LSU Basketball "Narrowing Focus" During SEC Tournament Run
With off the court news swirling around LSU basketball during postseason time once again, Will Wade and his team are narrowing the focus.
This is a program that has embraced that "us against the world" mentality for a number of years and it was no different Thursday as the No. 5 seeded Tigers jumped on Missouri early and were able scrape out an opening SEC tournament win. With the news that LSU had received a Notice of Allegations, naturally one of the first questions to Wade immediately following the game was about the current situation.
And like he's done in past seasons when news of the NCAA investigation into his program have been asked, Wade responded in a very similar manner with a few added tidbits worth mentioning.
"I can't comment on any of that stuff, we haven't been able to since everything started," Wade said. "I certainly look forward to commenting when it's all over but until then they won't allow us to comment. I will say this, when stuff's swirling around you've gotta narrow your focus. You can't worry about everything going on around us, we're here to play basketball. Whatever is going on doesn't affect anyone on our team, not one of our players were here. They're focused on basketball, we talked about narrowing our focus to basketball."
When asked whether he'd seen the NOA, Wade restated he wasn't allowed to comment on the investigation. The narrowed focus that Wade talked about will have to be relevant for what will be another heavyweight matchup with No. 4 seeded Arkansas, a team that's bested LSU twice this season.
The last time these two teams squared off was a little more than a week ago in a game that felt like an NCAA tournament matchup with great back and forth and ultimately Arkansas pulling out a tight home win. Twice this year the Razorbacks have beaten the Tigers in practically the final seconds of the game, hinting to just how close this matchup should be tomorrow.
In the second game at Bud Walton Arena, guard JD Notae, one of the leading scorers in the conference, went just 4-of-12 in that game so when the players were asked about slowing him down again, Wade couldn't help but say "Pray." Beyond the scoring of Notae, this is a team that defends really hard and will no doubt take a lot of energy out of the Tigers to have a chance down the stretch.
"The first thing that stands out is how hard Arkansas plays. I think they're one of the hardest-playing teams in our league," Wade said. "You know, it's what makes this league so tough, how good everybody is. I think Arkansas is towards the top end of the hardest-playing teams in our league."
"All the guys takes charges on the defensive end, their hands are up and in the gaps so that's one thing we're gonna have to adjust to tomorrow," Darius Days said.
Wade mentioned it'll have to be a quick reset for the Tigers to refuel their bodies and get prepared for what should be a battle between two defensively elite teams that are playing their best basketball of the season. While the focus has always been narrowed on the task at hand, there's definitely some added weight for the LSU players who are hoping three times the charm against the Razorbacks.
"The things that stand out to me is that we lost," Eason said. "I'm hoping to look forward to a win so that's what we're gearing up for."
