After rough month, LSU prepares for Gamecocks

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Posted 5:37AM on Tuesday, January 11, 2005

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - After a five-game, 30-day away schedule, the LSU basketball team has piled up plenty of frustration, but only one victory. Now the Tigers find themselves without much room for error just one game into the Southeastern Conference season. LSU hosts South Carolina (9-4, 1-1 SEC) Wednesday, and they can't afford to fall much further if they hope to compete for a postseason spot. The Tigers dipped to 6-5 their worst start to a season since 1996-97 with a 73-58 loss at Alabama on Saturday. Since an 82-79 victory against McNeese State at home on Dec. 13, LSU's lone bright spot was a 67-50 victory against Florida State. They fell to Southern Mississippi (88-84 in overtime), at Houston (81-72), at Utah (69-55). Then came Saturday's loss in LSU's Southeastern Conference opener. In losses to West Virginia and Houston, LSU's guards allowed too many wide-open looks from the perimeter. Southern Miss and Alabama consistently burned the Tiger defense in transition. Utah pounded away inside. LSU has also taken its lumps rebounding, getting outrebounded in each of its last four losses. Alabama, Utah, Houston and Southern Miss combined to snare 53 offensive rebounds alone against the Tigers. Coach John Brady seemed upbeat after his team's latest disappointment. He cited the troubles on defense and rebounding, but reiterated that he thinks the Tigers are ``pretty good.'' ``I don't have any real complaints,'' Brady said. ``We just need to get better at little things. I like our team. I think we have a good team. We need to believe in ourselves a little bit better, that we are a good team.'' The Gamecocks have pieced together three solid weeks and on Saturday they throttled Georgia, 74-54. Of South Carolina's four losses, three have come by four points each at No. 2-ranked Kansas, at No. 16-ranked Pittsburgh and at No. 8 Kentucky last Wednesday. The other defeat was a 63-62 overtime nailbiter at cross-state rival Clemson. Against Georgia, the Gamecocks fell behind 13-3 but then found the mark on 12 consecutive field goals in a first-half run and outscored the Bulldogs 41-11 over the final 15 minutes of the first period. ``We're just getting in our groove,'' South Carolina forward Carlos Powell said. ``So a lot of people watch out. We're coming man.'' Powell is a major reason why the Gamecocks have gained a head of steam. The 6-foot-7 senior leads the team with 14.9 points and 6.5 rebounds a game.