WASHINGTON D.C. – There are times when you lose you also win.

Which is how, even after LSU’s basketball season ended with a decisive 80-63 loss to Michigan State in the NCAA East Region semifinals here Friday night in Capital One Arena, we should remember the 2018-19 Tigers.

It is a team that picked itself off the mat time and again.

And that was just on the court where winning five overtime games and sinking last-second baskets for wins at Kentucky and in the NCAA tournament vs. Maryland were child’s play to real life that slapped the Tigers in the face at the most inopportune times.

“We’ve been through a lot more than every team in college basketball,” said LSU guard Skyler Mays, sunken in his locker after Friday’s loss and coming to grips with a wild 35-game ride that saw the Tigers finish 28-7, advance to the Sweet 16 and win the SEC regular season championship with a 16-2 record that included a 9-0 road record.

It is a squad that endured real life tragedy with the preseason shooting death of teammate Wayde Sims, with all the team but particularly Sims’ former high school teammates Mays and Marshall Graves honoring him by playing as hard as humanly possible every time they put on the purple and gold.

And in what should have been the most joyous time of their young lives, the Tigers have had to play with a scarlet `L’ on their warmups. It happened because head coach Will Wade was suspended March 8 by university officials after it was reported he was on an FBI wiretap transcript allegedly discussing logistics of buying the scholarship signature of eventual LSU signee Javonte Smart.

For three straight weeks in the SEC tournament locale of Nashvile and the NCAA tourney sites of Jacksonville and Washington, D.C, there were fresh waves of media asking Mays, Smart, Tremont Waters, Naz Reid and every other player who played significant minutes how they were soldiering on without their head coach.

And every Tiger, to a man, answered in the mindset that taskmaster Wade had consistently schooled them to approach each and every game.

They all said repeatedly: “We can only control what’s in front of us, so that’s all we focus on.”

Which is what they did.

This was a team built to withstand just about every challenge, to successfully navigate unexpected obstacles.

Lose your best player Waters to illness for a four-game stretch in late February and all the Tigers do is win every one of those contests including overtime affairs against eventual Sweet 16 semifinalist Tennessee and at NCAA tourney participant Florida.

No deficit seems too big for LSU to overcome, as it shows roaring back from 14 points down at Missouri with 2:14 left in regulation to win in overtime. Or trailing Mississippi State by 10 in Starkville in the second half, or at Kentucky losing by nine in the second half, a 16-point first half deficit vs. Auburn or losing by nine to Tennessee in the second half.

LSU walks away a winner in every one of those backs-to-the-wall situations.

How?

Love of the game and each other, faith and trust for the player sitting next to you and in the coaching staff.

It’s the very essence of what championship teams are all about.

And it’s what Mays will always cherish about the 2018-19 Tigers, especially in light he was part of LSU’s 21-loss 2016-17 team on which it was every man for himself.

“This is the closest team I’ve been a part of,” Mays said after the Tigers were clearly outplayed by the experienced NCAA tourney-savvy Spartans. “We never let anything put us down, we always stayed together, that’s what made us so close. It has been a joy to play with all these guys and watch them grow, see how they helped me grow.

“Everybody should be proud of how they contributed to this team.”

Absolutely.

But now, because of Wade’s limbo mambo – he has been subpoenaed to appear on April 22 in the upcoming federal basketball corruption trial – LSU's program enters a state of flux that few, if any, college programs have experienced.

Will Wade survive and keep his job? Will NCAA investigators set up shop staying so long in Baton Rouge they will register to vote? Is the LSU athletic administration compiling a list of coaches to pursue as Wade’s successor if he’s fired? Will LSU eventually receive NCAA probation and have its SEC title stripped, its 28 wins forfeited and its Sweet 16 appearance declared null and void?

Then, put yourself in the shoes of four LSU underclassmen – junior Mays, sophomore Waters and freshmen Reid and Smart – all whom may entertain thoughts of declaring for the NBA draft.

Smart said after Friday’s season-ending loss that he’ll “probably” return for his sophomore year but added “I don’t know what’s going to happen, whatever happens happens.”

Mays, the SEC basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a first-team academic All-American, has just a couple of things on his immediate agenda.

“I’ve got two tests next week,” he said.

Only Reid’s name has popped up in several mock NBA drafts, placing him anywhere from the 19th pick of the first round by Utah to a late-first round choice at No. 28 by Brooklyn and No. 30 by Milwaukee, to not being drafted at all.

There’s plenty about Reid’s game he needs to improve. But at 6-10 and 250 pounds he has an NBA body, can score with either hand and needs to start playing with other grown men in pro settings where every little bump or shove isn’t whistled for fouls as is the case in college.

After last season, then-freshman Waters declared for the draft but withdrew 24 hours before the final deadline. He was allowed to return to LSU because he didn’t hire an agent. Going through the draft process then was more of a fact-finding mission for Waters, who had sit-down interviews with NBA coaches, scouts and NBA executives in Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City and Houston.

They all advised him he needed to improve his leadership and his ball screen defense, and to add more muscle.

Waters did all those things and earned first-team All-SEC honors, yet every mock draft except for one still projects him as undrafted. Being just 5-11 (a generous measurement) still makes him a liability in the eyes of NBA scouts and he’ll likely have to play in the NBA’s G-League or in Europe before getting a shot in the NBA.

The question for Waters is if he would benefit by staying at LSU for another season. He probably already knows the answer – he needs to start playing somewhere professionally to prove he can excel on that level despite measuring less than 6 feet tall.

Normally, this would be a straight business decision for Reid and Waters based on evaluations of NBA scouts.

If that was the case, then Reid is definitely gone and Waters likely.

But now, throw in the timing of the Wade situation.

Consider that the deadline to enter the NBA draft as underclassmen is April 21, one day before Wade supposedly will testify in court.

Players declaring for draft have until May 29, which is 10 days after the draft combine, to withdraw. They are allowed to return school if they haven’t hired an agent or legal representation, as Waters did last year.

“Obviously, we don't know what's going on,” Waters said after Friday’s loss. “And we're just going to keep doing what we've been doing, stay in the gym and pretty much talk to our families and see what the next step is.”

Reid seconded Waters’ approach.

“Just working on the game and moving forward day by day and having the same positive attitude as before,” Reid said.

One month from now, LSU may or may not have a new coach trying to re-build a roster that doesn’t want to hang around to see if the NCAA eventually nails the program with probation.

Also, the NCAA Committee on Infractions may stick an asterisk on this season and act like everything the Tigers accomplished never happened.

But it did.

We all saw it. We won’t forget it.

And 10, 20 years now when this team is wearing its 2019 SEC championship rings as it gathers for a reunion and is introduced at a home basketball game, it will receive the applause and the well-earned respect that should never fade with time.

As far as an asterisk, all you need is a thick eraser.