After Monday night's heartbreaking debacle that is still festering in the minds of LSU fans, we need something, someone, anyone to pick us up. Maybe it will be the Saints later on in the week, or news that Mo Claiborne is returning for another season, but we need something to make us happy. Trent Johnson has the chance to not only pick up a big win for his team, but to give us that something, a win over Alabama.
Unfortunately, the first match up of this season is away, because I'm sure many LSU fans would have been interested in going to see the game if it was in the PMAC. Alabama, while stumbling a little bit early in the year, has been hot of late and is inching closer to being ranked once again. Everything in Tuscaloosa right now is going good, and the equal and opposite reaction is that everything in Baton Rouge is going terrible. I'm probably not thinking straight, and it's probably not a trade I should make, but I would trade a win over Kentucky right now if it meant beating Alabama.
It won't be easy. Alabama is perhaps more talented than any team in the SEC not named Kentucky. They've got size, the play good defense, and they have good coaching. Their home record is 6-1 right now, with the lone loss being to the Georgetown Hoyas, but including last year it would be 22-1. After a tough month of December in which they lost 3 of 6, Alabama opened the new year with two wins at both Georgia and Georgia Tech.
In Trent Johnson's short career at LSU, he's only mustered a 1-5 record against Alabama so far. The lone win came all the way back in early February, 2009. That win was in Baton Rouge, meaning that Johnson is yet to win in Tuscaloosa. There couldn't be a better time for him to pick up that first win.
If Monday night had gone differently, this game certainly wouldn't mean much to LSU right now. A post about parade scheduling and autograph signings might be in place of a post hoping that Trent Johnson can score that one big, important win that he hasn't had yet. He's had a couple of wins over Kentucky, an NCAA win over Butler, and even a win this season over formerly 10th ranked Marquette. Sometimes the win over the hated rival is the sweetest of them all, especially after the torture we went through Monday night.
The home rematch is still a month away. While I would expect and hope the PMAC is a hornet's nest for that game, I really don't think I can wait that long. Any win is a good win, but a win tonight would be special.