In a utopian society, stealing is neither preached nor praised, but tonight, LSU coach D-D Breaux intends for her seventh-ranked gymnastics team to become a savage pirate crew.
To compete against No. 2 Florida at 6 p.m. in the O’Connell Center will be a grueling, threatening task, but Breaux’s message to LSU was very clear: beach LSU’s boat, burn it and commandeer Florida’s vessels — with a victory included.
“Burn the boats,” Breaux said. “We want to go in there, go ashore and leave on their boats.”
If that doesn’t happen, the Tigers (7-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) will be left alone, but the “O Dome” is no place for lonely ship pirates.
“There won’t be much enthusiasm in Florida for us, trust me,” Breaux said.
Florida (6-1, 4-1 SEC), the back-to-back-to-back National Champion, has only scored less than a 197.0 team score twice this season.
Robbing their ships will not be easy, and LSU is already one pirate short of a full crew.
Freshman all-arounder — but mainly an uneven bars and occasional floor performer — Lexie Priessman will be sidelined against Florida for an ankle injury she suffered in warmups prior to LSU’s meet against Georgia on Feb. 13. LSU’s team medical staff released Priessman from a walking boot on Thursday, and she’s returned to a casual tennis shoe.
Her recovery time is ahead of schedule, and LSU’s coaching staff is hopeful for a return in the 2016 season, the team confirmed to The Daily Reveille.
Beside Priessman’s unavailability, LSU’s lineup is as close to full-strength as it will be this season, Breaux said.
Without Priessman, freshman all-arounder Julianna Cannamela will fill Priessman’s normal spot in the bars lineup, like she did against Auburn on Friday, scoring a 9.150 after a fall. The event-low score didn’t count, but her performance must improve, Breaux said.
“Julianna will have to step up and not become mental in warmups,” Breaux said.
With Cannamela in three events versus then-No. 8 Auburn, LSU knotched its season-high team score against Auburn in the first of the toughest three top-10 meets on its schedule.
The rigorous schedule continues in Gainesville and then the following week against now-No. 4 Alabama in the PMAC on March 4.
“They’re really important because they’re against really good SEC teams,” said junior all-arounder Shae Zamardi. “They are really strong competitors. If we can prove ourselves this week, that would be a really big turning point for us heading into postseason.”
LSU treats every meet as if it is facing the nation’s best team, sophomore all-arounder Myia Hambrick said. In reality it’s facing the SEC’s best three weeks in a row, which could be beneficial, she said.
“The importance comes from these begin toward the end of the season and going into postseason,” Hambrick said. “We need the confidence and knowledge to know that we can do well and it doesn’t have to be a rocky meet.”
The Tigers must have their sharpest swords — and routines — ready if they want to upset the Gators.
Sticking landings and remaining focused are critical in Friday’s thievery.
“We’ve got to be much more mature and stick our landings, because that’s what we expect Florida to do,” Breaux said.
Gainesville may be the conference’s most well-protected land, and the Tigers only had two training days to prepare for the siege.
LSU must be better than prepared, Breaux said. It has to find an “edge.”
“Looking forward, we have Florida this weekend, we need to be better,” she said. “We only have two training days, so we’re going to put some edge on them, and try to get a good road score.”
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter @CBoutwell_TDR