PITTSBURGH — It all came down to one shot, and then it was over.
After enjoying the program’s best season in six years, the LSU men’s basketball team couldn’t get past the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament, dropping a nail-biter on a buzzer-beater to North Carolina State, 66-65, Thursday at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.
In the moments following their last-second loss, it was difficult for some for Tigers to think beyond their second-half meltdown, in which a commanding 16-point lead slowly dwindled into a crushing one-point defeat.
Despite the agonizing conclusion to their season, the Tigers — who hadn’t been to the Big Dance since 2009 — agreed they had plenty to look back on and be proud of.
“One of our goals for the season, we were saying we wanted to make it to the [NCAA] tournament this year,” said LSU sophomore forward Jarell Martin. “We did that.”
Not only was it a bounce-back season for a downtrodden program, it may have been the rebirth of a former national power.
During his introductory press conference in April 2012, coach Johnny Jones said his mission was to “bring back that passion, bring back that excitement LSU basketball had” during its “glory days” of the ’80s under Hall of Fame coach Dale Brown.
After three full seasons, Jones has the Tigers trending toward keeping that promise.
In the five seasons before Jones’ arrival, LSU went 80-82. But take the 2008-09 team, which finished 27-8, out of the equation, and that record plummets to 53-74.
But LSU has improved its record in each of the three seasons under Jones, going from 19 wins in 2013 to 20 in 2014 to 22 this season. It’s the first time the Tigers improved their win total in three successive seasons under the same coach since 1978 to 1981.
LSU went 22-11 this season, its best mark since the previous NCAA Tournament squad in 2008-09. It was only the fourth time in the last 22 seasons the Tigers won at least 22 games.
LSU also won 12 games against opponents ranked in the top 100 of the RPI and captured two road wins against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, which the Tigers hadn’t done in a season since 1979-80. This season featured as many top-25 road wins as the previous 11 seasons combined.
It all culminated in an invitation to the frenzy of March Madness, something Jones’ players fantasized about since they first picked up a basketball.
“It’s always been a dream of mine, growing up watching the NCAA tournament, just praying and hoping I would be able to get on that stage some day,” said sophomore forward Jordan Mickey. “When we saw our name come across the board, that was a dream come true.”
But as high as the Tigers were rolling at times, they also endured some demoralizing and mind-numbing losses, punctuated by the final blow of Wolfpack sophomore forward Beejay Anya’s fatal hook shot Thursday.
“I felt my heart drop,” Martin said. “Seeing that basket go in hurt. [It was a] very emotional moment. We weren’t ready for our season to end.”
But sometimes, it has to.
“That’s just basketball,” said sophomore guard Tim Quarterman. “You have to have a winner, and you have to have a loser. But there’s always a positive side to things.”
Perhaps the most positive aspect of the Tigers’ resurgent season is it may be the beginning of things to come.
Pending Martin and Mickey’s upcoming decisions on whether to enter the NBA Draft, LSU — the SEC’s third-highest scoring team this season — could return all six of its players that logged more than 700 minutes.
The team that was filled with unproven underclassmen could become a squad replete with battle-tested veterans, an edge for any club with championship aspirations.
But Jones also has an abundance of elite talent coming in.
LSU currently holds ESPN’s No. 6 recruiting class for the 2015 cycle, headlined by consensus No. 1 recruit Ben Simmons of powerhouse Montverde Academy. Oak Ridge High product Antonio Blakeney, the nation’s No. 14 prospect out of Orlando, Florida, committed in early January and is expected to sign in the spring signing period, which begins April 15.
The Tigers are also in the running for Malik Newman, a 6-foot-3-inch high-volume scorer out of Jackson, Mississippi, whom ESPN rated as the nation’s fourth-best prospect in the 2015 class.
Add in Arizona transfer Craig Victor, who will be eligible to play after the 2015 fall semester, and the Tigers could be back in the Big Dance next March and perhaps advance further.
“We know we were a good team this year,” Mickey said after Thursday’s loss. “We have tons of great players on this team right now. The players that are coming in next year, they’re just as good.”
But some Tigers weren’t interested in thinking about next season just yet. The way this season ended was too painful.
“You can always think about [next year], but that’s a long way off and a lot of work to be done until then,” said junior guard Keith Hornsby. “I don’t want to think about it now. This is going to hurt for a while, and it should. If you really care about LSU, the team and the game, [Thursday’s loss] should really hurt you.”
But every season comes to an end at some point, with only one team standing above the rest.
Not only will the Tigers try to show they can handle success, they’ll try to prove they can bounce back from failure.
“As a player, you just use it as motivation,” Quarterman said. “Everybody in here is young. We have a lot coming back next year. We have a lot coming in. It just motivates you as a player to know that we got this experience. It was a great experience for our program.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.