Shirley Prejean
March 12, 2007Clyde Dennis
March 14, 2007
It has been an interesting week to say the least for the LSU basketball teams.
On Wednesday, Lady Tiger coach Pokey Chatman announced she was resigning from the university to pursue other avenues. Initially she was going to stay on and coach in the NCAA Tournament, however on Thursday, the university announced that assistant coach Bob Starkey would lead the team in the tournament.
That came on the heels of reports of Chatman having inappropriate conduct with a former player.
The Lady Tigers, who fell to Tennessee in the final of the SEC Tournament, will find out who, when and where they play in the first round of the tournament on Monday. LSU has made three consecutive trips to the Women’s Final Four.
The men’s basketball team, which was ranked fifth in the preseason polls, finished its season on Friday with a 80-60 loss to Ole Miss in the second round of the SEC Tournament. The Tigers upset Tennessee, 76-67, in the opening round of the tourney on Thursday.
With a 17-15 overall record and finishing sixth in the western part of the conference, LSU did not receive an at-large bid to the tournament, but was also snubbed by the NIT selection committee.
Against Tennessee, Glen Davis led the way with 25 points in the overtime victory. In the loss to Ole Miss, the Tigers were led in scoring by Tasmin Mitchell (17 points) and Darnell Lazare (13 points), who played his final game in an LSU uniform.
BASEBALL TEAM WINS SERIES OVER SOUTHERN MISS
The Tigers posted a 2-1 victory on Friday, a 15-8 victory on Saturday and fell in the series finale, 5-3. USM came into the series with only two losses this season and were nationally ranked.
In the first game of the series, left-hander Charlie Furbush (3-1) held the Golden Eagles to one run on three hits in eight innings. Louis Coleman notched his second save of the season thanks to a game-ending double play.
On Saturday, the Tigers put up a season-high 15 runs. Leading the 15-hit attack was Michael Hollander, who was 3-for-4 with a career-high five runs batted in.
On Sunday, a pair of LSU errors led to three runs as the Tigers fell to 11-7 on the season. One of the only offensive highlights in the game was a solo home run by Jordan Mayer.
LSU will play host to McNeese State at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday before starting SEC action this weekend at South Carolina. The game Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday’s contest is scheduled for 3 p.m. and Sunday’s game is scheduled for 11 a.m. All three games will be on the Jumbo Sports Network.
SOFTBALL TEAM OPENS SEC ACTION WITH SERIES VICTORY
The Lady Tigers split a doubleheader in Oxford over the weekend and won the series finale and improved to 24-4 overall and 2-1 in league play.
LSU started off last week with a 7-1 victory over McNeese State on Wednesday in Baton Rouge. In that game, Emily Turner had a complete-game, two-hitter and struck out 10 while her teammates combined for 12 hits. Two of the hits were home runs by Vanessa Soto and Kristen Hobbs.
Against Ole Miss, the Lady Tigers fell 2-1 in the first game and 2-0 in the second game, which went nine innings. Turner took the loss in the first game after allowing four hits and recording three strikeouts.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Dani Hofer notched a complete-game shutout with two hits no walks and eight strikeouts. Offensively, LSU got a run-scoring single by Killian Roessner and scored its other run on a wild pitch. In the series finale, the Lady Tigers won 4-0 as Hofer improved to 10-1 with a complete-game shutout. She allowed four hits, meanwhile the Lady Tigers only got five hits (Quinlan Duhon had the only RBI), but took advantage of three Ole Miss errors.
LSU will start a four-game homestand on Tuesday against Texas-San Anotonio at 6 p.m. The weekend contests are against Florida with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and single game 1 p.m. on Sunday, which will be televised by Cox Sports Television.
FOOTBALL TEAM HOLDS SCRIMMAGE
The LSU defense appeared to have picked up right where it finished the 2006 season as the Tigers put together a dominating performance on Saturday in what was the first full scale scrimmage of the spring. Saturday’s scrimmage had the Tigers going close to 80 plays with the first and second units getting most of the snaps during the one hour and five minute workout.
The scrimmage featured first-and-10 situations for the offense as well as third-and-short and long situations. The Tigers also had each unit having a turn with the two-minute drill as well as a goal line opportunity.
The scrimmage featured the No. 1 offense going against the No. 1 defense for close to 20 snaps, which included four plays in the two-minute drill.
Both Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux took snaps with the No. 1 offense on Saturday.
Tyson Jackson continued his emergence as one of the nation’s top defensive ends as he recorded three sacks and a tackle for a loss during the workout. One of Jackson’s sacks came during the two-minute drill against the No. 1 offense, while his other came during the goal line drill against the No. 2 offense.
Offensively, the play of Early Doucet was one of the highlights for the Tigers as the senior caught a 25-yard TD pass from Flynn against the No. 2 defense. Doucet also hauled in a 25-yard reception from Perrilloux against the No. 1 defense.
Other key plays for the Tigers offense had wide receiver Brandon LaFell catching a 34-yard pass from Flynn; Ricky Dixon with a 13-yard reception from Perrilloux; Trindon Holiday with a 25-yard run; and Richard Murphy with a 16-yard run.
Other defensive standouts for the Tigers included: Rahim Alem with a sack for a 10-yard loss; Chevis Jackson and Darry Beckwith with pass breakups; Renoldo Thompson with an interception, and Craig Steltz and Tremaine Johnson with tackles for a loss.
The Tigers will hold their second full scale scrimmage of the spring Saturday in Tiger Stadium. The annual spring game is March 24 in Tiger Stadium.
