BATON ROUGE — After closing out the 2001-02 season ranked No. 22 in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, the 2002-03 Lady Tiger basketball team has already begun receiving recognition, earning a national ranking of No 7 in the womenscollegehoops.com “Very Early Bird” poll released Tuesday.
For the fourth straight season, the Lady Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2001-02, despite playing with just seven players after being ravaged by injuries. As a sixth seed, LSU defeated 13th-seeded Santa Clara in the first round but fell to third-seeded Colorado in the second round.
The 2002-03 Lady Tiger team will return all seven players from last season and regain senior All-American candidate DeTrina White, who redshirted last season due to injury. Kisha James will return for her senior season after missing most of last season with a torn ACL sustained in the eighth game of the year.
LSU will also regain the use of Wendlyn Jones, who went down with a torn ACL before the 2001-02 regular season began, and Tillie Willis, who tore an ACL late in the season. Florence Williams will become eligible for the Lady Tigers after sitting out last season and signee Treynell Clavelle will be a welcome addition to the frontcourt.
Duke transfer Crystal White will become eligible in December to round out the current Lady Tiger roster.
LSU posted three wins over top 25 teams last season, defeating then-No. 18 Florida by 25 points, the Gators’ worst loss at that point in the season. The Lady Tigers also defeated No. 6 South Carolina at home and No. 3 Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinal game.
LSU is one of only two Southeastern Conference schools and one of only eight programs in the country to be ranked in both the final AP and ESPN polls in each of the last four years. SEC rival Tennessee, along with national champion Connecticut, Duke, Louisiana Tech, Purdue, Texas Tech and Old Dominion are the only other schools to accomplish this feat.
This is the third year that womenscollegehoops.com has published the “Very Early Bird” poll. Last April, the poll accurately predicted the Final Four field from the NCAA Tournament this March.