LSU Basketball Climbs Into 2021 AP Top 25 at No. 25, Highly Ranked in NET

LSU is off to an 8-0 start for the 2021 season and the Tigers are making a splash in the rankings with SEC play just a few weeks away. On Monday the purple and gold came in at No. 25 in the AP Top 25, marking the first time this season Will Wade and company have made an appearance.

It marks the first time LSU has cracked the top 25 since February of the 2020 season.

Perhaps more importantly was the team's debut in the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings where the Tigers came in at No. 2 in the country behind only Purdue. The NET rankings are extremely important come NCAA tournament selection time so for the Tigers to be so highly valued eight games into the season marks a turn for this team.

LSU is 2-0 in Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 games so far this season and one of just a handful of programs still undefeated on the 2021-22 season. Wade was asked last week about the Tigers not breaking into the rankings and said it's something he doesn't pay much attention to.

"That's how it is at LSU. You've gotta prove it, prove it, prove it. You gotta go take it," Wade said. "I tell our guys all the time you gotta go prove it and if that's not enough you've gotta do it again. That's just the way it works around here and that's the way we like it."

Wade wasn't pleased with the team's overall performance last week in a win over Ohio where the offense struggled for long stretches. The Tigers have quite a bit of time to, in Wade's words, hit the "reset" button before a Dec. 11 matchup with Georgia Tech.

“We’ve got to work on our offense. We’ve got to work on our ball movement,” Wade said. “Our ball sticks, we’re just so poor on offense. It’s my fault… We get four offensive rebounds because one we don’t give great effort, but two we don’t move the ball. If you don’t move the ball, you can’t get them behind the play. You can’t get on the offensive glass.”