LSU heads in final one-third of SEC schedule, takes on Georgia Wednesday

Wade always emphasizes to his team they need to win “the 6-minute game” which is a game’s final six minutes. Wade believes if you win the last 6 minutes, you’ll likely win the game.

This season in LSU’s 12 SEC games, the Tigers are 4-2 when they outscore opponents in the last 6 minutes, 2-3 when they are outscored by opponents in the last 6 minutes and 0-1 when scoring the same amount as an opponent in the last 6 minutes.

Now, Wade is staring at another 6, such as 6 games left in the regular season with three on the road and three at home, starting with Wednesday’s SEC battle vs. Georgia (6-19, 1-1) at 6 (there's that number again) p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Tigers (18-7 overall) are coming off a 69-65 Saturday home win over Mississippi State. It marked the first time since the second week of January that LSU won two consecutive games after the-then 15-1 Tigers were sent tumbling with that losing skid.

“We’re two thirds of the way through (the 18-game SEC regular season schedule),” Wade said. “People come for the ending of the movie, so we’ve got to finish it off strong. We've got to get off to a good start and do what we can do to put ourselves in position here down the stretch."

Wade is 15-9 in the final 6 games of the season in his first four years guiding the Tigers, going 11-2 at home and 4-7 on the road. He was 3-3 in his first season in 2017-18, 5-1 in 2018-19, 3-3 in 2019-20 and 4-2 last season.

LSU is a 6-point favorite over Georgia, the last-place team in the SEC. The Bulldogs only SEC win was an 82-76 home decision over Alabama on Jan. 25. Less than two weeks ago, Georgia nearly upset then-No. 1 Auburn in a heartbreaking 74-72 home loss.

No team in the SEC had a bigger off-season renovation than Georgia. The Bulldogs, 14-12 overall and 7-11 in the SEC last season when they split a pair of games with LSU and averaged 91½ points against the Tigers, had nine players transfer out and six players transfer in.

In last Saturday’s 80-68 loss at South Carolina, the Bulldogs only had nine players dressed out. Forward Tyron McMillan was out with an injury and forward Josh Taylor didn’t play because of an illness. It was Georgia’s fifth straight loss.

“I just don’t think you can (get frustrated),” said Georgia fourth-year coach Tom Crean, who’s 1-4 vs. LSU. “I think you have to tell the truth. I think you have to tell your team the truth, which I do, but I think you also have to have a really strong belief, which I do.”

Wade has had to also keep the faith, especially when his team plummeted when starting senior point guard Xavier Pinson missed six games with a sprained knee.

With Missouri transfer Pinson almost fully healed and back in the starting lineup the last two games against Texas A&M and Mississippi State, it’s no coincidence LSU beat the Aggies and the Bulldogs. Not only did Pinson’s calm floor leadership settle the Tigers for long stretches, but Wade was able to return to the starting lineup and playing rotation that got LSU off to one of its best season-starts in school history.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who want to do a lot of things,” said Pinson, who has transformed from a shoot-first point guard at Missouri (averaging 13.6 points, 2.9 assists and 11.2 field goal attempts last season) to a pass-first point guard for LSU (averaging 9.9 points, 4 assists and 7.9 field goal attempts this season). “Me trying to be a dead-on scorer does nothing for us. We had to ask somebody to lead us and put us in the right spots so we can score. I came here to win the championship or championships. I really don't care about what I can do. I really care about what I can do to help the next person.”

While everybody has benefited from Pinson’s floor leadership, Pinson has had a huge role helping Tari Eason blossom from a non-descript freshman last season for Cincinnati into a sensation sophomore forward who leads LSU in scoring averaging 16.6 points.

Wade said Pinson gets the ball to Eason in “the right spots at the right time. . .everything's timing.”