It was a backbreaker of a loss for the Men's team on Saturday at the home-away game in Bossier City. Down 14 at the half to Wichita State, the Tigers came back to take a 68-64 lead in the final minute only to see WSU knock down two 3s and win 70-69. They play North Texas in the PMAC on Wednesday before stopping for Christmas break. The First episode of Inside LSU Basketball is after the break.
Misery loves company. #19 UF dropped an OT headscratcher to the Jacksonville Dolphins yesterday. Ole Miss is your SEC West division leader by far, but that might only be worth an NIT bid.
The Lady Tigers had a bit of a donnybrook with La Tech in the 15th Pack the PMAC game. A 2nd half scuffle that resulted in 4 technical fouls was the main takeaway from the 68-53 win. The most surprising thing was the reported attendance of just 3,714, a far cry from the 11,252 record or 8-9,000 the Pack the PMAC promotion usually attracts.
Some Football Practice notes from Rosetta at The Advoc mention the recovery work of both Will Blackwell and Alex Hurst, though neither are sure starters for the Cotton Bowl yet.
There is always a football player or two who manage to give Miles and Mainieri scheduling headaches in the spring. Looks like this year it's going to be RB/OF Spencer Ware.
Note for future nebulous suspensions for unknown reasons: LSU has no automatic dismissal policy if a football player fails a test for recreational drugs.
The first of many Baseball preseason polls is out from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Here's the Top 5 and the rest of the SEC
Rank School ('10 Final Record)
1. Texas Christian (54-14)
2. Florida (47-17)
3. UCLA (51-17)
4. Clemson (45-25)
5. Vanderbilt (46-20)
14. South Carolina (54-16)
15. Louisiana St. (41-22)
25. Auburn (43-21)
32. Arkansas (43-21)
The rest of the SEC was represented high up in the Also Receiving Votes category, along with Northwestern St., USL, and Tulane. Mikie Mahtook was also named to their All-American 2nd Team. Negotiations for the hosting site of the SEC Tourney for 2012-2016 will continue early in the New Year, with the league office hinting that it may decide to rotate through a few locations, including Zephyr Field in Metarie.
Good news on the local beat, as Cox Sports signed a carriage agreement with Charter Cable adding the channel that hosts numerous live LSU men's/women's basketball and baseball games, along with the excellent Sunday Football Replays we referenced this year. It will be in the following parishes as of Jan 1: St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Livingston, Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. Mary, St. Landry, Jefferson Davis and Acadia.
Pretty good results in the Bowl Pick'em so far, with only 3 folks going 0-fer (one of them your humble blogger) Still plenty of time to join before this evening's kickoff of the *oh dear* Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl.