Basketball Loses Third Straight

You would think after getting down big early this many times (at Auburn, at Tennessee, at TCU, home against Ole Miss) the LSU men’s basketball team (16-7, 4-6) would simply...stop doing it.

But the Tigers once again dug themselves an early first half hole and and couldn’t climb out of it, losing to Vanderbilt 75-66 Saturday night.

I’ve long been an optimist for this LSU team when things got rough checks calendar three weeks ago. “The schedule is tough!” “Key players are hurt!” “They’re playing tournament teams on the road without their point guard!” Now I’m at a total loss to explain what’s going on.

LSU came into this week desperately in need of some positive momentum and fortunately—or so we thought—had two of the worst teams on the schedule, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. They would lose both, and trailed by 24 and 21 points respectively in both games.

What’s most alarming is LSU just doesn’t seem to care right now. The effort was nonexistent in the first half, when they went into the break down 43-25. True to form LSU would wake up briefly in the second half and go on a 16-0 run to get within five but of course Vanderbilt answered and put the game away. It’s so predictable with this team: go down big early, make a second half run to get close but never retake the lead, then watch opposing team get back up by five to nine points. It’s exhausting and it’s every night with these guys.

By now I would highlight what players had a good game. Tari Eason had 16 points and Darius Days had 10 points and 11 rebounds. But I’m not giving anybody any credit for tonight’s dud. The only numbers that matter right now are these:

• LSU has lost three in a row
• LSU has lost six of its last seven
• LSU has dropped from second place in the conference to 10th

The Tigers have eight more games to get their shit together otherwise the beautiful 15-1 start to the year won’t end up mattering one bit.