LSU Basketball Picked as No. 8 Seed in NCAA Tournament

LSU has its March Madness seeding and opponent but it's not what was expected. The Tigers were given the No. 8 seed by the NCAA tournament selection committee, where they will play host to St. Bonaventure in the first round on the East side of the bracket.

It's a pretty shocking seeding placement considering the recent string of success for the program. The Tigers earned a quality win over top 10 Arkansas and took Alabama neck and neck in the SEC Championship on Sunday afternoon.

If Will Wade and company can get past St. Bonaventure in game one, the Tigers will face the winner of the No. 1 seeded Michigan game.

The Tigers are coming off a physical, highly emotional SEC Championship loss to Alabama on Sunday afternoon. Though LSU came up short, there's no denying the purple and gold are playing their best ball of the season.

Just ask Trendon Watford, who put forth a heroic effort in the championship game, scoring a career high 30 points to go along with eight rebounds in the loss.

"Yeah, I think we put the world on notice, not just the SEC. Coming into this tournament, nobody even expected us to make it out of the first round. LSU has never made it out of the first round since Coach Wade has been here," Watford said. "I think we woke the world up. We got more to prove. I got more to prove, all my guys got more to prove. Everybody come together, learn from this loss, just continue to improve."

Will Wade said after the game that the team would find a place to watch the selection show together, grab a bite to eat and then drive straight for Indianapolis Monday morning.

"I think this is the team, quite frankly, I expected to have most of the season. We haven't necessarily played that way all year. We've been hot and cold or hit or miss," Wade said. "We finally started playing closer to our potential as a team and as a group in this game, this weekend. I guess better late than never, but we have to carry it over to the NCAA tournament."