LSU’s NCAA Tournament goals were broadcast repeatedly over the course of the fall.
The Tigers are out of wiggle room.
Matt McMahon elevated the program to a 9-9 SEC record in 2023-24, and he was quick to tell anyone who would listen that, while that was a nice step, it wasn’t the final one.
“We didn’t come to LSU to go to the NIT,” he said.
That’s true.
His team, on paper, was ready to surpass last season’s efforts and play in The Big Dance.
Cam Carter came over from a program that had reached an Elite 8 during his time. Jordan Sears was the only returning player in the county with 650 points,140 rebounds,140 assists and 75 made three-pointers last season. Dji Bailey would bring a veteran toughness and defensive stopper.
Jalen Reed and Tyrell Ward were back for a third season, and a top 15 recruiting class was entering the fold.
The non-conference provided a little bit of fool’s gold. Kansas State is 9-11 on the season. Florida State has lost three in a row and is 4-6 in ACC play. Those were the “flashy” LSU wins.
Stil, there were no significant slip ups. The pre-conference resume was clean if unspectacular.
The first month of league play was a disaster. And now LSU sits 1-6 in the conference without Reed, Ward or much hope to make a late season push.
The team turns the ball over more generously than an Oprah giveaway special. Their defensive rebounding is totally inept, and the three-point shooting has woefully underperformed. Plus, the frontcourt isn’t much of an offensive threat.
Other than that, Mary Todd Lincoln has really enjoyed the play.
Still, the strength of the SEC and LSU’s reasonable non-conference slate meant that a 7-11 record might be good enough for a tournament look. That was true on January 1, and it’s true today.
At 1-6, that means LSU would need to finish 6-5 over the final 11. If there is any prayer of that happening, it’s time. As brutal as the conference is, this next stretch of six games represents the softest spot on the LSU docket.
It begins with Texas who only has one conference road win to its name. The Longhorns are coming to the Assembly Center at 3-5 in league play.
Next up is a trip to Georgia who is also 3-5 in the league and has lost four of five games. The Bulldogs’ lone win in that stretch came against winless South Carolina.
Ole Miss returns LSU’s trip to Oxford by visiting LSU next Saturday. That’s no picnic, but it’s in Baton Rouge.
The next two are on the road, but they’re at Arkansas and Oklahoma who are a combined 3-11 in the league. Then the winless Gamecocks come to town.
Texas.
At Georgia.
Ole Miss.
At Arkansas
At Oklahoma.
South Carolina.
LSU has to win four of the six at a minimum. If they can win four, they’ll sit at 5-8 with five brutally difficult games to play. That’s in striking distance.
The Tigers played Alabama and Auburn tough. Those teams outclass everyone in this stretch but Ole Miss.
McMahon’s team really grew up in January of last year and played 4-4 basketball in February including wins over Kentucky and South Carolina who both went 13-5 in the SEC and went to the NCAA tournament.
This team has shown no such signs of life to this point in league play. Their odds of picking things up now seem to be slim and none, and slim has his bags packed and loaded.
Saturday LSU will honor a team that created something out of nothing. From 1996-1999, LSU went 13-51 in SEC play. The 1999-2000 Tigers went 12-4 in the league and made the Sweet 16. Stromile Swift, Jabari Smith and Ronald Dupree won’t be suiting up on Saturday, though I’m sure McMahon would take a few minutes from all of them. Those Tigers engineered a turnaround, and that’s the task LSU’s current roster undertakes now.
But it must start now.
