I have always been told to never let a golden opportunity pass me by.
Tonight, John Brady and the LSU men’s basketball team have an opportunity to play and beat a Top 10 team at the PMAC for the third time this season when the Tigers host coach Billy Donovan and the No. 5 Florida Gators (16-2, 5-0 Southeastern Conference).
Top 10 teams have not phased LSU this season. Top-ranked Arizona and then-No. 7 Mississippi State both fell at the hands of Brady’s Bunch in Baton Rouge.
But the Tigers (12-5, 1-4) are stuck in a nasty funk right now having lost their last three SEC games, and if they do not play better tonight, the Gators will shoot LSU out of its own gym.
LSU has a chance to salvage the sinking ship tonight and make a statement on national television against one of the best teams in college basketball.
This is the Tigers’ golden opportunity.
LSU should not lack motivation or inspiration against the Gators. Over the last four seasons, Florida has owned LSU on the court, and most of the Gators’ victories have been romps.
The last time the Tigers beat the Gators was in John Brady’s first season at LSU in the 1997-98 season. Brady and the Tigers finished 9-18 and 2-14 in the SEC that season.
In 1999-00, the year LSU advanced to the Sweet 16, Stromile Swift and the Tigers fell to the Gators on the road, 82-57.
The Tigers lost a heartbreaker to the Gators the following year 81-74 in an overtime game that still baffles me to this day.
LSU, represented by the same base group of players — Ronald Dupree, Collis Temple III and Torris Bright — carried an 11-11 record and were 1-9 in the SEC while Florida ranked No. 11 in the country and sported a 16-5 mark, 6-4 in the SEC.
Down to five scholarship players, the Tigers played a hell of a game and gave one of their more inspirational performances of the year that night, dominating the Gators for most of the game.
But Florida roared back from a 10-point deficit in the final minutes with the aid of some controversial calls and escaped with an overtime win.
Last season’s matchup at Florida resulted in disaster for LSU. The Gators trounced the Tigers, 102-70, in a game that also featured Brady’s first ejection as head coach at LSU.
At one point Brady appeared so steamed with the officials, he raised his knees to his chest, put both feet on the edge of his chair and screamed.
After the game, Brady admitted he did not watch the rest of the game from the locker room after his ejection. Instead, he decided to take a walk around the Florida campus.
“In fact, I walked outside and walked around campus,” Brady said. “It’s a pretty campus, but it was a little chilly outside.”
If the Tigers fall to Florida, the road does not get any easier with a road game against Alabama Saturday.
LSU, who now dwells in last place in the SEC West, might consider adopting a saying Nick Saban likes to pull out of the bag every now and then.
As the head football coach would say, it’s time to get pissed off.
Hell, it might just turn things around for a basketball team not playing up to its potential over the last few games.
The opportunity certainly is there for LSU. All the Tigers have to do is seize it.