LSU freshman forward Ben Simmons sat down for interviews with the local media Tuesday wearing a sleeveless white T-shirt he often wears for practice. In purple and gold print, the Nike-brand shirt reads, “Fighting Tiger Basketball Never Stops.”
The LSU basketball program will continue to play games long after Simmons competes in his in last contest as a Tiger. But his publicly praised LSU career, likely to last just one season, appears to be ending far more quickly than anyone expected with an unceremonious conclusion for the team as a whole.
“I’ve lost games, but not as much attention has been brought up as this,” Simmons said. “I’ve expected this. Coming to LSU or a school like this, I didn’t expect everything to go smoothly or uphill. Everything comes at its price.”
With senior guard Keith Hornsby restricted to the bench for the time being, stricken by a torn groin, the former first-place team in the Southeastern Confrence is spinning out of NCAA tournament at-large consideration. The Tigers hold a No. 90 Ratings Percentage Index ranking and are excluded from most projected fields of 68.
A three-game losing streak before Saturday’s matchup with Florida at 7:30 p.m. in the PMAC has highlighted the Tigers’ (16-12, 9-6 SEC) complacency in the final stretch of the season and shows they aren’t playing desperate, Hornsby said.
“You wouldn’t be able to tell from our play,” he said. “We need to have some urgency about us. If we had any heart, if we cared about this team and season as a whole we have to play [desperate].”
Often lauded for the his energy and intensity, the Tigers lamented the absence of Hornsby, who is unsure if or when he will be able to return to the floor this season. Hornsby hurt his groin squatting down for a ball in the first half of the Feb. 20 loss to Tennessee, and he said it could have been a product of his previous hernia injury that hadn’t completely healed.
On top of the Alabama home loss on Feb. 17, which followed the Tigers’ win against then-No. 15 Texas A&M on Feb. 13, the Tigers dropped back-to-back road games by double digits to Arkansas and Tennessee – both of whom sit at the bottom half of the conference standings. In all three of those losses, LSU scored at least 10 points below its season average.
Losers of its last two games and three of its last four, Florida comes to Baton Rouge slightly reeling, but it frustrated LSU in the two teams’ last meeting at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators held the Tigers to its third-lowest point total on the season despite a 28-point, 17-rebound effort from Simmons.
However, freshman guard Antonio Blakeney isn’t specifically worried about the Gators (17-11, 8-7 SEC), ranked No. 42 in RPI, nor the final two games against Missouri and No. 16 Kentucky.
“I don’t think it really even matters who we play right now,” Blakeney said. “It’s the way we’re playing now, not who we play. Even if we play versus McNeese [State], we just got to get ourselves together. It doesn’t even matter what the team is or the talent of them. We have to get ourselves together.”
You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR