New life for a team that confounds.
And its only player with NCAA Tournament experience was quite frank about LSU’s task starting Thursday in Pittsburgh when it plays NC State.
“There’s no excuse for us not to,” Keith Hornsby said. “If we don’t play to the best of our abilities in this game serious questions have to be asked, because this is what we wanted all year.
“This is what we worked so hard for from the beginning of the year, from preseason throughout practices throughout all the ups and downs of this year. It all comes to this point, so we should take everything we’ve learned from this year, put it into this game and hopefully the results will show.”
Understand, of course, that the Tigers, while 22-10 overall, went 11-7 in Southeastern Conference play, which includes an end to the regular season that saw them win three in a row, but then lose at home to Tennessee, before finishing the regular season with a key win at Arkansas. It was that victory that might have kept them out of the so-called play-in game that Ole Miss had to win Tuesday night by rallying from 17 down against BYU.
For that matter, after LSU went one-and-done in the SEC Tournament by falling to Auburn in overtime, there were no guarantees.
But now the Tigers are in, scheduled for around 8:20 p.m. CT on TBS, with a chance to exorcise some of the disappointments of an up-and-down season that left you wondering which LSU team you would see on a given night.
“We definitely can be up and down sometimes,” admitted Jarell Martin, the sophomore star of the team. “We don’t come out with that fire every night and now we have to come together as a team and realize that at any moment we can go home. So we have to play our best.”
Such is the nature of March Madness, because your NCAA Tournament trip only lasts as long as you win. To take it all, a team has to win six in a row (assuming you don’t have to win seven because you were relegated to the play-in). LSU did that once this season, winning eight straight to close pre-conference play. And it won three in a row twice during the SEC season, most recently that late-season streak that included victories over Florida, Auburn and Ole Miss.
Oddly enough, in league play this season LSU went 5-4 at home and 6-3 on the road.
“We’re a team that’s capable,” Martin said. “We’ve played with the best. We lost to Kentucky by two, we best some tough teams and we’re a team that’s capable of winning each night. If we have the mindset and come out prepared we can be unstoppable.”
Certainly LSU has had moments like that this season. That’s why Hornsby, the junior guard who transferred from UNC Asheville and lost as a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament as a freshman, is optimistic.
“We’ve played against some of the top-tier teams all year and performed well against them, including obviously Kentucky,” Hornsby said, “and West Virginia and Arkansas. Those teams can compete against anybody and we can as well. We’ve proven that and on this stage I don’t see why we can’t play up to our fullest potential right now. We have no excuses otherwise.”
That was generally the mindset among the Tigers as they prepared for the school’s first NCAA trip since 2009. LSU went to the 1981 Final Four with a team that was loaded, but then became the lowest seeded team ever when it made the 1986 Final Four, both times under coach Dale Brown. And in 2006 the Tigers again defied all odds by making it under coach John Brady.
In the recent past, upstarts have rattled the bracket on an annual basis, from George Mason joining LSU in 2006 to the appearances of Butler and VCU to Wichita State two years ago to No. 7 seed Connecticut winning it all last year.
So clearly anything can happen in the next two weeks, especially for a team with the elements you need to succeed in March. LSU plays defense and ranked fourth in the SEC in scoring margin, it has a star in Martin (16.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg), reliable outside shooting in Hornsby (13.6 ppg, team-high 70 3-pointers) and a do-the-dirty-work guy in sophomore Jordan Mickey, the SEC leader in rebounding (9.8 rpg) and blocks (107, 27 more than the next closest). What’s more, he also is third in shooting percentage (.511). The variables then become the ballhandlers and other outside shooters in sophomore Tim Quarterman, freshman Jalyn Patterson, getting key minutes from junior guard Josh Gray.
A year ago at this time LSU was on the outside looking in, playing in the NIT.
“It was a bad feeling,” Quarterman said. “I didn’t want to watch basketball. It just motivates you as a player.”
“It hurt,” Mickey admitted. “We were all a little hurt. We could have done more for our chances.
“Now we’re definitely excited.”
Those inconsistencies of this season?
“I can’t really pinpoint it,” Mickey said. “We just need to take every game the same and approach every game like the Kentucky game. We need the mindset like it’s our last game because any game could be our last.”
In the case of Mickey and Martin, that could be literally, because there is plenty of speculation that one or both could leave for the NBA Draft.
“This means a lot,” Martin said. “This is everyone’s dream. This is a big honor and we can’t wait to get it going.”
And nothing fancy if the opportunity arises. Martin, you’ll recall, had one of the most spectacular dunks of the college season this past Feb. 21 when LSU was tied with Florida 26-26. Martin had a breakaway and took the ball between his legs and went up for the slam, that left everyone agog and made every possible highlight tape that night.
So, if he’s open against NC State?
Martin laughed.
“Oh, no, I won’t try to do those plays right now,” he said. “One hand or two hands, just make the simple play.”