Entertainment and sports have long been synonymous. Think of the Harlem Globetrotters. Think of the original words behind the name \u201cESPN\u201d \u2013 the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.<\/p>\n
Think, this season, of LSU women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
Tigers Jada Richard and ZaKiyah Johnson were asked to describe their team\u2019s brand Saturday.<\/p>\n
Both had the same answer:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday night against Jacksonville, LSU put on an award-winner in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The Tigers doubled up the overmatched Dolphins 116-58, setting program records for points, margin of victory and steals (18) in an NCAA Tournament game, and tying the NCAA Division I mark set by Long Beach State in 1987 with their 15th 100-point game this season.<\/p>\n
More than just scoring, with LSU, it\u2019s the passing, the quick hands, the attitude that walking the ball up court is like doing some sort of penance until they can hit the throttle again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to give y’all a show,\u201d Richard said. \u201cWhether that’s behind-the-back passes, celebrations. We just play with a lot of passion. I think from the top of our roster to the bottom, we just love basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like there’s a lot of people who play basketball, but they don’t like it. I feel like we all love the game. We love coming to practice every day, pushing each other. We love the grind. I think that’s what LSU basketball is. We have that grit, that passion, so that’s why we\u2019re \u2018the show.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show must go on,\u201d as the saying goes, and for LSU, it likely will. The Tigers (28-5), the No. 2-seeded team in the NCAA Sacramento 2 regional, are just shy of a 25-point favorite going into Sunday\u2019s second-round game against No. 7 Texas Tech (2 p.m., ABC).<\/p>\n
But win or lose, this will be LSU\u2019s final game this season at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. If the show goes on, it will be a road show, out in California, in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n
LSU coach Kim Mulkey said senior Flau\u2019jae Johnson, playing her last game in the PMAC as a Tiger, deserves to have a sellout crowd Sunday.<\/p>\n
That goes for the entire team. For the entire cast of \u201cThe Show.\u201d If the Savannah Bananas could sell out the Caesars Superdome last weekend for whatever it is they do \u2014 twice \u2014 then LSU fans can turn out in droves to watch this team play on its home court one more time. Yes, NCAA rules guaranteeing the visiting teams and bands seats in the lower bowl (plus losing seats to courtside press rows, I must admit) have scrambled the PMAC\u2019s seating arrangement for LSU\u2019s loyal legions.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, for the Tigers\u2019 sake, and for Texas Tech, which is striving to recapture its program\u2019s former glory, they will come nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d That was the famous line from the movie \u201cField of Dreams.\u201d Mulkey has done that at LSU. Building not only a winning program but one that produces \u201cDid you see that?\u201d moments game after game.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t her objective when she left Baylor for LSU five years ago. It was, of course, to win and win big. But the entertaining part has been a compelling by-product of the talent and the coaching LSU has had, a combination that has the Tigers aiming for the program\u2019s 17th Sweet 16 appearance and fourth straight under Mulkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t sit down and say this is what we have to do to be entertaining or sit down and say this is what we do because we’re \u2018the show,\u2019 \u201d Mulkey said. \u201cI just allow players to have a little freedom offensively. That\u2019s what I liked when I played. Let’s get up and down the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve got a lot of athletes, man. Let’s go. Who wants to walk it up the floor and wait for a post player to come down there and post up?\u201d<\/p>\n
LSU-Texas Tech is about as big a contrast in styles as you could find in the NCAA\u2019s round of 32. The Tigers are on pace to break the Southeastern Conference scoring record, now averaging 95.1 points per game. They play defense, yes, the disruptive kind, but defense isn\u2019t this team\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n
It is for Texas Tech. The Raiders average 71.5 points per game but allow just 57.9, trying to full-court press their opponents into submission. They wore down Villanova in the first round, 57-52, fewer points combined than LSU scored on its own Friday.<\/p>\n
That approach has worked to get Texas Tech this far and win 26 games. But Tech coach Krista Gerlich, who played on the Lady Raiders\u2019 1993 national championship team, knows this is a tough assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to continue to do what we do and try to disrupt as much as possible,\u201d Gerlich said. \u201cBut obviously, they’re a really good basketball team for a reason. It will be difficult for us to disrupt them that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the Lady Raiders will try to be show stoppers.<\/p>\n
Everyone\u2019s a critic, but that\u2019s going to be a tough assignment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entertainment and sports have long been synonymous. Think of the Harlem Globetrotters. Think of the original words behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[32566,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-215183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-hardwall","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}