By David Steinle
Special to LSUsports.net
When the final buzzer sounded on Sunday at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, the LSU Lady Tigers could finally be called SEC champions for the first time in 12 long years.
Any lingering doubt as to whether or not this year’s edition of the Lady Tigers are the best in coach Sue Gunter‘s 21 years in Baton Rouge should have been removed a month ago, but Sunday’s 78-62 masterpiece over the Big Orange Dynasty, a.k.a. the Tennessee Lady Vols, must vanquish the doubters once and for all.
Here was an LSU team completing the most magnificent three-day run in the program’s 29-year history, systematically taking out the three teams that had defeated it during the regular season, something rarely, if ever, seen in the annals of LSU’s 110-year athletic history — and maybe never to be duplicated again.
First, it was Arkansas on the home floor away from the home floor, as the Lady Tigers overcame a lot of Hog Hats, hog calls and downright tense moments to defeat the Lady’Backs for the second time in eight days, this time by a 78-72 count. Many LSU fans may not insist Arkansas is a rival, but don’t go telling that to Gunter, her players or Gary Blair and his players. Two games a year plus a memorable contest like the one on Friday may change some fans’ minds.
Next was a tall order — literally. Vanderbilt has probably the best inside combination in the women’s game in Jenni Bennigfield, the emerging Commodore power forward, and all-everything center Chantelle Anderson. But LSU countered with possibly the best player to ever don a Lady Tiger uniform — SEC (and possibly soon to be national) Freshman of the Year Seimone Augustus, and the Lady Tigers, a 78-69 victor, were in the final, bringing the much-anticipated rematch with Pat Summitt’s bunch to fruition.
The rematch almost didn’t happen, saved only after Kara Lawson went up and under a pair of Mississippi State defenders one second left to keep the Lady Bulldogs winless against the Lady Vols — the only remaining “goose egg” of the five major SEC team sports (football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball).
Lawson, as Lady Tiger fans painfully recall, sat the bench for a large chunk of the second half in Baton Rouge, but came off the bench and proved to be the difference maker in the Lady Vols’ 68-65 victory, and with a 19-game winning streak, Tennessee appeared to have all the intangibles in its corner.
A 7-0 run to start a championship game can demoralize any team, especially a team like Tennessee that isn’t used to them. Unlike the earlier meeting, LSU ran out in front and stayed there, keeping the Lady Vols at bay every time it appeared Tennessee might make one of its patented runs. A 17-point halftime lead never shrank under double figures in the second half as LSU cruised home and cut down the nets on the banks of the Arkansas River.
Twelve years after its last SEC tournament championship, much in the world has changed, but some things have stayed the same.
Alas, there is a major difference between the circumstances forcing the Tigers to the road this time than there were in 1991.
In 1991, LSU’s tournament championship earned the Lady Tigers, led by then-All-America point guard, now associate head coach Pokey Chatman, a number two seed in the Midwest Regional. Time to get the PMAC ready for the Big Dance right?
There was a tall figure in the PMAC that weekend … problem was that it was Big Bird. The powers that be in charge of the PMAC’s scheduling determined that booking Sesame Street Live months in advance should take precedence over the potential exploits of the LSU women’s basketball team, leaving the Lady Tigers as nomads.
Many LSU fans know the rest of the story. LSU was sent packing three hours down Interstate 10 to Beaumont to face seventh-seeded Lamar, who giddily parlayed their unexpected home game into a 93-73 rout.
The Lady Tigers wouldn’t dance again for six years after that disappointing St. Patrick’s Day, but now with a sixth NCAA tournament appearance in seven years in hand and a first No. 1 seed virtually signed, sealed and delivered, the Lady Tigers again find themselves with an SEC Tournament trophy in the case and a road trip awaiting them.
This year, though, at least the Lady Tigers knew what the deal would be before the first basketball was bounced at practice on October 12.
Call this year bad timing if you will. Had the calendar read 2002 or earlier, LSU would already be making plans to host three NCAA Tournament games in a three-day stretch.
LSU hosted, and won, sub-regionals in 1997, 1999 and 2000, all with LSU teams that were fine clubs in their own right, but with nowhere near the limitless potential of this year’s group. The three previous years that LSU hosted, few, if any office pool players outside of Louisiana’s borders probably had LSU in their Final Four. This year, those who don’t pick LSU in their office pools might be making a terrible mistake.
Gunter, and everyone else in the women’s game knew the day for choosing advance sites for the first and second rounds for the women’s tournament was coming. It just so happened in a cruel twist of fate that 2003 was the first year to implement the plan.
Only the two SEC schools most synonymous with women’s basketball success, Tennessee and Georgia, were accorded the right to host first and second-round NCAA Tournament games, along with 14 other campuses.
The focus now is on the quest to reach the Final Four in Atlanta, the site of another improbable Tiger victory, the 2001 SEC football championship game title over — you guessed it — the Big Orange Nation of Knoxville. This time, though, an invasion of purple and gold won’t be quite so surprising.
Pat Summitt, the only coach to lead her team into every NCAA tournament since the body began to sanction the women’s tournament in 1982, has a simple motto for the tournament — “Survive and Advance”. The Lady Tigers will find out just what this means in the coming weeks, their first tournament as a No. 1 seed.
A No. 1 seed is a tremendous honor, no doubt, but that reward carries a heavy, heavy bull’s-eye on that team’s back. The other three teams who will more than likely be No. 1s — Connecticut, Duke and Tennessee — have been there, done that. All three have played for the title, and of course, Connecticut and Tennessee have combined for nine of the 21 NCAA championships.
A first-time No. 1 seed might feel the pressure more so than an experienced No. 1 seed, but then again, this group of Lady Tigers is a team that has handled every challenge thrown at it and then some; therefore, they probably won’t feel that burden. Remember, Augustus has had the target on her back from day one of her high school career, and combined with the veteran leadership of Smith, Tardy, the Hodges twins and TJ, LSU thrives on pressure.
Of course, the question that is on everyone’s mind is, “Where will the Lady Tigers go?” The answer is, your guess is as good as anybody else’s right now, but the smart money is pointing west — all the way to Eugene, Ore., which will be without a host team due to the poor season turned in by Ducks. Raleigh will be without a host because of North Carolina State’s unexpected slide, but with Duke in the Wolfpack’s back yard, the Blue Devils are a lock to stay at home.
There have been some thoughts of a return to Boulder, Colo., site of last year’s tourney loss to Colorado, or a trip to Cincinnati, but Eugene seems the most likely spot. Most of the other host sites — including Knoxville, Athens, Manhattan (Kansas, not the Big Apple), State College, and yes, Ruston, will have the host team in action, definitely not a fair shake to a No. 1 seed.
Then again, this is the NCAA. Any organization that can send the nation’s third-ranked softball team on the road for a regional or seed a 22-23 baseball team ahead of a team with 40 wins has to be watched with a wary eye.
We could go on and on about the combinations and permutations about who will go where, but let’s wait until the brackets have been finalized to discuss it. It’s a great discussion that will get its full allotment of time starting on Sunday around 4:30 p.m.
Yes, it would have been much nicer to host two games. But the anticipation and guessing who, where and when you’ll play next are all a part of the special feeling that is March Madness.