SEC Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade

LSU

March 12, 2016 (Texas A&M 71, LSU 38) (GS: 5)

For LSU, the 2015-16 season was all about terrible performance. To spend the season with future top-pick Ben Simmons on the team and not make the NCAA Tournament was a clear disappointment. There’s no debate about Texas A&M, this was a solid team that nabbed a 3-seed and made the Sweet Sixteen. But this was the just pinnacle of underwhelming performance for LSU, a putrid game with their backs against the wall.

The Tigers shot just 20% from the field in an absolutely awful all-around performance. Ben Simmons led the way with 10 points and 12 rebounds but nobody else really showed up. Texas A&M had a balanced scoring attack, led by Tonny Trocha-Morelos with 13 points but it didn’t take much to win this game. It may have been close early, but it was already 35-13 at the half. LSU drained a few early 3’s but then went ice-cold once more and the game was over before too long.

There’s no doubt that this was a putrid performance, but it didn’t help that this was in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. LSU’s season would end after this game at 19-14 with a too low RPI. This was a team that had bright spots (beating Kentucky by 18 in early January) as well as downs, with many losses to non-tournament teams like NC State, Charleston, Houston, and Tennessee. The bitter disappointment of this entire season is still felt in Baton Rouge, even as Will Wade tries to build the program back up, but the Tigers are miles away from their glory days.