FanHouse Lsu Tigers

I know I'm sick of hearing about Ty Lawson and his toe. I imagine most people are. We would be better served with a Facebook page to provide the status updates. Or perhaps just a continual Twitter giving reports. Breathless reports on ESPN and CBS on the latest smacked of overkill.

Yet today when LSU came out in the second half on fire, it was Ty Lawson that responded. He played almost all of the second half, and made sure the Tar Heels came away with the win.

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The other bubble teams have not been enjoying conference tournament week -- whether it's doing nothing to help themselves or seeing teams not even in the discussion make deep runs to conference finals. The SEC is joining the fun as Mississippi State took down the only ranked team in the SEC, sending the Bulldogs to the SEC Championship game.

Mississippi State will not go to the NCAA Tournament without winning the SEC Championship. It has a non-con that lacks any quality wins other than over solid mid-major Western Kentucky. The way the Bulldogs have been playing in the conference tournament, though, they look like they can win the SEC.

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That there was enough discussion that Kentucky needed to win the SEC Tournament to get an NCAA Tournament bid was a testament to two things. First, that the national interest in Kentucky and fervor of their fans remains unabated despite its record (20-13). The other being that the SEC is down enough that it still seemed realistic that Kentucky could run through the SEC Tourney.

Kentucky led 2-0, and then never again. The Wildcats kept within striking distance of LSU most of the game, but could never get that next score, stop themselves from commiting a bad turnover, or fail to prevent LSU's inside players from getting another offensive rebound.

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No one saw this season coming from the Auburn Tigers. Not in the preseason, when most considered the Tigers to be a team somewhere in the bottom six teams. Instead with the win over LSU, Auburn is 10-6 in the SEC and 21-10 overall. Most importantly, Auburn has worked its way into the discussion for the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn has won eight of their last nine, beating Tennessee, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Their RPI may be up around 70, but they have been the hottest team in the SEC. A decent run in the SEC Tournament, and they will be hard to keep out of the NCAA Tournament. In a year where the bubble is crowded with plenty of other teams that have missed their chances to get that final win, Auburn has been doing just that.

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LSU had not won a game in Lexington since 1989. They were 4-34 against Kentucky going back to 1952. By any measure, the Tigers have not done well when visiting the Wildcats. This was an absolute must-win for Kentucky in the LSU.

Instead, Marcus Thornton used the second half to demonstrate why he should be under consideration for SEC Player of the Year along with Kentucky's Jodie Meeks. Thornton poured in 19 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the Tigers to a big win that puts Kentucky off the bubble.

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Well, I mean aside from LSU which has run their record to 10-1 in the conference. Over in the SEC East it is a mess. Whether you want to call it parity, mediocrity or just plain suckitude, there are four teams pillow-fighting their way to see who can back into the top spot in the division.

Kentucky got humiliated by Vanderbilt yesterday. Florida, which had lost three of four got a win over a bad Alabama team. Tennessee got run out of Oxford by an injury-ravaged Ole Miss team. South Carolina has been overachieving, but they couldn't win in Starkville. That leaves all four with identical 7-4 conference records.

LSU's Glen 'Big Baby' Davis is ready to take the next step to the NBA, and from the sounds of this quote, not believing in himself will never be an issue:

"It's just about being ready and I'm ready," Davis said. "The game is still called basketball. I'm well qualified to play the game. Basically, I was ready for the next level. I feel I have nothing to prove. ... I believe no other power forward can do what I do. I can score and I can rebound."

Hm. Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson, Tim Duncan, Shawn Marion, Zach Randolph, Jermaine O'Neal, Amare Stoudamire, Dirk Nowitzki, and Elton Brand will all be disappointed to hear that Glen Davis is the only one one earth who can score and rebound. It seemed like they were all so close, too.

Davis's unwarranted egotism aside, though, how will has game translate to the NBA? Well, it depends on how well he adapts. I'm not buying any of the Oliver Miller or Tractor Traylor comparisons ... yes, Davis, is a widebody, but he's got incredible strength, nimble feet that awe Jerome Bettis, and can score in a variety of ways.

