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Sunday, November 23, 2008
SPORTS BLOG
Sports Blog: Memories of once-great rivalry
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The LSU-Kentucky game tonight is just another game on the SEC men's basketball schedule, just one of the gazillion hoops games ESPN will show this season. The Tigers' 2007 slide has rendered its annual date with the Wildcats virtually meaningless this season. Divisional play, coupled with the LSU program's up-and-down track since 1993, has sapped the juice out of a once-great rivalry. And that's a shame.
Sure, the numbers say Kentucky leads the series, 76-22, and 37-4 in Lexington. That doesn't seem like much of a rivalry. But there was a time when the Tigers were almost on equal footing with the Wildcats. From 1978 to '86, LSU won three outright SEC titles, Kentucky won five and shared a sixth with Tennessee. And from '78 to '87, the Tigers and Wildcats split 24 meetings.
Here's a list of events that show what used to be on the line when these two teams got together:Former LSU head coach Dale Brown complained about rough Kentucky play, then got into a classic verbal sparring session with a reporter after a blowout loss in Lexington in 1978. One month later, five Tiger starters fouled out and LSU still beat the eventual national champion Wildcats in overtime, 95-94. These two games seemed to create a rivalry out of a series that Kentucky had dominated to that point.
The next season, LSU claimed its first win at Lexington and swept the regular-season series on its way to its first SEC regular-season championship since 1953. But Kentucky turned the tables in the conference tournament, routing the Tigers, 80-67.
In 1980, Kentucky's Kyle Macy hit a shot at the overtime buzzer to beat LSU, 76-74, in a regular season-ending, winner-take-all game for the SEC regular-season title. The Tigers got revenge one week later, beating the Wildcats, 80-78, for the school's only league tournament title.
One year later, Kentucky spoiled ended LSU's 26-game winning streak and a bid for an 18-0 regular-season SEC record with a 73-71 win in Lexington.
Unranked LSU teams blew out top-10 Kentucky teams in '82 and '83 in the regular-season finales. The Wildcats responded by routing the Tigers twice in 1984 by an average of 18 points per game en route to the Final Four.
The Tigers won the 1985 SEC regular-season title, in part by beating Kentucky in the last game of the regular season. The next season, LSU avenged three losses to Big Blue with a 59-57 victory in the Southeast Regional championship game to win a Final Four berth.
In 1987, the Tigers beat Kentucky at Rupp, 76-41. LSU has won in Lexington just once since then, and that was in 1989. The Tigers are winless in last 10 games in Lexington, including an 82-65 loss to the Wildcats in the 1993 SEC tournament final.
Two losses out of three and a 26-10 scoring deficit at Stetson shows LSU head baseball coach Paul Mainieri has his work cut out for him. What's impressive, though, is that Mainieri didn't appear to sugar-coat his assessment of his team following Saturday's 14-1 loss, and the Tigers bounced back with an 8-4 win Sunday. But until LSU learns to consistently scratch out hits and runs without the home run, the Tigers will continue to struggle.
ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports the Saints likely will use the franchise tag on defensive end Charles Grant by Thursday.
Reggie Bush turned an ankle during a celebrity basketball game that was part of the NBA's All-Star Weekend. That happened one week after Drew Brees dislocated his left elbow in the Pro Bowl. If I'm the Saints front office, I don't let Deuce McAllister go anywhere near a sporting event, even if it's a pickup game, until training camp.
--Rich Loup, 2theadvocate.com Sports Editor
Sure, the numbers say Kentucky leads the series, 76-22, and 37-4 in Lexington. That doesn't seem like much of a rivalry. But there was a time when the Tigers were almost on equal footing with the Wildcats. From 1978 to '86, LSU won three outright SEC titles, Kentucky won five and shared a sixth with Tennessee. And from '78 to '87, the Tigers and Wildcats split 24 meetings.
Here's a list of events that show what used to be on the line when these two teams got together:
And there are other memorable games in the last two decades. Brown and former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino almost came to blows in an 94-81 LSU victory in Baton Rouge in 1990. The Wildcats rallied from a 31-point deficit to claim a 99-95 win at the PMAC on Mardi Gras Day 1994, then scored 86 first-half points two years later in a 129-97 rout of the Tigers. And two years ago, Kentucky took overtime to nip LSU, 79-78, in an SEC tournament semifinal.
Given that the 2006-07 Tigers have lost eight of their last nine and Glen Davis won't make the trip because of a leg injury, there's not a whole lot of spark to tonight's LSU-Kentucky game. And for someone who remembers when the series was a true rivalry, that's a sad thing to admit.
Two losses out of three and a 26-10 scoring deficit at Stetson shows LSU head baseball coach Paul Mainieri has his work cut out for him. What's impressive, though, is that Mainieri didn't appear to sugar-coat his assessment of his team following Saturday's 14-1 loss, and the Tigers bounced back with an 8-4 win Sunday. But until LSU learns to consistently scratch out hits and runs without the home run, the Tigers will continue to struggle.
ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports the Saints likely will use the franchise tag on defensive end Charles Grant by Thursday.
Reggie Bush turned an ankle during a celebrity basketball game that was part of the NBA's All-Star Weekend. That happened one week after Drew Brees dislocated his left elbow in the Pro Bowl. If I'm the Saints front office, I don't let Deuce McAllister go anywhere near a sporting event, even if it's a pickup game, until training camp.
--Rich Loup, 2theadvocate.com Sports Editor
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