NASHVILLE – When No. 1 seed LSU takes the Bridgestone Arena court Friday at 12 noon for its SEC Tournament opener against Florida, the Tigers are expecting the worst possible reception imaginable.
“It’s going to be vicious at some point,” Tremont Waters, the Tigers’ first-team All-SEC guard, said earlier this week.
Combine the fact LSU was the regular season league champ and that Tigers’ coach Will Wade remains suspended for refusing to meet with LSU officials about his alleged role in a federally-investigated recruiting scandal. The result is the Tigers have been painted by the rest of the SEC and nation as a team of bad guys playing for a renegade coach and program.
“I like the fact we’ve also got to be referred to as champions,” LSU junior guard Skylar Mays said with a knowing smile. “We’re the No. 1 seed, we put ourselves in good position and we earned it.”
That’s an indisputable fact. The No. 9 ranked Tigers, 26-5 overall and 16-2 in the SEC in winning their 11th league championship, has overcome just about every obstacle in its way this season. And they've done it with an almost all-new roster.
The preseason murder of teammate Wayde Sims made every other challenge the Tigers have faced this season pale in comparison, even having to enter postseason play without Wade and Javonte Smart. The freshman guard from Baton Rouge continues to be withheld from competition in connection with Wade’s case.
LSU interim coach Tony Benford, who guided the Tigers to an 80-59 win last Saturday in the regular-season finale, hasn’t seen any change in team demeanor.
“They’ve gone through a lot of adversity, but they have stayed together through it all,” said Benford as the Tigers entered Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym early Thursday afternoon for practice. “They’ve tried to block out the outside noise. They are brothers (with the guy) to the right and to the left with the leadership of Tremont Waters and Skylar Mays.
“We play together, we stay together. We narrow our focus on the task at hand and take it one day at a time.”
It’s actually the way LSU has approached the entire season, something Wade emphasized before and after every game win or lose.
The Tigers haven’t let the euphoria of big victories, especially going 9-0 in SEC road play, linger too long. The two home overtime losses to Arkansas and Florida were also digested the same way.
LSU is 5-2 in a school-record seven games that have gone to overtime this season. Two of those matchups were against Florida, an 82-77 loss in Baton Rouge on Feb. 20 and a 79-78 win at Florida last Wednesday.
The Gators (18-14, 9-9 SEC) earned another shot at the Tigers by beating Arkansas 66-50 in Thursday’s second round.
“I feel like they're (LSU) just a hard-working team, just like us,” said Florida forward Keyontae Johnson, who scored a game-high 20 points in the win over the Razorbacks. "They're going to run. We're going to run. It's a great matchup overall on the court. I feel like both teams can score and get stops. It's going to be a great game once again.”
Florida coach Mike White said he’ll briefly touch with his team on LSU’s situation of playing without Wade and possibly without Smart.
“It will be a 30-second conversation,” White said. “(Then it's) let's lock in on these guys' actions, how good they are offensively. We have to do a great job with their dynamic guards, led by Tremont. How do we defend (LSU forward Naz) Reid at a higher level than we did at home? He put us in a quandary, especially late in the game with his post touches.”
Reid, who was whacked in the face late in last week’s win at Florida, has been cleared to play Friday. He sat out the Vandy game because of concussion protocol.
As far as Smart’s possible reinstatement, Benford was still waiting for a decision late Thursday afternoon.
The entire team would gladly welcome Smart's return. His absence Saturday forced Waters and Mays to play more conservatively on defense, understanding they couldn’t afford to get in foul trouble.
“We just have to go out and keep our heads level on the court,” Waters said. “At the end of day, it’s about us playing basketball.”
