I've been reading on other sites and listening to some talk radio and it seems a lot of people believe we have a tired bb team at this point. I don't buy it because these guys are young and in great shape plus the fact they play 2 games a week and in those games are many timeouts which allow the players to catch their breath. Now maybe in the SEC tournament when your bench is thin and you play 3 or 4 day's in a row fatique can become a factor but I think it is overblown.
Take away the double OT game and nobody would even mention them being a tired team. I agree with you, they are just as tired as every other team this point in the season.
I think we'd take A&M if we played them again, but Utah and Xavier just have too much in the middle. Vanderbilt will be a challenge (Ogilvy) but if he plays as soft as he did against UK they won't be a problem. Ranking teams is an inexact science, as you well know. It's fairly easy to look up and down LSU's schedule and rank them well below other teams. How LSU does in the tournament will strictly be determined by the team that LSU matches up with.
Like Deek said, I think the answer to your question is neither. I don't think it's disrespect, b/c this is a game where with a tournament and a seeding committee, so much emphasis is on SOS, who do you play, where do you play and who have you beat. It's subjective, but folks try to make it objective. But, you take Arkansas, a team that is just about last in the SEC beat Oklahoma and Texas--we beat them twice. Tennessee beat a respected (but now struggling) Big East team. You rely too much this logic and you get an endless cycle of debate (sound familiar). LSU is going to get dinged by not playing very many top opponents and not beating them, that is truth. Good for us, though, is the fact that LSU is in a BCS conference and appears to be winning it. CTJ is not taking it for granted and he'll get a bid and have a chance to prove how good this team is. I think where we'll see this bias play out though is the seeding, and that's ok. We don't get a top 4 seed, we'll have to beat folks on the court just like everyone else. I'm more concerned in the short term about winning real championships, not RPI ones--the SEC W first and then the SECC. Once the tournament is here, it's about where they send us to play and who they match us up with. Honestly, the SEC is young, and as such, won't get the respect come tourney time. But, it's an athletic, talented league, and it's a year where 4-5 teams get bids, and probably a couple of them have a shot of sneaking into the sweet 16 if the matchups are right. That's not bad for a rebuilding year.
its the era of the mid majors. any time a team from a major conf has a good record and an embarrassing SOS they will get bashed. LSU and UF are like that. add that to a couple powerhouses being down and the SEC is dirt. the thing is, i dont know how good LSU is. it sure is easy to say that the 11-1 record is against a bunch of average teams. now, if they get no more than 1 more loss before the NCAA tourney then that will be hard to say. i think the team is either tired (shorter bench than most) or opponents have started figuring out some ways to attack.
The bench needs to step up its game if we have any hope of seeing the Sweet 16. They are getting better, but did not look good against Auburn at all.
