When LSU takes on No. 10 Texas A&M at 8 p.m. Tuesday in College Station, Texas, Keith Hornsby will be reveling in the adversity.
The Tiger senior guard loves the trash talk from an opposing crowd in full throat, sitting right on top of the floor as he catches a pass on the wing. He loves the different venues the Southeastern Conference offers, including the Aggies’ Reed Arena. He loves the pressure that comes with taking big shots and the silence that follows when he nails them.
He embraces road games so much he couldn’t figure out why he played so much better away from the PMAC last season.
“It was night and day,” Hornsby said. “It was weird. It was a tough thing to get over psychologically.”
But it wasn’t just Hornsby who played with a different psyche against ranked opponents in hostile environments. The 2014-15 Tigers won their first true road game of the season at No. 16 West Virginia and — with an NCAA Tournament seeding on the line — won their last true away game at No. 18 Arkansas.
In a season where LSU finished 8-3 in true road games, both of those victories required game-winning baskets, including Hornsby’s corner 3-pointer against the Razorbacks as time expired. This season, though, the
Tigers have just one win away from home in six attempts, including the two losses at a neutral site for the Legends Classic in November.
Hornsby and company will point to the toughnes and togetherness the Tigers displayed in an eight-point win at Vanderbilt, but their road momentum didn’t carry over into a six-point loss at Florida a week later.
While last year’s team recorded a signature road win against the Mountaineers well before conference play began, the 2015-16 team hasn’t notched a similar achievement, making the contest against Texas A&M that much more important.
“Last year, we were more focused early on on the road,” said sophomore guard Jalyn Patterson. “This year, we played a lot more home games to start the season. We really didn’t have a chance to really prove ourselves on the road.”
Despite inconsistency throughout the season, LSU is playing for sole possession of first place in the SEC. Against an opponent who is 10-0 at home and riding an eight-game winning streak, the task is as great as it has been all season.
Frankly, LSU has to learn to win on the road to build on a résumé devoid of many quality wins. Without that, LSU can only hope to be somewhere near .500 in conference play, coach Johnny Jones said.
“You’d go 9-9, at best, in league play,” Jones said. “We’ve done that before [in 2013 and 2014]. You have to display the ability to win on the road, which we’ve done at Vanderbilt — a team that was picked [to finish] second in the league. I thought our guys performed at a great level to do that. But it’s very difficult to get to where you need to be if you can’t win on the road.”
For sophomore forward Craig Victor II, the key against the Aggies and other opponents away from home is something that has to be done from the opening tip.
“On the road, like I said, you have to generate your own energy because no one is really pulling for you,” Victor said. “All our fans are here back in Louisiana. We just have to find a way to create our own fueling station so we can win games on the road.”