loss to No. 1 seed Syracuse in the second round of the East Regional. 
Besides Hornsby, no LSU player can boast NCAA Tournament experience, and the No. 9-seeded Tigers (22-10) must play without it when their postseason journey begins against No. 8 seed NC State at 8:20 p.m. Thursday in the second round of the East Regional. 
But LSU’s collective lack of postseason experience on the collegiate level is slightly offset by the championship experiences of some of the Tigers on the prep level. 
“We all come from winning programs, and we realize that winning is important,” said sophomore forward Jarell Martin. “That’s one of the big things for me. I know where I’m trying to go, and as the leader of this team, I’m trying to get my team there.”  
Martin, a Baton Rouge native, led Madison Prep to its first state championship in the 2013 Class B title game against Simsboro, which knocked Martin and the Chargers out of the playoffs the year before. 
Martin, who was voted Louisiana’s Mr. Basketball during Madison Prep’s title year, said the disappointment from the previous season fueled him and his high school teammates in their quest to capture the school’s first basketball
championship. 
Now, Martin will try to lead his collegiate squad to its first title during the NCAA Tournament era.   
“I have to make sure everyone’s on the right page and has the right mindset,” Martin said. “In practice, we have to make sure everyone’s focused and not playing around. I have to be vocal and lead by example on the floor.”  
Five Tigers won state titles during their high school careers, and freshman guard Jalyn Patterson also has two national championships from Montverde Academy under his belt. 
Patterson, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer to win the national title for Montverde last April, said it’s important to keep calm in high-pressured
postseason play. 
“It’s really like any other game, just a lot more at stake,” Patterson said. “We just have to go out there and play hard because if you lose, you go home. We just have to play hard and win.”
Three other Tigers have won state titles in high school: sophomore forwards Brian Bridgewater and Jordan Mickey and sophomore guard Tim Quarterman, who helped Johnson High School capture the Georgia Class AAA state title as a senior in 2013.  
For Quarterman, postseason is the best time of the year. 
“In the postseason, there’s greater intensity because nobody wants to lose and go home,” Quarterman said. “The games get more intense, so you have to up your level of intensity and level of play.” 
Quarterman and his teammates at Johnson High had to overcome plenty of obstacles during their state title run in 2013. The Atom Smashers lost in the first round of the Georgia state playoffs from 2010 to 2012, and the squad underwent a coaching change prior to Quarterman’s
senior season.  
But that didn’t stop the Atom Smashers from defeating rival Savannah High School in the state title game, 61-51, for the third championship in
school history. 
“You have to go at people because if you don’t and you leave something out there on the court, you could be playing your last game,” Quarterman
said. 
All these postseason experiences could be beneficial for LSU, which regularly plays only two upperclassmen in its seven-man rotation. But the Tigers won’t be thinking about the past when they take the court against NC State — they’ll be thinking about what they can leave behind. 
“You’re playing for a chance to leave something in the
history books,” Martin said.   
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.