LSU can’t help but keep it interesting
Published 5:30 pm Friday, March 22, 2019
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Yeah, LSU probably could have beaten Yale by 25 points or so Thursday to open the NCAA Tournament.
Most of the elements looked to be falling into place against Yale, which wasn’t as outmanned as an SEC-Ivy League tussle would suggest.
The dreaded off-court distractions didn’t seemed to be a problem for LSU, the word “interim” wasn’t a factor and, from the start, it appeared LSU was every bit the better team a No. 3 seed should be against a No. 14.
If there was an NCAA dark cloud hanging over these Tigers — the X factor — it didn’t appear to affect their effort or efficiency.
Why not just pile it on and move on?
Just get it over with and send those Ivy eggheads packing back to their high-brow academia.
Yeah, that would have been the prudent plan.
Oh, but that also would have been the easy way out.
Will Wade or not. No matter. With, uh — what’s his name? — Tony Benford, it looked like the same old LSU.
So a 79-74 LSU victory probably wasn’t really that close, but of course could have been a lot scarier.
In short, the Tigers didn’t miss a beat.
So we can say they also didn’t miss their suspended head coach, who presumably was watching holed up back in the Baton Rouge.
It had to look pretty familiar to him.
LSU looked just the way it did in winning the SEC regular-season title, which, if you recall, was mostly at the buzzer or thereabouts.
It didn’t quite come down to that Thursday in a game LSU jumped to a 9-0 lead and never trailed.
But of course it got interesting, probably way too interesting.
It wouldn’t be an LSU game any other way.
It doesn’t matter how overpowering the Tigers can look at times.
Somehow, someway, you’ll look up and, unexpectedly, they’re creeping into white-knuckler territory before it’s done.
Even Thursday with a 16-point halftime lead that briefly touched 18 early in the second half, you knew Yale would do enough to get the pro-upset crowd at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena into it.
Maybe LSU seemed too intent on working the shot clock in the second half with the once big lead, but that’s quibbling.
Yet after shooting 58 percent in the first half for a 16-point lead, there the Tigers were, right on schedule, shooting 33 percent in the second half, often from point-blank range. Yale went from 29 percent to 45 percent and was gaining confidence with the crowd’s support.
Yale is famously from the Ivy League, but the Bulldogs didn’t seem to be wearing the ivy on their chests.
Athletically, yeah, the Tigers had an advantage (as usual), but the Yalies didn’t look hopelessly out of place and it wasn’t the first time the Tigers have struggled against a zone defense.
Then it starting raining Yale 3-pointers, some of which appeared to graze the rafters.
Hold on, Tigers, and cover your eyes.
Not the LSU players, though.
Been there, done that. Mostly with success.
So when it absolutely had to be done, they stepped up again.
Never mind that Yale hit four 3-pointers in the final minute.
At the time the Tigers, uncharacteristically, had made 10 of 18 shots from the foul line, some of them comically wayward.
But with the game absolutely on the line and Bulldogs showing no signs of cooling off, the Tigers made 9 of 10 free throws over the final 42 seconds and let Yale admire its rainbow 3-pointers in vain.
Close games don’t scare these LSU guys — even when they shouldn’t be close.
It wasn’t a particularly popular victory here, you understand.
Maybe LSU got a little taste of what’s to come if this is an extended stay in the Big Dance.
Other than the several hundred LSU fans behind the bench and the school’s pep band to their side, a fairly full arena was wholly behind the Yale cause.
It’s pretty natural in this affair to root for the underdog, but at one point they did chant, “F-B-I, F-B-I” to the a capella tune of “L-S-U,” probably more in reference to Wade’s wiretap woes than any sudden swell of support for federal law enforcement.
LSU will just have to deal with that.
And the easy thing to say is that the Tigers will have to play better if they’re to advance in this particular Dance.
But probably not.
This way has been working all year.
Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com
John Raoux
