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Tigers, Bruins, oh my

After Texas forces overtime, resilient LSU controls the extra period to reach their fourth Final Four and face UCLA.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published March 26, 2006

ATLANTA - LSU coach John Brady didn't fritter away the precious few minutes before the start of overtime in the Atlanta Region finale against Texas to diagram a play or even talk strategy.

"My goal in that timeout was to make sure our players didn't feel in any way that they could lose that game," he said.

His Tigers, looking more confident and comfortable than the Longhorns, scored the first seven and never looked back for a 70-60 win Saturday evening before an announced 27,130 at the Georgia Dome.

The No.4-seeded Tigers (27-8), the SEC regular-season champions, advance to the Final Four for the fourth time (1953, 1981 and 1986) and play Oakland Region champ No.2-seeded UCLA in Indianapolis.

"It means a great deal to our fans," Brady said. "I think it's uplifting for our state, but it's great for our program. It puts us in a situation now where, I don't know if you call it respect, but certainly the notoriety that we're going to receive from this is extremely important."

In some ways, this climb to the heights of college basketball is every bit as improbable as LSU's last one a generation ago. Dale Brown's team was an 11 seed that year.

The Tigers had to remain confident and cohesive after five heartbreaking nonconference losses that left them 8-5 before starting the SEC schedule without the benefit of much experience. Point guard Darrel Mitchell is their lone senior.

"We always believed in ourselves and our team," said 6-9, 310-pound sophomore forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis, the SEC player of the year. "It's just a will and determination to get back up again after you get slugged by a tough team. You've got to be willing to take some shots and bounce back up."

They did in January and again on this night.

The No.2-seeded Longhorns (30-7) were down by three and, in a frenetic sequence, saw LSU block two shots before sophomore guard Daniel Gibson tied the score at 52 on his fourth 3-pointer with 32.1 seconds left.

LSU then missed three shots to send the game into overtime. Surely the Longhorns, who made it this far thanks to senior guard Kenton Paulino's buzzer-beating 3-pointer Thursday against West Virginia, had the momentum, and the Tigers were ripe to be put away.

They might have been were it not for their remarkable resiliency.

"(Assistant) coach (John) Treloar showed us a video of Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson the other day," said LSU freshman forward Tyrus Thomas, who had 21 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks to be named the region's Most Outstanding Player and returned for the final moments despite cramps and illness. "Texas gave us some hard punches, and we had to be Buster Douglas and swing back. And we swung back at them. We knocked out Mike Tyson."

In a lightning fashion that would have made Buster proud.

Freshman forward Tasmin Mitchell hit a jumper four seconds into the extra period, then Darrel Mitchell came up with a steal that led to a layup by freshman guard Garrett Temple, then Tasmin Mitchell followed with a steal on the next Texas possession.

"Those turnovers were tough, man," lamented senior forward Brad Buckman, who was trying to feed junior forward P.J. Tucker in the post on the second steal. "We tried to get something going and we had a couple mental lapses, and it just happened."

Davis capitalized on that second turnover with a rare 3-pointer (he was just 5-of-22 from long range on the season) with 3:07 left that proved to be the backbreaker.

"The opportunity was there to make the shot," he said. "Most of the time when I'm shooting 3s, I'm thinking about it too much. So I was just in rhythm and I felt that was a great shot, and I made it."

The Longhorns never got closer than five the rest of the way as LSU continued to shut them down. Texas shot a season-low 30.4 percent; star sophomore forward LaMarcus Aldridge was just 2-for-14. LSU held top-seeded Duke to a season-low 27.7 percent and 54 points, its fewest since 1996.

"Defensively, they made it really difficult for us to score," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "LSU deserved to win the game. They made the plays when they had to."

[Last modified March 26, 2006, 00:26:15]