A Look at the NET: No. 18 LSU Takes a Tumble After Losses to Vanderbilt, Auburn

A week ago today, LSU basketball stood at the top of the SEC, riding a 10-game win streak and 8-0 start to conference play heading to Nashville. But a week is a long time in the college basketball world and the Tigers found that out the hard way with road losses to Vanderbilt and No. 11 Auburn.

The Auburn game in particular was a bitter pill to swallow coach Will Wade said after the game. LSU had become accustomed to blowing second-half leads during conference play but on Saturday was the first time it ended in a loss.

"It's a gut punch, kinda like the Utah State game," Wade told LSUsports radio network. "We've had a lot of these games where we've played very, very well. Controlled the game for a while. It felt like we could never really pull away, we could never really get it above 12 or 14. When we were playing well, we missed some good shots."

LSU stood at No. 22 in the NET rankings, the primary ranking that ultimately decides the seeding in the NCAA tournament, but after the two losses, now finds itself sitting at No. 28 in the NET. Auburn (15) and Kentucky (21) are the only SEC schools with a higher NET ranking than LSU.

Wade and his team will have to go back to the drawing board and further study just how LSU keeps getting itself in these precarious situations.

Defensively, LSU went under the screens on both of the three pointers Auburn drilled in the final minute of action. The one thing LSU can control is turnovers and a costly one from Skylar Mays and a missed free throw from Javonte Smart with the Tigers up two didn't help matters.

"I’m not going to go in great depth on this, but four of our five losses—last night being one of them—have the same deficiency defensively," Wade said before the Auburn game. "At this rate whenever our last game of the year is, we’re going to get beat the same way. We’re going to give up a boat-load of points and we’re not going to be able to guard anybody off the bounce and our offense is not going to be able to bail anybody out."

While not pleased with the way the last week has gone for his team, Wade acknowledged that this is now an eight game race between LSU, Kentucky and Auburn to see who can finish at the top of the SEC.

"At the end of the day, I'm as down as anybody, but we're still tied for first place," Wade said. "It's an eight-game race to see who can win. This is as tough an environment and as good a team as there is in our league and we came in here and we stood toe to toe with them because we were locked in and we were engaged. We've got to continue down that path and keep playing well."