"It was a tale of two halves." /Glenn Guilbeau/USA Today Network
BATON ROUGE - Less than two weeks ago, the LSU basketball team boarded a plane in Fayetteville, Arkansas, after a startling, 75-54 victory over the Razorbacks that surprised even the Tigers' head coach.
"We prepared really well, but I never saw this coming," LSU first-year coach Will Wade said. "I looked up, and we were up by 20-something. I didn't realize it. That's about as well as we have played. It was surgical what our guys did. It was just a tremendous effort."
The last time Wade looked up, his team needed surgery. The Tigers have not won a game since that January 10 night. The Tigers (11-7 overall, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) have lost their last three games. The first two were at home to good teams - 74-66 to Alabama, which is 13-6 overall and in third in the SEC at 5-2, and 61-60 to Georgia, which is 12-6 and 3-4 in the SEC for seventh. But the last one was, 77-71, on Saturday at Vanderbilt, which is currently 7-12 overall and tied for last in the SEC at 2-5 with a No. 144 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
Speaking of RPI, LSU's rating in that catapulted from No. 121 on Jan. 5 to No. 62 following that win over Arkansas, which was preceded by a 69-68 win at Texas A&M on Jan. 6. It's back down to No. 99 now.
LSU will try to return to its winning ways at 8 p.m. Tuesday against Texas A&M (13-6, 2-5 SEC) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on ESPNU.
"It's the same old story," Wade said. "It's like a replay from the Alabama game and the Georgia game. Just same old stuff. We just can't close out the game."
LSU was within a bucket of Georgia and of Vanderbilt in the final two minutes each time.
"We just couldn't close out the game when we needed to," Wade said. "And until we get it corrected, we are going to keep getting the same results. We don't have much consistency. We don't know who's going to play what. If we could ever get everybody playing well at the same time or at least just two perimeter guys and one big guy, we'd be in pretty good shape. We've just not been able to have that happen."
Wade can still laugh, though. As LSU play-by-play announcer Chris Blair wrapped up the post game show Saturday, he said how it would be good to return to the home court for Tuesday's game.
"Dang Chris," said Wade, whose team is 0-3 in the SEC at home this season, "we have not won at home yet. I don't know what home court advantage you're talking about."