That said, though, he's got major adapting to do. In college, his size and athleticism just overwhelm most defenders. Not only is he physically bigger, but he's quick enough and a skilled enough ball handler to score off the dribble. This won't come so easily in the NBA. Most of Davis's effectives away from the basket will be nullified at the pro level.

That doesn't mean he's screwed, though. He can score in the post, and he can bang down low and get tough rebounds ... even if those aren't things he particularly enjoys. He'll have to stop playing like a 3, and make himself more of a 4. Of course, when this happens, his height becomes an issue, too, an issue that, quite frankly, hurts his draft status more than his weight does.

The timing is also poor, though I don't necessarily mean that he'd have been better off coming out after last year's Final Four run. No, he'd have been better off in the NBA of 10 years ago, before the 4-spot started on this trend towards basically being taller 3s who can run the court and stretch the defense.

Score one for the Bayou Bengals. It has been announced that LSU will play Mississippi State in a rare early season SEC league match to kick off the 2007 season. LSU coach Les 'The Hat' Miles can be seen to the right celebrating with one of the moves from Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. To the surprise of nobody the game will be televised on ESPN Thursday August 30.

ESPN notes that this "continues a tradition" - started last year. Oy.

The Bulldogs were woeful in a 15-0 shutout loss to South Carolina in last year's opener. The game's MVP was Gamecock punter Ryan Succop which says about all you need to know for how that game went. Both starting quarterbacks were knocked out of action early leaving hapless backups to carry already pedestrian offenses through the remaining game action. The game's real drama was in the supposed confiscation of MSU's famous cowbells. Of little surprise many fans snuck the devices into the stadium making a mockery of the policy.

Although without the services of departed quarterback JaMarcus Russell, LSU is a strong favorite to win in a romp here. At least we can save the date, so to speak. I'm just going to pretend there aren't well over six more months until college football. Because if I knew that to be true I'd cry in misery. And I'm not in the mood for misery.

Anyhoo ... the reasoning escapes me at the moment, but those kickoff classic type games were eliminated a year or two ago, robbing college football fans of some great early season shows. Off the top of my head I remember Penn State's Curtis Enis torching the USC defense a while back, I remember the wild Cal/Kansas State shootout that the Bears lost but signaled something positive for the Jeff Tedford era. I remember Reggie Bush scoring three touchdowns against Virginia Tech in a game that catapulted him onto the national stage.

It'd be nice to have that type of game back. Y'know, compelling national matchups and all? Early season battle of titans. This is nice but it's just another SEC league game played out three weeks premature.

Until the fun games return it's LSU/Mississippi State starting the season off with more of a whimper than a bang. But I'll take it, it's football. Just around the corner. Riiiiiight.

When will the whining stop? Since Auburn's win Saturday over LSU, all we've heard from the LSU fans is whining. The pass interference call on Tiger defensive back Zach Gilbert was close, very close. Did it warrant being reversed? I've watched it at least 20 times and I have to say the call was right. Eric Brock did tip the ball, making it uncatchable.

Could the call have gone either way? Absolutely. It was that close. That's football. I can also point to at least four other plays in the game where Auburn didn't get the call. Does that mean Auburn should have won by two touchdowns? Not anymore than it means LSU should have won the game. Who's to say that the Purple Tigers would have scored? They hadn't sniffed the goal line all day.

I listened with fascination Wednesday as caller-after-caller on Tim Brando's nationally syndicated radio show called to cry about the game. Even Brando, a Shreveport homer, got into the act, coming to his fellow Louisianans defense. I will give Brando credit, he stopped short of saying that it would have made a difference in the game. In fact, he doubts LSU would have scored even if the penalty had stood.

LSU people can't seem to understand why that call is being overshadowed by what happened in the Oklahoma-Oregon game. There is a tremendous difference in the two. First, the call in Auburn was correct. Video has proved it. In the game out West, the call was wrong and because it was wrong it costs Oklahoma the game. That's a big difference. Because of the call, Oregon was allowed to continue on offense and win the game.

