With three games left, LSU basketball seeks to keep climbing for better SEC tourney seed

Three wins in the past four games have given the LSU men’s basketball team some hope for a strong finish to the regular season.

A chance to finish in the top half of the Southeastern Conference standings and earn a higher seed for the upcoming league tournament are the goals for the Tigers heading into their final three-game stretch.

It begins at 2:30 p.m. Saturday when LSU (15-13, 7-8 SEC) goes against Vanderbilt (8-20, 3-12) in Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee. The game will be televised by the SEC Network.

The contest will be the second this season for the Commodores and Tigers, who prevailed 77-69 when they met Jan. 9 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Matt McMahon’s team opened the second half with a 19-6 run that lit the fuse for the win.

“Our focus has to be to keep getting better and keep improving as a team to find ways to win on Saturday,” McMahon said. “That really is the only focus we need to have.”

One player he won’t have to remind of that is fifth-year senior Jordan Wright, who scored 15 points and four rebounds in the first meeting with the Commodores. A 6-foot-6 guard, Wright played four seasons at Vanderbilt before transferring to LSU for a COVID bonus season. He’s averaging 14.9 points and 2.6 assists and leads the Tigers in rebounding with 5.1 per game.

“I have really great memories there,” Wright said after a 67-66 win over Georgia on Tuesday night. “Coach (Jerry) Stackhouse gave me a chance when not many other high-major schools did, honestly.

“I enjoyed my four years thoroughly there, so it’s going to be a surreal moment to step back in the gym, especially being on the outside. Seeing all my teammates, friends, classmates, it’s going to be an emotional experience for me.”

His current coach understands Wright’s scenario.

“It’s a meaningful game for Jordan, going back to the place he spent four years at and has two degrees from,” McMahon said. “I know his teammates and everyone will want to play well to try and get this win.”

A victory would allow LSU to maintain at least a one-game lead over Ole Miss and Texas A&M and keep the Tigers in eighth place in the SEC alone. They could even pull into a seventh-place tie with a win and a loss by Mississippi State at Auburn.

“Every game is incredibly important. You want to win them all, and we’ve put ourselves in a position here where you’re in the mix to get into the top half of the standings,” McMahon said. “We know it’s going to take winning games down the stretch to do that, so there’s great importance on this opportunity Saturday.”

Not worrying about what teams around them are doing will be a key against Vanderbilt and in the two remaining games at Arkansas and at home against Missouri, he said.

Even though the final three opponents all have a losing record in league play and are a combined 8-37, McMahon knows his team can’t take anything for granted after the Tigers’ last three wins have come by one point each.

“In think we’ve learned, through good and bad, how difficult it is to win in this league,” McMahon said. “We’ve seen how many games that it comes down to the final possession — and there have been a ton of them. 

“Our players have really done a good job embracing the importance of every possession (and) finding ways to win. You have to keep your focus on making improvements you need to make from game to game, to give ourselves the best chance to win.”