Losing at South Carolina hurt, but LSU’s NCAA Tournament chances got a big bump when they took down Texas A&M on Saturday, avenging their loss from earlier in the season at College Station.
The Tigers are now back inside of the RPI top 75 but only have three more chances to pick up wins inside of the RPI top 100, just two inside of the RPI top 50. While they will play host to Alabama this coming week, LSU still has to travel to Kentucky after hosting Florida in the home stretch. All things considered, that sets up quite nicely for Johnny Jones’ group if they can avoid crushing defeats against Tennessee and Arkansas (both on the road) and Missouri at home.
As brilliant as Ben Simmons was–16 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, and zero turnovers–the Tigers got key production out of Craig Victor II and timely threes from Keith Hornsby and Tim Quaterman to put away the Aggies when it looked like they may threaten late.
The win was LSU’s fourth against a top 50 RPI team, setting them up for a closing stretch where they could give the selection committee enough of a reason to overlook their non-conference schedule, which ranks out at 201 SOS, not the kind of number that will give them much benefit of the doubt. However, they could argue that without Hornsby and Victor II, holding those games and losses against them on Selection Sunday would be like judging a different team than the one that will eventually take the floor in March.
Whatever the ultimate decision, Saturday’s win went a long way for LSU’s NCAA Tournament chances
