A Breakthrough Trip To Hawaii For The Tigers?
Only if they can keep moving forward and learn from learn from their predecessor’s mistakes
by Kent Lowe
Associate SID
Special to LSUsports.net
It was with great pride on the LSU Sports Network, sitting in on the basketball broadcasts from Honolulu, when I mustered up enough courage to say that “LSU was going to win a championship” when the victory over Fresno State in the Hawaii Thanksgiving Classic became apparent.
Granted, I was taking no chances. I learned my lesson on a previous trip to the islands when the Tigers faced Saint Louis in Honolulu and when LSU opened up a 10-0 lead midway through the second half I told Jim Hawthorne and the listening audience that “LSU is ready to put this game away in the win column.”
The next thing I knew, Saint Louis ran off 16 straight points, LSU was behind, I was screaming for a much-needed time out and when we went to break, the Voice of the Tigers looked at me and said, “Maybe that wasn’t quite the time to make that statement.”
No kidding, Jim.
So I wasn’t about to call the title ours too early, but you could sense it as the clock began to tick down in the second half. LSU over three days played the best basketball it as a team had played in several years and there was going to be an extra piece of hardware going back to the mainland to be displayed in the LSU basketball office.
Ah success. It can be so sweet. Believe me, it was pretty fun to watch as well.
Now, however, is where life begins to change for the LSU basketball team. Maybe it changes.
LSU has had some success. How will the players live with that success?. How will LSU play the next stretch of three games at home in eight days? Will they continue to play with the aggressiveness and desire that they showed in the first five games? If they do, then three wins should be available for the taking.
But what if LSU accepts its success, begins to think it is much better than the opponents, doesn’t work hard in practice and takes that attitude to the court.
Let me just state the following: Jackson State, 1995; Coppin State, 1994; Radford, 1993.
Those are three of the December losses that have haunted this basketball program. In some way you could include John Brady‘s Samford team in Dec. 1996 coming in as one of those games, although Brady’s Samford team was an outstanding group of players.
But all four games were contests LSU should have won and probably could have won with a little bit better effort.
The point being is that if LSU is not ready to play then this game becomes just another night when LSU was unable to handle the success of past wins and those become a wash. So these three games become very important on the grand scheme of things later down the road when the wins and losses are all added up.
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Random thoughts on the early part of the basketball season. . . .
You can argue this point back and forth all you want, but for my money, all one has to do to determine the worth of a weight and conditioning program is take a look at the LSU basketball team. Remember what Stromile Swift looked like playing his first SEC game after just two days of practice and take a look at him now after a summer of conditioning and weight training, fall four-player workouts and the practices and games to date and you see a whole different person.
Jabari Smith is in a better shape this year and in fact the whole team seems to be in better shape. Hopefully, that will translate to better finishes at the end of games. How many times in the last several years has LSU been unable to finish the game. Maybe this will be the year, some of those go in the right direction.
On another matter, if you hold it they will come. The tournament LSU played in may be the up and coming event in Hawaii at Thanksgiving. Played in an air-conditioned downtown arena in Honolulu, the Blaisdell Center is the perfect place to host a tournament of this type. Sports Tours International may have found a goldmine in only the second year of this tournament and having Larry Donald, the publisher of Basketball Times in town to write about it doesn’t hurt either. Next year, Georgetown, Minnesota, TCU and Central Florida are some of the teams coming to this event. If television gets a hold of this one, it could be Maui in the days before Thanksgiving and this event on the weekend. It makes a great idea.
Finally, a reminder that the Dec. 18 Sam Houston State game is an afternoon game, beginning at 2 p.m. This is one of two Saturday afternoon tilts which LSU will play at home this season. It is also the day LSU will honor the former basketball players and we will introduce them to you at halftime. It should be fun to see some of the guys who have left their mark on this program over the years.
Have fun, thanks for being here and as always, enjoy the games!!!!