Now halfway through the SEC regular season, the LSU Tigers sit in a tie for 8th place with the Tennessee Volunteers at 3-5. So far, the road has been very unkind to the Tigers in SEC play, as they are yet to win a game. Despite the fact that Vanderbilt has been relatively disappointing this season, it still seems unlikely that LSU will be able to win in Nashville.

The Tigers did pick up a much needed win over SEC West rival Arkansas on Saturday, but with the news that Ricardo Gathers decided to take his talents to Waco, SEC fans will need another win to keep calm. Vanderbilt comes into tonight's 8:00 CT tip off with a stable 16-7 (5-3) record, but with the high off-season expectations, the 'Dores have underachieved so far.

At the beginning of the year, the story/reason/excuse was that Vanderbilt was missing center Festus Ezeli, a starter from last year and an anchor down low. With the ambitious schedule, losses were bound to happen, especially with so many good teams on the schedule.

The early season was a mix of good, bad, wtf?, and meh... losses. Cleveland State, while a decent team themselves, shouldn't have been able to pick up a win on Vanderbilt's home court. Louisville and Xavier were both overtime losses, and hot teams at the time of those games, but you would have expected a senior-laden Vanderbilt team to win at least one of the games. Indiana State is similar to Cleveland State, an OK team, but not a team you expect to see beat the 'Dores.

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Game 2 of 2 in the regular season between the Arkansas Razorbacks and LSU Tigers tips off this afternoon at around 12:45 CT. As previously mentioned yesterday, this is the first of the "next four" set of core games where the Tigers will decide the fate of their season. Simply put, once these four games are completed, we will know the fate of the Tigers' postseason.

That said, it's far from decided. The game today could be used as a springboard for a strong end of the season, or become the game that pushes the Tigers farther down the "postseason ladder". The first game of this series was pretty one sided the entire second half, though it was close for the entire first half. The final was 69-60, though looking back at it statistically it seems like it should have been even more of a blowout.

The story of the game was 3 point shooting. Arkansas made a lot of them, and a lot of clutch shots, LSU didn't. The Hogs finished the game at 50%, 9-18 as a team, while LSU went 3-18 for a dismal 16%. Perhaps the only positive to come from that poor shooting was the abundance of offensive rebounds, which kept the Tigers in the game. LSU actually dominated the offensive glass and had 16 total offensive rebounds, and won the complete game rebounding battle by 8.

Of note is that Malcolm White will be sitting this game out due to a team suspension for the flagrant foul against Anthony Davis. It was an LSU/coach's decision to make the move. Personally, I think it's a bad move. I mean, there's a time and a place for discipline, and it's not in the midst of a 3 game losing streak. There's a difference between what White did, which was in the heat of the moment, and what happened with fights across NCAA basketball earlier this season. With the ejection from last game, he already served essentially a game for the foul. Of course, I don't know everything behind the scenes, but the quote by Trent Johnson on the matter seems like he made the decision.

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Kentucky being #1, that happens quite often. Beating Kentucky when they are #1. That doesn't happen quite so much. At least not when they play against the LSU Tigers. Despite meeting the 'Cats 7 times when they were ranked #1, LSU has only defeated them once, in 1978. Since then, LSU has matched up against other #1 teams, and beaten a few, but Kentucky is by far the leading team in that category. Somewhat strangely, that 1978 meeting was the last time Kentucky played against LSU while #1.

It could be a big day for LSU if the Tigers are able to make history once again and score an upset over the 20-1 (6-0) team from Lexington. As with most games against a #1 team, it often feels like it will take a miracle to beat them because of the talent difference, opposing coach, or the aura that they carry when they play.

Here's what you need to know about Kentucky and how LSU might match up against them. Anthony Davis is the best overall player on the team, that is essentially 7 deep. He's perhaps the best shot blocker the college game has had in a long time, perhaps ever. His offensive game isn't quite as good, but nonetheless he will be a top 5 pick in the draft this summer.

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Tonight at 7:00 CT the LSU Tigers 12-7 (2-3) travel to Starkville, MS to take on the 16th ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs 16-4 (3-2). It is the first of two meetings this season between the teams, and should be a little bit harder to predict what might happen.

Of course, the favorite is the Bulldogs, both because they have a superior record and are playing at home. But LSU has caused problems for the Bulldogs, and actually split the series last year despite that being only win for LSU from January 15th onward. In the other game of the series, LSU lost by only a point at home. It would seem reasonable to say that LSU played their best against Mississippi State, considering how lopsided some of the other series games ended up.

Renardo Sidney is expected to be the main piece of the offense again for Mississippi State, as he was responsible for 24 points last year, though it was a disappointing year for him with numerous on and off the court problems. Arnett Moultrie also should provide a scoring punch for the Bulldogs, as he leads the team in scoring as well as rebounding. Dee Bost is the senior point guard for the Bulldogs, and is always capable of going off for 30 points.

The last time I saw Mississippi State play was against Baylor in December. It was actually quite an impressive performance by MSU, though they ended up losing the semi-road game in Dallas. The game was close throughout but it seemed like fatigue was the reason they weren't able to keep up in the final minutes before they ultimately lost 54-52.

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If this is indeed judgement week for LSU, then it makes sense to think of this game as a chance for the team to make their opening statements. The 14-4 (2-1) Gators have been a very shaky road team so far this season, winning only 1 of 5 in true road games. At home, however, they are yet to lose a game, though they really haven't gone against a very good home slate just yet.

