Guilbeau: Tigers have passed eye test for NCAA Tourney
BATON ROUGE — This one’s going to leave a mark, and Keith Hornsby will enjoy every minute of it on his body.
The rough and tumble LSU senior guard from Williamsburg, Virginia, got a tattoo the natural way Saturday when he dove for a loose ball and the steal with the Tigers clinging to a 51-50 lead midway through the second half of a critical, 76-71 win over No. 13 Texas A&M at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“He wasn’t really running for it,” Hornsby said of Texas A&M guard D.J. Hogg, who lost the ball on the play. “So I decided I might as well go for it. It was a long shot, so I dove for it. Next thing I knew, I had two black jerseys on me.”
The ball rolled out of bounds after touching an A&M player. Hornsby rose, did a Russell Crowe pose from “Gladiator,” and the crowd went wild. LSU would soon ride that emotion to a 76-66 lead and the win.
“That was a momentum play. The crowd gave them a lot of energy after that,” Texas A&M guard Danuel House said.
“I thought that revved up the crowd. It got them going to another level,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said.
“I have this strawberry on my backside,” Hornsby said after finishing the game with 15 points, a career-high five steals and three rebounds. “But that’s OK. When I see this, it’ll remind me of this great win.”
Guilbeau: Tigers have passed eye test for NCAA Tourney
Should the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee see this clip, maybe it will put its blasted Ratings Percentage Index aside for just a second and use the eye test, or the Les Miles’ “want” test or just common sense. It’s almost March. Is some loss to Wake Forest in December really going to keep LSU out of the NCAA Tournament?
The Tigers played like they had a strong want for the NCAA Tournament on Saturday as well as the Southeastern Conference title, the latter of which will take care of the former.
The Tigers left a mark Saturday in more ways than one if committee members can put their calculators and quotients away.
LSU improved to 16-9 overall and stayed in a first place tie in the SEC with Kentucky at 9-3, but its Ratings Percentage Index number was only in the 70s before the game. That should soon be getting into the 50s and higher if the Tigers continue to want it as much as it did Saturday.
While Hornsby was imitating former Coach Dale Brown’s first team in 1972-73, known as the Hustlers, freshman guard Antonio Blakeney auditioned for a revival of Brown’s “Freak Defense” used in Final Four and Elite Eight runs in 1986 and ’87, respectively.
LSU was leading 72-66 with just under a minute to go, but that is still only a couple of 3-pointers away from getting dangerous. So Blakeney basically pick-pocketed Texas A&M’s House with freakishly quick hands. First he stripped him of the ball, then grabbed it. Blakeney fed guard Tim Quarterman, who was fouled and hit two free throws for a 74-66 lead. Two more free throws by Hornsby, and it was over.
Effort plays. LSU made them. Texas A&M didn’t.
When the Aggies were not being outhustled, they were being outfoxed by the ever graceful Ben Simmons, who writes box score lines like Mozart – 16 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, three steals.
“He got comfortable passing,” House observed. “He had our big guys on their heels.”
If LSU keeps playing as it has been lately and continues to gradually improve as it has been lately, it is capable — to use another Miles-ism — to keep just about anyone on its heels.
The NCAA Tournament Selections Committee should have a want to realize that.