Happy March, Baton Rouge. For the first time since 2009, the month means more than the start of Southeastern Conference play for the LSU baseball team.
The LSU basketball team is NCAA Tournament bound.
OK, not officially. For this to be guaranteed, the Tigers need to win the conference tournament, and we’re still a week away from the SEC Tourney. But the Tigers have moved themselves off the bubble and into the field.
Since the last time you saw my awkward smile mugshot in this paper, the world has been in an uproar about an eye test.
Was the dress blue and black or white and gold? I don’t care. I don’t wear dresses. But there’s another eye test far more popular in the sports world around this time. I’m talking about the blind résumé test.
Bracketology experts and even run-of-the-mill college basketball analysts will be talking about blind résumés for the next two weeks more than you can believe. It’ll feel like LeBron James left Cleveland to go to Miami with Tim Tebow and punched Johnny Manziel on the way out. You’re going to hear about it a lot.
So I’ll try to get the party started with my own blind résumé test. Which two teams would you put in the tournament?
Team A: 20-8 overall, 11-5 in conference, 32 in RPI, 64 strength of schedule, 2-6 v. RPI Top 50, 5-2 v. RPI Top 51-100
Team B: 21-8 overall, 10-6 in conference, 46 in RPI, 90 strength of schedule, 4-4 v. RPI Top 50, 7-1 v. RPI 51-100
Team C: 17-12 overall, 6-10 in conference, 49 in RPI, 17 strength of schedule, 2-11 v. RPI Top 50, 2-1 v. RPI 51-100
I can’t hear your choices, but it’s pretty obvious which team isn’t getting chosen. I would chose Teams A and B.
Team A is Texas A&M. Both of the Aggies’ top-50 victories are against LSU, and they have a decent strength of schedule and SEC record. They are currently an 11 seed and in a play-in game in CBSsports.com’s Bracketology projections as of Sunday morning.
Team C is the Aggies’ biggest rival, Texas. The Longhorns have played an incredibly difficult schedule but are
struggling to win these hard games. A 4-12 record against RPI top-100 teams isn’t going to get UT into the NCAA Tournament. CBSsports.com has the Longhorns third in the last four out.
And in the most surprising reveal since Adam Lambert lost American Idol, LSU is Team B. Crazy that my column about LSU making the tournament features the Tigers in the test, but it happened.
Now, back to their résumé.
LSU has the worst strength of schedule of the three, but the Tigers do have the most wins against good teams. They’ve won the games that will get them in and make them appealing for the selection committee. LSU is an eight seed in CBSsports.com’s Bracketology and isn’t even listed as a bubble team.
The Tigers have two regular season games left, hosting
Tennessee on Wednesday and travelling to Arkansas on Saturday. Then, they’ll head to the SEC Tournament seeded between two and six.
I don’t see enough opportunities for LSU to hurt its
tournament chances and knock themselves out of its current position.
As long as LSU can take care of business against Tennessee, Tigers fans will need their dancing shoes because LSU will be headed to the Big Dance.
Brian Pellerin is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Kenner, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter
@Pellerin_TDR.