LSU, Alabama focus on survival

The anticipated second showdown of the SEC West Division’s best teams from the last two seasons has changed tenor considerably — both from early in the season and even from their first get-together three weeks ago.

When Alabama visits the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Wednesday night, the Crimson Tide and LSU will be more focused on survival than wrestling for the top spot in the West.

The Tigers (13-7, 2-4) have lost three games in a row and tumbled out of the national polls Monday for the first time this season. Alabama has also been in a swoon, dropping three of their last four games since dispatching of LSU, 71-61, Jan. 9 in Tuscaloosa. The Tide somehow remained ranked, 19th by the Associated Press and 20th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

Alabama (15-5, 2-4) has been awful in SEC road games so far, losing by 27, 21 and 24 points. Arkansas edged the Tide, 63-57, on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum, snapping Bama’s 17-game home winning streak.

LSU also had a streak ended last week when Vanderbilt won, 64-53, on Wednesday at the PMAC, halting a run of 19 straight SEC home wins.

Both coaches remained upbeat Monday when they spoke about a game that has taken on a much different meaning than it did when the Tide and Tigers were predicted to be the clear-cut frontrunners to decide the West Division championship.

“I liked the effort of our team,” LSU coach John Brady said of a 57-54 loss at Georgia on Sunday. “I liked how hard they played. I just haven’t been able to get them to a position where the consistency is where it needs to be. At crucial moments we haven’t been able to make the plays we need to win. Georgia did and we didn’t. We need to keep playing with the same intensity defensively, but we’ve got to figure out a way to win. We need to teach and encourage and find a way to get some guys the ball and some different looks so that we can develop some more consistency in scoring.”

Alabama’s Mark Gottfried voiced a similar sentiment about the six-point loss to the Razorbacks. The Tide trailed by as much as 25 points midway through the second half before storming back.

“I thought our effort was good enough, our defense was good enough,” Gottfried said. “We were just pitiful offensively. But there were a lot of encouraging things in that game. We did a lot of things well. And the things we didn’t do well we need to do better at. The most glaring thing is make some baskets, which I think our guys will. But our defensive intensity was a lot better than it had been; it’s been very good and we’re going to build on that and go from there.”

Davis on Wooden list

LSU junior Glen Davis is one of 30 players on the John Wooden Award Midseason All-American Team released Monday.

Players on the team are eligible for the Wooden Award, a national player of the year honor named after the legendary UCLA coach.

The 6-foot-9, 300-pound Glen Davis is averaging 18.2 points and an SEC-best 10.4 rebounds a game this season. He is the only player on the current list who was a Wooden All-American last season.

Besides Glen Davis, there are players among the 30 who LSU has faced this season (Kevin Durant from Texas, Acie Law from Texas A&M) and five more from teams the Tigers will take on next month — Chris Lofton of Tennessee, Randolph Morris of Kentucky and three Florida juniors: Joakim Noah, Taurean Green and Corey Brewer.

Former Tigers lauded

Former LSU players Chris Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal were included on a list of players with freshman super seasons recently compiled by ESPN.com “Page 2” writer Bomani Jones.

Jackson’s record-setting 1988-89 season was voted the No. 1 freshman season since freshman eligibility began in the 1972-73 season, while O’Neal’s freshman campaign of 1989-90 was voted the eighth best.

Jones compiled the list to give some comparison to the strong freshman seasons by Durant and Ohio State’s Greg Oden.

Jackson averaged 30.2 points and 4.1 assists per game in his first college season and shot 49 percent from the field. O’Neal averaged 13 points, 12 rebounds and 3.6 blocked shots per game.