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After a thrilling comeback win over Kentucky gave LSU the SEC title, the Tigers suffered a letdown to close the regular season, losing their last two games.
Six days off could end up refreshing the 20th-ranked Tigers, who begin their push for their first SEC tournament title in 19 seasons with a Friday rematch with the Wildcats in the quarterfinals.
The Tigers (25-6) have been one of college basketball’s surprise teams under first-year coach Trent Johnson, riding a 13-game win streak in conference play to their first regular-season league title since 2005-06. LSU clinched the championship with a 73-70 victory at Kentucky on Feb. 28, rallying from 12 down before hanging on for the win.
LSU played like a team that was mentally and physically tired after that game, falling 75-67 at home to Vanderbilt on March 4 and 69-53 at Auburn on Saturday.
The Tigers shot a season-low 32.1 percent against Auburn and scored their fewest points since a 47-45 loss to Tennessee last season.
“Their focus was not lacking, but there were some guys who were tired and banged up and all those kinds of things,” Johnson said. “Days off at this time of the year would benefit any team. … I’ve been in situations where you had a bunch of guys with a day off, and we came out at struggled.
“The bottom line is just concentrating on the next game, the next practice and letting it fly and being aggressive.”
Johnson’s team will look for a repeat performance against Kentucky, as they won the Feb. 28 game on Tasmin Mitchell’s 3-pointer with 9.8 seconds left. It was the Tigers’ first victory at Rupp Arena in 20 years and helped clinch SEC coach of the year honors for Johnson.
Conference player of the year Marcus Thornton scored 23 points for LSU and averaged 20.9 points per game this season, second in the SEC to Wildcats star Jodie Meeks (24.7).
Thornton averaged 25.0 points over his final 14 games.
Friday’s game pits the conference’s top two scoring tandems in Meeks and Patrick Patterson - averaging 18.4 points - against Thornton and Mitchell (16.4 ppg). Patterson was also the SEC’s top shooter at 61.5 percent, while Mitchell was sixth at 53.3.
Despite having two of the conference’s best offensive players, Kentucky (19-12) is on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991 after going 3-8 in its last 11 and ending the regular season on a four-game skid. The Wildcats’ 17 straight appearances are the third-longest active streak behind Arizona’s 24 and Kansas’ 19, and fifth-longest in NCAA history behind North Carolina’s 27 from 1975-2001.
Kentucky improved its chances of keeping that run alive with Thursday’s 71-58 first-round victory over Mississippi. The Wildcats got 25 points from Meeks and Patterson added 15 points and 14 rebounds.
LSU has traditionally struggled against Kentucky, the nation’s all-time winningest program that has captured 25 of the previous 49 conference tournaments. The Tigers’ Feb. 28 victory was their third in their last 20 games against Kentucky, and they’ve lost nine of 11 tournament meetings.
Kentucky won the most recent conference tourney matchup with LSU 79-78 in overtime in 2005. Kentucky leads the all-time series 78-23.
