LSU Has Tennessee on Its Mind

No. 1 Lady Tigers Open in Knoxville

Seimone Augustus had plenty to laugh about this season: She was the SEC player of the year and the Lady Tigers went 14-0 in the league. (April L. Brown -- AP)

BATON ROUGE, La., March 14 -- The LSU women's basketball team will open the NCAA women's basketball tournament Sunday in the University of Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena, a building where the Lady Tigers have lost all 18 games they have played, 16 of those to the Lady Vols.

This time, though, the top-seeded Lady Tigers won't be facing their old rivals, and their draw is considered a reward.

While both Tennessee and LSU are top seeds, the Lady Tigers (29-2) are seeded first overall in the tournament. What's more, should LSU defeat Stetson in the first round and then the winner of the game between eighth-seeded Oklahoma and ninth-seeded Arizona, the Lady Tigers will move on to Chattanooga, the regional coveted by Tennessee.

The Lady Vols (26-4), who beat LSU in the championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament and will open the tournament at home in Knoxville, must instead play in Philadelphia if they advance beyond the second round.

"We are happy about being an overall number one seed, but we understand that it is still going to be tough," said LSU junior Seimone Augustus, the SEC player of the year.

"As far as Chattanooga, I think that is great for our fans. They will be able to come a short distance to watch us play, so it will be like a home type atmosphere for us. We are looking at this as another opportunity to try to win the title."

First-year LSU coach Pokey Chatman is adamant about not looking ahead but was obviously pleased with being the top seed in the tournament.

"It's nice to know that the schedule we put together, the run we put together and the fact that we were 14-0 in a power conference came into play," Chatman said. "I'm fortunate that the kids got what they deserved."

Chatman, an all-American guard at LSU and a longtime assistant coach, took over as interim head coach when Sue Gunter fell ill last year. She led the Lady Tigers to their first Final Four and was named head coach when Gunter, one of this year's Basketball Hall of Fame nominees, retired.

This season, with basically the same team plus the addition of 6-foot-5 freshman center Sylvia Fowles, Chatman's Lady Tigers were ranked No. 1 much of the year in compiling the best regular season record in school history.

LSU lost just once in the regular season, at Rutgers in a week when the Scarlet Knights knocked off Tennessee, Texas and LSU in succession.

"We know that we are the No. 1 seed, and that is all that we need to know," said LSU senior Temeka Johnson, the first-team all-SEC point guard. "We are very anxious because coach was generous enough to give us a couple days off, so we are ready to go back to work. Sometime you don't know what to do with yourself when you have off days."

Johnson, who has started 122 consecutive games, makes LSU's offense run. She averages 10.0 points per game and 7.5 assists (second nationally), and her 901 assists are an SEC record.

Augustus, who hails from Baton Rouge and spurned Tennessee to stay at home, is a 6-1 forward who runs the floor well, is a strong defender and ranks sixth on LSU's career scoring list. This season, she's averaging 20.1 points (10th in the nation), 4.5 rebounds and has made 55.4 percent of her shots, many close to the basket but seemingly just as many from beyond 10 feet.

The difference this season, however, has been Fowles, who doesn't start. Fowles has huge hands, and she is featured in an ESPN promo for the women's tournament holding two basketballs with her arms outstretched. She can dunk the ball easily, but has yet to in a game.

Fowles, from Miami, averages 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game. Defensively, she alters shot after shot, and on offense, she's shooting 58 percent, many on putbacks. She has 10 double-doubles this season.

"She outruns the perimeter players in the 200-meter dash," assistant coach Christy Sides said with a laugh, recalling offseason training.

With LSU and Tennessee in different parts of the draw, if they play each other again, it can't be until the NCAA final on April 5 in Indianapolis. As a freshman, Fowles has a limited history with Tennessee, the benchmark program of women's basketball with six NCAA championships. Feb. 10, in LSU's victory over Tennessee before a sold-out crowd in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Fowles had 7 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocks. And even in the most recent loss, Fowles had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Chatman is trying not to think about a prospective matchup with LSU's conference rival.

"I got away this weekend and didn't watch the games or read the newspaper," she said. "I would have driven myself crazy."