The bad news for the Florida Gators is that Patric Young will be playing, but it won't be at 100%. Tendonitis has been bothering the center, and on a team with such little forward depth they need all the help they can get against the big LSU team. He is expected to play, though perhaps less than his normal playing time and possibly at a lower level due to the nagging injury.

The guard depth for Florida should provide some good back up though. Kenny Boynton, Erving Walker, Mike Rosario, and Brad Beal make up one of the best core set of guards in the country. Combined, three of them are McDonald's All Americans. They average, combined, over 50 points a game, while three of them shoot 3's better than 40% on the season so far. Kenny Boynton leads the way with over 18 points a game, followed by Beal at 14 a game and Walker at 12 a game.

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Tonight at 6:00 CT, the hoops version of the Tiger Bowl takes place in Baton Rouge as the Auburn Tigers battle the LSU Tigers. It is the first meeting of two or more this year for the 11-6 (1-2) teams, and both are hoping that they can get back to .500 in league play. Auburn is coming off a solid week, as they defeated Mississippi in double overtime, as well as had moderate success against Kentucky before falling. LSU, on the other hand, is coming off consecutive road losses to Alabama and Arkansas respectively.

The story of the Auburn season can kind of be summed up by one grunt, "meh". Nothing that they have done yet is really all that impressive, and at times they have had games where they looked downright awful. Still, they are in contention for a postseason bid, most likely an NIT or worse, with a winning 11-6 record. The War Eagles are led by senior forward Kenny Gabriel, who is averaging over 11 points a game and nearly 8 rebounds. Defensively, he's also solid and averages 2.8 blocks a game, though that's still quite far off the mark that Anthony Davis has to lead the SEC as well as the country.

I've seen Auburn play a couple of times this season, and it's really tough to figure out what to make of the team. They looked inspired and focused for about 35 minutes against Kentucky before the elite talent of Kentucky won out. I also saw them against Long Beach State, who is a mid major though they might be not only an NCAA team, but NCAA game winner. LBSU totally crushed them and held them to nearly a season low of 43 points. The lowest was against Vanderbilt to open SEC play when they only managed 35.

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Even though UNC takes on FSU at only 1:00 in the afternoon, ESPN has officially had their first college Gameday show of the season. While the opening match ups of the season aren't nearly as anticipated as the last ones, today is the day you could say that the lights get just a little bit brighter. The games matter just a little bit more. The stakes are a little bit higher.

Week by week, the games become more important as teams figure out how many more they need to win, and who they need to lose. The bubble teams get popped, and the conference champions are crowned. It's officially less than two months until Selection Sunday.

Today, LSU takes on their second straight road challenge against the up and down Arkansas Razorbacks. Up and down is a great way to describe both the Hogs season thus far, as well as their style of play. First year head coach Mike Anderson runs the highly active, pressure defense known as 40 minutes of hell. It's a system that will trade lay ups, put up NBA-like scores, be highly entertaining, and sometimes frustrating to the teams that don't know how to beat it.

LSU may be one of those teams. Thus far, LSU has still not figured out how to effectively handle the press. The worst part is that the best way to beat a press is to attack it, but LSU has not been able to do that so far. I've often outlined why I think that might be: lack of experience, lack of guard size, and lack of a gameplan.

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For the second time this week, the LSU Tigers will go up against the Alabama Crimson Tide. While Alabama is in a good position for future postseason play in NCAA basketball, LSU still has a little bit of work to do. I've already mentioned how important this game is for the LSU fanbase, but it's equally important if LSU wants to put themselves onto the NCAA tournament bubble.

ESPN recently released Joe Lunardi's bracketology and it was weird to see a team like Florida State as the last team in, while LSU wasn't even considered in the last 8 being left out. It's weird that he would have two teams with such similar resumes so far apart. I might even argue that LSU's is better because we've won multiple road games, have fewer losses, and beat a top 25 ranked team. Because it's still early in the season, it matters little at this point.

Jerry Palm agrees with me, and actually has LSU in one of the play-in games in his most recent Projecting the Field. Neither FSU or Virginia Tech, who Lunardi has in the play in games, are in Palm's bracket. It just goes to show how a big time win can provide big movement when you are one of the 60th to 80th ranked teams.

Wins over conference foes on the road have been scarce so far this season, irregardless of what conference it is. LSU has had a bad road record over the course of Trent Johnson's career at LSU, winning just 12 of 36 such games. None of the wins were in Alabama's home gym.

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For those who can only watch online, here's the ESPN3.com link

LET'S GEAUX!

Two more days. That's all. Maybe this game can help speed up time while we wait for Monday night.

The Ole Miss Rebels come into Baton Rouge for the SEC opening game for both teams. The LSU Tigers are coming off a tough loss to the Virginia Cavaliers 57-52, though that is nothing to worry about compared to what the Rebels are going through right now.

Ole Miss is having problems both on and off the court. The Rebels defeated their last opponent, SMU 50-48 just a couple of days ago, but it was their first win in about two weeks and ended a 3 game losing streak. It was a welcomed win for the fans in Oxford, but since then Ole Miss suspended their leading scorer Dundrecous Nelson for drug possession(along with multiple failed drug tests).

It's a big problem for the Rebels as they only score about 66 points per game, and taking away about 1/6th of it could result in a loss today, as the LSU Tigers are extremely stout defensively. Ole Miss does welcome Jelan Kendrick into the line up, though. He is a former McDonalds All-American and a transfer from Memphis. Thus far, he hasn't had much of an impact, but the opportunity created by Nelson's dismissal is big. He certainly had the talent coming out of high school, now Ole Miss fans are hoping it results in wins.

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