LSU Gymnastics hopes to defend the crown as NCAA Tournament begins

After an incredible regular season, which was followed by their second consecutive SEC championship, the Tigers earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Their 198.115 NQS helped them gain the top spot over Oklahoma (198.040) in the final week to get the one-seed.

LSU will hit the road and travel to Pennsylvania for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament (technically second and third because the NCAA counts the play-in as "round one"). They will battle it out with No. 16 Arkansas, Michigan and the winner of the Maryland/West Virginia play-in with the top-two teams advancing to the Regional Final.

On the other side of their region, No. 8 Michigan State and No. 9 Kentucky headline the action. They're joined by Ohio State and Penn State with the top-two finishers moving on to the four-team Regional Final on Saturday. The top-two teams from that meet with then advance to the semifinals.

If the Tigers were to advance through the first two rounds of the tournament, they would matchup with the bottom left side of the bracket, which includes No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, No. 12 Minnesota, No. 13 Stanford and other non-ranked schools. Just like before, the top-two teams from each semifinal advance to the four-team finals.

The Tigers and Sooners enter the NCAA Tournament as the favorites to win it all. Oklahoma was the top-ranked team in the country for most of the year, but LSU got hot and have now taken over that top spot. Before any tournament action, LSU ranks first on vault, second on the uneven bars, fifth on balance beam and third on floor. The Sooners are third, first, first and first respectively.

After those two, Florida, Utah, UCLA, Cal and Missouri seem to be the only other real contenders. There's a decent size drop off from Missouri at seven and Michigan State at eight, but that doesn't mean LSU can lay down and take it easy in these first couple of rounds.

We haven't spoken with LSU Head Coach, Jay Clark, in a while, but it appears some Tigers are still dealing with some injuries. Olivia Dunne is out with a knee fracture; Kaliya Lincoln has been dealing with a shoulder injury, but should be good to go; KJ Johnson will likely only perform on vault and not on floor; and Konnor McClain doesn't seem likely to add anymore events this week. Alyona Shchennikova should be good to go if they want to call on her. Things could change since we haven't got an injury update in a while, but that's where I believe they stand as of today.

It should be a very entertaining tournament. The schedule is a bit wonky, but they'll compete on Thursday and Saturday this week, and if they advance, they won't go again until April 17th - April 19th for the semis and finals.

Can LSU defend their crown? I think they have a really good shot at it, but Oklahoma, Florida and Utah will be there to capitalize on any little mistake they make.

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