by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
One win, in the grand scheme of wins, usually does not a basketball season make.
So far, LSU women’s basketball coach Sue Gunter and her team have 17 wins, seven of those in Southeastern Conference play. But with her team eyeing the SEC and NCAA tournaments, Gunter said her Lady Tigers need to improve those records to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in conference play.
“Sitting at 7-3 in the conference, we can live with that.” Gunter said. “But we need at least one more win and I’d love to have two of these.”
The road to that often elusive final win of the season will be a tough one, Gunter said, with three of LSU’s last four games on the road and its only home game against No.2 ranked Tennessee.
The Lady Tigers travel to Nashville to take on 20th-ranked Vanderbilt Thursday before returning home for the Tennessee showdown Sunday, Feb. 18. Then its back on the road for the final two regular season games, the first at ninth-ranked Florida on Feb. 22 then South Carolina Feb, 25. The SEC Tournament begins March 1 in Memphis.
“Where we are right now is tough when you think about us having just one home game left and it’s against Tennessee,” Gunter said. “Vanderbilt will be tough to beat at home and so will Florida and South Carolina. The only thing we can do is take them the proverbial one day at time and try to do the best we can.”
But Gunter said she is confident because she believes her team’s “best” is better than it has been at any other time this season. The Lady Tigers have fought through a string of injuries which have cut starters out of the line-up in almost every game this year.
Senior forward April Brown was sidelined early in conference play with a knee injury. Freshman forward Roneeka Hodges has played with an injured foot. Sophomore forward Ke-Ke Tardy has played through a nagging knee injury while junior center DeTrina White continues to struggle with an injured back.
Despite the nagging aches and pains, all four Lady Tigers should be in the line-up against Vanderbilt. Still, Gunter said her team is not out of the woods yet.
“We are still fighting the injuries and I don’t think the weight of all those injuries has been lifted yet,” she said. “But at least now we have more of a chance. The injuries are subsiding and we have a decent nine-man rotation and it relieves some of the pressure. At least we don’t feel like we’re playing with one hand tied behind our back.”
Gunter said with its nine-man rotation she feels like her team can challenge any team in the SEC, something she hasn’t been confident of all season. The Lady Tigers had a losing record after their first five games of the year, dropping decisions to three top-20 teams.
“Some of the early losses don’t sit well with us,” she said.
Since then, however, the Lady Tigers have lost just three games. According to Gunter, only one of those losses, a 65-62 defeat at the hands of Auburn on Feb., 4, was a game the Lady Tigers should have won. LSU’s tow other conference losses were an 89-70 loss to Tennessee on Jan., 4 and a 64-55 loss to fifth-ranked Georgia Jan., 18.
“I can live with 7-3 in the conference and hopefully we can get one or two more in the regular season and a tournament win,” she said. “We are in good position, but we just got to find a way to get one more. Then, I’ll feel good about it.”