LSU men\u2019s basketball hasn\u2019t participated in the NCAA\u2019s March Madness bracket since 2022, where they had an early exit. The last notable run before that was appearing in the Sweet 16 in 2019. Safe to say this isn\u2019t a men\u2019s basketball school.<\/p>\n
But there is hope.<\/p>\n
In order for a men\u2019s basketball team to be one of the 68 teams in the bracket, they either have to win a conference game, or be picked by the selection committee because of their built up r\u00e9sum\u00e9. \u201cMid\u201d records can still see the bracket, often enough.<\/p>\n
The probability of the Tigers being the SEC champions is low. They are 2-7 in conference play, with the next eight matchups against other SEC teams. The team would need to dominate in the next eight in order to see a banner hung in the PMAC.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean their season is over.<\/p>\n
Similar to the college football playoffs, the NCAA March Madness selection committee consists of 12 athletic directors, conference administrators and former coaches, all from different universities. This group builds the bracket, selects the 36 teams that aren\u2019t conference champions, seeds all the teams and decides the first four games.<\/p>\n
All with no bias and no influence.<\/p>\n
On Selection Sunday, the committee will look over a team\u2019s season so far; their NET ranking, strength of schedule, quality wins and losses, where their games were played, results versus. common opponents and how the team played late in the season.<\/p>\n
Teams are compared side by side, and their previous March Madness appearances are not taken into account, nor are any pre-season rankings.<\/p>\n
What the committee also doesn\u2019t focus on \u2014 or reward \u2014 is running up the score.<\/p>\n
That means LSU is better off winning on the road by one point than a 20-point home win to a bad team. The \u201cbad teams\u201d fall under the selection committee\u2019s ranking of those quality wins and losses, quad 1 being the best and 4 being the worst \u2014 this is what the committee actually cares about and zeroes in on during the end of the season.<\/p>\n
To have a chance, the Tigers need two or three Quad 1 wins, while managing zero bad losses.<\/p>\n
Looking at the upcoming schedule, this would mean they would need to beat Arkansas at home, No. 25 Tennessee on the road, Texas, Ole Miss and Auburn on the road. Then, they would need to finish it out with a win over the top team in the SEC, which is Texas A&M, at home.<\/p>\n
But once again, they don\u2019t have to win by much. Even if every win was a buzzer beater, it would look good in the committee\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
The team must come out confident and prepared, especially with on the road games vs opponents that average 5+ points than team leader Max Mackinonn, who averages 14.6 PPG.<\/p>\n
Without top scorer Dedan Thomas Jr., who is out for now with a foot injury, and key player Jalen Reed, a notable returner who suffered an achilles injury in late November, the Tigers must focus on improving as a team.<\/p>\n
Stars like Max Mackinnon and junior forward Mike Nwoko, who scored 21 points in the thrilling victory over South Carolina, must continue succeeding through these games, putting up numbers that not only compete but rise above their competitors in these matchups.<\/p>\n
There is one thing clear: LSU is the underdog.<\/p>\n
These must-win matchups feature top contenders such as Arkansas\u2019s freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr, a freshman from Michigan who is putting up 20.3 points per game. Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky have all been placed on ESPN\u2019s list of top 10 college basketball teams with the most NBA prospects.<\/p>\n
The Tigers have already fallen short to Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky, but LSU still has a chance to face the Razorbacks one more time.<\/p>\n
The rest of the season is an unpromised, uphill battle for this team, but once again, there is hope.<\/p>\n
If hope happened to rhyme with miracle.<\/p>\n
Head coach Mat McMahon, who has never led the Tigers to a NCAA March Madness appearance, must understand that the time is now. Coach McMahon understands that LSU must continue to succeed during this season, and in the future.<\/p>\n
In year four at LSU, coach McMahon holds an overall record of 57-61, with a 15-47 conference record. From fans and players to the athletic department, there is a clear desire for a NCAA tournament appearance under Coach McMahon.<\/p>\n
It is understood that LSU is not afraid to part ways with coaches that don\u2019t continue to bring success, which could be the future for McMahon if the Tigers are once again eliminated from the tournament, and finish bottom of the SEC, enduring even more losses throughout the month of February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU men\u2019s basketball hasn\u2019t participated in the NCAA\u2019s March Madness bracket since 2022, where they had an early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-457696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}