It’s officially March.

College basketball's regular season schedule is ending, conference tournaments are about to start.

NCAA tourney bid day is about 10 days away.

And LSU men’s head coach Will Wade, whose team (20-9 overall, 8-8 SEC) plays at No. 14 Arkansas (23-6, 12-4 SEC) Wednesday at 8 p.m, believes it’s time for his players to step it up.

“We’ve been out of the (SEC) championship race for a long time.” said Wade, who feels his team has already clinched an NCAA tourney invite. “We’ve been out of the double bye for a couple of weeks now. We’ve been in a patch just slogging through it.

“You can now see light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve been kind of stuck in neutral. We need something to re-ignite us, put us back in high gear. My job is to find that, I’m going to keep searching.”

Wade is hoping that the Tigers, who began the season 15-1 as one of college basketball’s best defensive teams that melted opponents with full court pressure, have re-discovered that mojo in one their best second halves of the season in last Saturday’s 77-55 home win over Missouri.

LSU scored 45 points in the second half. It shot 51.9 percent from the field, made 13 of 16 free throws, had just 5 turnovers, held Missouri to a field goal percentage of 42.9 percent and forced 8 turnovers.

Even with Tari Eason, the Tigers’ leading scorer playing just 19 minutes, there were no noticeable dry spells because of the bench play of reserve Shareef O’Neal.

O’Neal, son of LSU basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, scored 9 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

“I thought he (Shareef) really prepared well,” Wade said after the win. “He knew the play packet we had for this game.”

LSU will need all hands on deck against the Razorbacks, a 5½-point favorite at home where they are 16-1 this season. In Bud Walton Arena, the Hogs have conquered then No. 1 Auburn, then-No. 3 Kentucky and then-No. 13 Tennessee.

When Arkansas visited Baton Rouge on Jan. 15, it was just 1-3. But without head coach Eric Musselman who was recovering from shoulder surgery, the Hogs beat LSU 65-58. It added early fuel to a 9-game Arkansas win streak that flipped the Razorbacks’ season.

The Hogs are led by guard JD Notae, who’s second in the SEC in scoring (16.7 points) and steals (2.2). Also, center Jaylin Williams is second in the league in rebounding (9.7).

In SEC games only, Arkansas leads the league in scoring defense (65.8 points allowed) and is second in field goal percentage defense (39.7 percent).

“They have the No. 1 defense in the league and they look so connected,” Wade said. “They’re in stance with high hands, it’s like a defensive clinic.”

It’s Senior Night for the Razorbacks, not a good omen for LSU which is 8-21 in Fayetteville.

“We had a huge win in Baton Rouge but they (LSU) were without (then-injured point guard Xavier) Pinson,” Musselman said. “It’s a completely different challenge guarding them and in preparation when Xavier Pinson doesn’t play.”