If the LSU team can't put this loss behind them soon, they'll be staring at another loss. They are an extremely talented team - one of the best in the country. But if they continue to live in the past, they could find themselves eating Chick-Fil-A's in Atlanta over the holidays. Come to think of it, that has a nice smell... I mean ring.

Link: Football Saturday In The South

Too much hype? No way. Saturday was old school. You could see Shug smiling from the clouds. Saturday was A.P.I. football. This was the game that your grandfather played. Throw out Steve Spurrier, the Fun-N-Gun and the Pro-Set offense. Saturday was the kind of football that the SEC was built on. First downs were like touchdowns. And only real men were allowed on the field.

7-3. 10 points. On a late summer day, we saw the two best teams in the Southeastern Conference leave it all on the field. With apologies to Florida and Georgia, the class of the SEC played Saturday at Pat Dye Field.

There have been many classics played in Auburn; this one was among the best. From Tiger Walk to Spirit (the eagle) taking an extra lap around the stadium during pregame, the 41st renewal of Auburn-LSU will be remembered for its uniqueness and importance.

Word spread around the stadium early that Notre Dame was losing badly to Michigan. The number two national ranking was up for grabs. On the field it didn't seem to matter. You got the feeling that these players were playing for only one thing; and that was to beat each other. Forget the SEC and the national championship, they were out there with one purpose, to bloody each other and hit one another in the gut. And what a treat it was to be a spectator.

There were so many story lines. Where do you start? How about Brandon Cox? In a scene out of a Rocky movie, the junior from Trussville, shrugged off a deep leg bruise to will his team to victory. LSU was determined to shut down Auburn 's running game. And Cox was determined to make them pay.

And how about Kenny Irons? Forget the Heisman talk. The numbers won't be there. More importantly though, his heart was. He clawed and fought his way through a physical LSU defensive line that was all too happy to punish him. Irons 70 yards of rushing was huge at times, just enough to keep the clock moving when it needed moving the most. His longest rushing carry? 12 yards. And it felt like 70 yards.

How about Jerraud Powers? The red-shirt freshman from Decatur was planning on keeping his uniform clean Saturday afternoon. In pregame, back-up cornerback Pat Lee developed a fever and was out before kickoff. Then Jonathan Wilhite was taken out of the game with a hamstring injury. That left Powers to go in and defend against LSU quarterback JeMarcus Russell and its group of blue chip wide receivers.

Surely the LSU offense would go after Powers? And they did. The result: zero. How successful has Tommy Tuberville's recruiting program been? Unbelievable.

Who is this Will Herring kid? We all knew he was a player. But where did he learn to hit like that? Herring was the minister of defense on the field. His jarring hits drew collective sighs from the nearly 88,000 in attendance. Is anyone still worried that he can't play the linebacker position?

Let's not forget Kody Bliss. Not since Lewis Colbert have we seen such a clutch punter. With field position at stake time-after-time, Bliss delivered. He averaged 48.2 yards on six kicks and had one go for 62 yards. Bliss played as big a roll as anyone in Auburn 's victory.

And what about John Vaughn? God love him. There really was Voodoo in the air. Thank goodness that chapter in his life is over. Now he can go back to being an All-SEC kicker.

Kudos to Will Muschamp. What a pleasure it was to watch his enthusiasm on the sidelines. That was worth the admission price alone. He is the real deal. Mark my word: Muschamp will become one of the great coaches in college football.

And finally, let's give some love to LSU. If Auburn does move to number two this week, then LSU should be 2A. Like last year's game, what a shame that someone had to lose. Les Miles and his bunch have quite a program brewing in Bayou country. Don't be surprised to see LSU playing in one of the BCS games during the Holidays.

"One for the ages" is an over-used term. But on Saturday afternoon that's exactly what we got. Thank goodness we don't have to see them again until next year. Are you ready for Buffalo ?