Anthony Hickey and No. 7 seed LSU go through their workout Wednesday ahead of 10th-seeded Alabama on Thursday at the Georgia Dome.
ATLANTA, Ga. — Good day from the lovely bowels of the Georgia Dome, where LSU is wrapping down a 45-minute workout as the No. 7-seeded Tigers prepare to face 10th-seeded Alabama at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Before taking to the floor, the Tigers and coach Johnny Jones spent roughly 10 minutes fielding questions from a small clutch of reporters. There’s not much new to pass along, but a few snippets will do.
Aiming for atonement
The question was about how LSU would fare in a fairly sterile dome environment, where there may be empty seats and a low decibel level, but Andre Stringer opened a slight crack to peer into the Tigers’’ psyche.
“Everybody’s excited, especially knowing how rocky our season was,” he said. “Some games we didn’t do as well in, and we’re anxious to play.”
Perhaps it’s solely a function of the bracket, but LSU may be a viable darkhorse — second only to Tennessee — to reel off a couple of victories and venture into the weekend.
The Tigers played well at the Old Spice Classic during Thanksgiving week, where they handled Saint Joseph’s, let a lead fritter away against Memphis and then rallied in overtime for third place in a victory over Butler. That’s about the best gauge we have. The SEC schedule makers kept LSU from handling the dreaded task of three games in six days.
Granted, LSU may have little choice, either. Entering the day, they sat at No. 75 in the RPI, per CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm, and a loss to Alabama could send them tumbling into the low 90s. Under that scenario, it’s hard to see the Tigers making the 32-team field in the NIT. Downing Bama is a way to stave off that outcome.
One could argue the path after Bama is potentially favorable, too. LSU came within 3.9 seconds and a Julius Randle putback in overtime of a season sweep of Kentucky. Moreover, LSU has the size along its front line to match up with the Wildcats. After that, there are potential semifinal opponents in Ole Miss, Georgia or Vanderbilt. The Tigers let a four-point lead melt in an overtime loss to the Rebels, but had a chance to win in the final two minutes. They swept the Commodores, but went 0-2 against the Bulldogs.
As could be expected, though, LSU didn’t deviate much from the same strain of thinking they usually employ.
“We just got to take it one game at a time,” forward Johnny O’Bryant III said. “This is a four game season now. … You know you get one win, then you move on to the next, that’s how you handle business down here.”
So the Tigers aren’t interested in rehashing the loss in Oxford. Or rallying back from a 19-point deficit before losing at Alabama. Or one of their worst defensive outings in an 83-73 loss at Texas A&M. Or letting two leads inside the final two minutes of regulation and overtime slip away in Lexington.
If the Tigers had split those four games, they’d likely sit at 11-7 right now in the standings, and be positioned to either nab a NCAA tournament bid or improve their seeding in the field of 68.
The only way that happens now staying through Sunday.
“Everybody will be vying and playing and trying to put themselves in a position of these next few days to win the championship, cut down nets and, hopefully, at some point hang banners,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said. “We happen to be one of those teams.”
Cracking the zone
Alabama’s identity is rooted on the defensive end of the floor, and the Tide’s approach stymied LSU in their first meeting this season.
Bama switched between 1-3-1 and 2-3 looks at junctures, and tried to orient its looks to take away looks in the short corner and at the high post — both places where LSU’s big men can catch the ball or play in high-low action.
Granted, LSU has also tended to start poorly on the road in SEC play. In six of their nine road games, the Tigers have shot under 37.5 percent in the first half. So, it’s probably best to view the Tide’s effort in the frame of the Tigers’ inability to get off to fast starts away from Baton Rouge.
Still, the Tigers will have to find a way to adjust.
“They have done a great job in terms of trying to guard the interior, trying to make you play up over the top and make sure that they put Johnny in traffic,” Jones said. “You have to make sure you shoot the ball well against them from the perimeter.
That’s true, but O’Bryant finished with 18 points on 6 of 11 shooting, while Jordan Mickey added 11 points and six rebounds.
Inside Coleman Coliseum, LSU’s guards did a solid enough job. Anthony Hickey and Andre Stringer combined for 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting, including 3 of 8 from behind the 3-point arc.
Switching into the press to force turnovers and get into the open floor helped LSU’s offense in the second half, too. The Tigers scored 57 points and shot 58.8 percent after halftime and managed to claw back into the game.
Still, Jones’ point remains: If the Tigers can stretch the Tide, it will create more room inside for O’Bryant to work and Mickey to dive cut from the elbow or spot for jump shots.
“You make it a little bit more difficult for them to stay back in their defense,” Jones said.
Is focus enough?
By now, the Tigers’ struggles defensively are well known.
Entering the SEC tournament, LSU ranks 12th in conference for points allowed (71.3 per game), seventh in field-goal defense (.409) and are 13th in 3-point field goal defense (.361) this season.
Away from the PeteMaravichAssemblyCenter, those figures are, well, they’re not pretty. LSU is letting opponents score 78.3 points and shoot 45.6 percent. They’ve also let foes knock down 44.0 percent of their 3-point attempts, giving up over 7.3 of them per game.
The question is whether the Tigers can find a solution.
“It’s just effort,” O’Bryant said. “You know what you got to do. You play a team twice already maybe this will be your third time, you know what you got to do. It’s just about just mentally ready and just going out and executing.”
Whether that heartens your faith in the Tigers, though, is up to you.
