Basketball notebook: LSU women's seeding situation, men's SEC Tournament outlook

Here’s a rundown of the latest in the basketball scene at LSU and what you need to know for the coming week. We’ll have more recruiting updates in the coming weeks as well as these two teams approach the end of their seasons. Stay tuned to The Bengal Tiger for the latest.

WBB rankings/polls

The women dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 in the latest AP Poll after losing to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. It’s a substantial drop that puts in question whether or not LSU will get a two-seed from the NCAA tournament committee on Sunday night. It seems like Maryland, UConn, Utah, and LSU are four teams fighting for the last three two-seeds.

ESPN just updated its bracketology this morning and just made the change to drop LSU to a three seed after having the Tigers on the two-seed line on Monday. In place, UConn jumped them on the two-seed line. In this hypothetical, LSU is the 3-seed, Arizona is the 6-seed, and Maryland is the 2-seed in this region with Virginia Tech as the 1-seed. 

Ultimately, getting a low 2-seed or a high 3-seed doesn’t change much. Either way the Tigers will be expected to make it into the second weekend after taking care of the lower seeds in their regional. If this team advances to the Sweet 16, then it’s going to be a battle regardless of where they are seeded. The first two rounds are the most important, then Mulkey and her team will have work to do to stay alive.

Personally, I don’t believe LSU should drop to a 3-seed after losing to Tennessee, who is ranked No. 15 in the NET, while UConn sputtered to the finish line in the regular season, and Utah and Stanford lost to teams outside the top 20 in the NET in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament, but LSU’s non-conference will continue to be held against them. Still, a team that ranks No. 3 in the NET being a 3-seed would be quite the indictment on the NCAA’s metric it created.

MBB: KJ Williams receives SEC honor

The All-conference teams were announced and LSU’s KJ Williams made the list for second-team all-conference. Williams was awesome this year for LSU, averaging 17.4 points per game to go with 7.6 rebounds per game in conference play. He also posted eight double-doubles this season and was the unquestioned leader for this Tigers team.

The season obviously didn’t go the way LSU wanted it to go, but McMahon and Williams have been together for a long time and it’s cool to see them both be elevated to the big stage of the SEC and Williams continue to thrive. I actually think he has an interesting shot at a pro career with his 3-point shooting. He’s going to finish the season shooting over 40 percent from three on over four attempts per game. That, paired with a solid rebounding foundation could be appealing to G-League teams or high-level overseas teams. He turns 24 in September, so I don’t think the upside is really there to improve much more, but what he is right now is a really quality player.

“It’s a great credit to him and his development as a player,” head coach Matt McMahon said. “You’ve seen him expand his game and get better every single year. The ability for him to shoot the ball consistently from the 3-point line ended up being a huge difference maker for him this season. He’s always shown he’s a versatile scorer in the post and he’s been really good in ball screen attacks, so he’s had a great season. He’s done a lot of winning in his career and I’m disappointed I couldn’t help him win more this year, but he’s added value for himself as he looks to his professional career.”

LSU MBB vs. Georgia thoughts

LSU faces Georgia on Wednesday at approximately 7:30 p.m. CT in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

The Tigers kept it close with Georgia last time they played, losing 65-63 as the Bulldogs hit a tough shot with less than five seconds left to win it. LSU actually led at halftime of that game and fought back from an eight-point deficit with 6:24 left in the game to take the lead.

LSU is the worst team in the SEC this year, make no mistakes about it, but Georgia had a very unimpressive season as well. The Bulldogs end the year 6-12 in the SEC and 148th in Kenpom, just a few spots higher than LSU. With Cario Oquendo and Braelen Bridges to go with some of their other role players, Georgia has the more capable team, but Kenpom almost has the game as a 50-50 split, with UGA as just one-point favorites.

LSU committed 19 turnovers last time these two played, but the Tigers were better in a lot of areas of the game, including rebounding and 3-point shooting. If McMahon’s team can keep the turnovers below 14, I think LSU can win this game. I’ve faded this team several times this year, but this won’t be one of those times.

“At times, the offensive execution was very good in that game,” McMahon said. “The defensive execution was good enough, but the 19 turnovers were way too much to overcome. Georgia forces about ten a game, so we have to take care of the ball there. They put an unbelievable amount of pressure on you off the dribble in getting to the free throw line, so our ability to keep them off the line and keep them out of the paint. Those are the areas of emphasis.”

If LSU wins, it would get a Vanderbilt team that’s without star center Liam Robbins, which is both a good and a bad thing. Robbins was the Commodores best player at 7-foot-1 and a first-team All-SEC player, but LSU was able to attack him in the pick and pop with KJ Williams, allowing him to go for 35 points in the win at home on Feb. 22. Without him, it’s a very different game. Still, a decent draw for the Tigers, in theory.