LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones never thought he’d have to question his team’s toughness.
Neither did sophomore guard Tim Quarterman.
“Just for [Jones] to be talking about [us not] playing hard, I took it personal because I like I to play hard every time I step out on the floor,” Quarterman said.
After dropping consecutive games to teams with losing records, the Tigers (16-6, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) will try to right the ship when they host Alabama (14-8, 4-5 SEC) at 5 p.m. Saturday in the PMAC.
LSU ended the Crimson Tide’s 2013-14 season with a 68-56 victory in the last year’s SEC Tournament, which was the only game in the last four meetings decided by more than three points.
Alabama recently ended a two-game losing skid with a 62-49 victory against Missouri on Wednesday.

But unlike the Tide, things have quickly turned sour for LSU, which has lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. Even more disturbing to Jones is the teams his club have lost to.
After winning three in a row, LSU dropped its next two games against Mississippi State and Auburn, teams with a combined 22-22 record and a 7-9 mark in league play. During the losing skid, the Tigers have shot just 40.7 percent from the field, including an atrocious 20 percent from 3-point territory.
Losing two straight games to seemingly overmatched opponents may have brought the confident Tigers — who had won 13 of their last 15 games before Jan. 31 — back to earth, LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby said.

“Since we had had success with the three-game winning streak, I think we played too much like people were just assuming we were already good,” Hornsby said. “Obviously, we were taught a lesson in that category.”
LSU may catch a break when Alabama comes to the PMAC. The Tide is expected to be without junior guard Ricky Tarrant, who’s missed the previous two games with a lower right leg injury.
Tarrant is Alabama’s leading scorer in conference play at 13.1 points per game.
With Tarrant out the last two games, Alabama senior guard Levi Randolph has picked up the scoring. Randolph has averaged 16 points per game in the two without Tarrant, including a 20-point outing against Missouri.
The Tide’s third starting guard, senior Rodney Cooper, has also been a scoring threat this season, averaging 10.4 points per game.
After watching Auburn senior guards Antoine Mason and KT Harrell burn his team for 52 combined points, Jones said the Tigers must play with a “sense of urgency” to stop Alabama.
“We have a good Alabama team that’s coming in here with some very high-caliber scorers on the perimeter,” Jones said. “We have to make sure that we play with a sense of urgency that’s needed against these guys from start to finish.”
But stopping the Tide might not be as difficult as scoring against it.
Since SEC play began, Alabama has surrendered just 59.9 points per game, second behind No. 1 Kentucky. The Tide ranks fourth in field goal percentage defense (40.3) and have held five of its nine conference opponents to less than 60 points.
“You have to play hard,” Quarterman said. “[Alabama is] a physical defensive basketball team. They talk on defense, they rotate, so you have to play hard and you have to play smart.”

But after being outplayed by inferior opponents in consecutive games, Quarterman said the Tigers need to up their intensity level, regardless of how things are going offensively.
“No matter what’s happening, no matter what’s going on in the game — I don’t care if we don’t hit a shot all night — just playing hard the whole game is something we should do just because,” Quarterman said. “We don’t need anybody to ask us to play hard.”
The Tigers must heed Quarterman’s advice if they hope to have a chance at victory during their next two games. After playing Alabama, LSU will host powerhouse Kentucky, the third of a three-game home stand.
But playing at home isn’t what it was earlier in the season. The Tigers have dropped two of their last three home games since starting the season 9-0 in the PMAC.
Hornsby said he doesn’t want his team to lose another one in front of the home crowd.
“These next two games, I’ll be darned if we should let that happen again if we have the heart that I know we do,” Hornsby said.