LSU Basketball 'Surprised' But Understanding of NCAA Tournament Seeding

Will Wade and LSU had just come off an emotional roller coaster of an SEC championship game. The 80-79 loss that came down to the last second was a heartbreaker indeed but the team knew there was much more to play for. Once the Tigers had packed their bags and filled their media obligations, the team went back to their hotel to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show.

Tennessee was given a No. 5 seed, Florida a No. 7 seed, Missouri a No. 9 seed, Arkansas a No. 3 seed and Alabama a No. 2 seed. All of those felt relatively in sync with how the team's had produced during the 2020 season up to that point.

So when Wade saw that LSU was a No. 8 seed, he was admittedly surprised.

"I thought we'd be a little bit better than that, but at the end of the day, we lost to Saint Louis and we lost to Texas Tech in the non-conference," Wade said. "We didn't have a lot of meat on the bone in the non-conference because of COVID and just because of the way everything shook out so we didn't have the non-conference profile that we needed. I think we were the top 8-seed. We were right there to get a seven."

Most fans and local media members were stunned by the No. 8 seeding for the purple and gold but recency bias may have been a contributing factor. Leading into the SEC tournament, many had pegged LSU as a No. 7 or a No. 8 seed.

The Tigers had just come off two impressive wins over Vanderbilt and Missouri to close out the season but had also lost to Georgia and Arkansas the week before. Those non-conference losses early in the season, the ones that aren't really thought of at the time, also played a heavy factor in the purple and gold's seeding.

Even strong performances in Nashville with wins over Ole Miss, a top 10 Arkansas team and taking Alabama down to the wire in the championship weren't enough to move the needle.

"The conference tournaments don't matter. That thing was done. Our seed was probably (known) Friday night and didn't move a lot from there," Wade said. "We're in the deal. That's the No. 1 thing. We've got to get ready for Bonaventure."

As Wade mentioned, the program will now prepare for St. Bonaventure, a game that will take place on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. Wade has a lot of experience and respect for the St. Bonaventure program, one that he got to know quite well while the coach at VCU.

The Tigers left early Monday morning for Indianapolis where they will spend a couple of days getting tested upon arrival and forced to stay in their hotel rooms before they can start the prep work for the tournament.

Wade told reporters on Sunday after the selection show that the Tigers will be able to get a light workout in on Wednesday to knock some of the rust off before beginning a two day prep on St. Bonaventure.

"We'll start working on them tomorrow [Monday] as we get on the bus up there. We've got two days to sit around and do nothing but watch film so we'll figure something out," Wade said. "I have a lot of respect for their program and how they've built and how good there are. They are ferocious competitors. They're going to be unbelievably well prepared. Their staff has great continuity and they're tremendous, tremendous basketball program."

For everyone not named Darius Days or Javonte Smart, this will be the first NCAA Tournament experience for the program. Even for Will Wade, it'll be his first time in an NCAA Tournament setting as an LSU coach.

Wade said the Tigers did pick some valuable experience in postseason play with the SEC Tournament this last weekend and that the program will be relying heavily on their veterans to guide them through uncharted waters.

"I think we all got some valuable tournament experience this weekend. Playing in tournament basketball is tournament basketball so I think we all got some valuable experience," Wade said. "Certainly, we'll lean on Darius, we'll lean on Javonte who were here a couple years ago and have that experience under their belt as well. That's part of the reason it was so important to advance this weekend was to get some guys some positive experience.