What a game in the Maravich Center Wednesday night as the LSU Tigers rallied from 15-points down early in the second half to beat 17th ranked Kentucky at the buzzer, 75-74.
Tyrell Ward scored the winning bucket on a tip in as he took a pass from Jordan Wright who was falling out of bounds along the baseline.
Coach Matt McMahon says it was an amazing ending.
“Jordan got blocked, goes and saves it and throws it to the front of the rim, Tyrell Ward comes flying out of nowhere to put the ball in the buzzer,” said McMahon. “It won’t be on any coaching clinic but out players toughness and grit, flying around, made the play to win the game.”
It’s the second straight win over a Top 25 opponent. LSU rallied from 16-point down to beat at that time 11th ranked South Carolina on Saturday 64-63.
And last week, LSU rallied back from 20 points down and nearly beat Florida, who is now ranked 24th in the country.
LSU is 14-12 overall, 6-7 in the SEC and all of sudden Tiger fans are wondering if this team could go dancing in March.
Making the NCAA Tournament remains a long shot. Beating Kentucky moves LSU’s NCAA Net Ranking to 85. At 15-7, Yale has a higher Net Ranking at 84 than LSU.
The Net Ranking is a key component the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to select the 68-team field.
A loss to Nicholls State in November really stings. The Tigers also have nonconference losses against Dayton, Syracuse, Kansas State and Texas.
LSU has several winnable games coming up. The Tigers host Mississippi State on Saturday. The Bulldogs have won four in a row, but Bayou Bengals are playing well too.
LSU finishes the regular season by facing Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Missouri. Those four teams are the bottom four teams in the SEC.
LSU has an excellent shot at finishing with a winning record in the SEC and a berth in the NIT Tournament.
That’s a solid jump from where this program was a year ago when the Tigers won two games in SEC play.
And the future looks bright. Sophomores Tyrell Ward and Jalen Reed are showing signs of development. Both scored in double figures in the wild win over the Wildcats.
McMahon’s third recruiting class has two players who are ranked among the Top 65 in the country, power forward Robert Miller from Houston and point guard Curtis Givens from Memphis.
If McMahon and the Tigers can finish this season strong, it should result in the program having success in getting players out of the transfer portal that want to be part of an NCAA Tournament team next year.