Lady Tigers set for big opening road game
The following was written by Scott Hotard of The Advocate:
The LSU women’s basketball team returns the bulk of last year’s 21-10 squad, and a trio of freshmen join the fray for coach Van Chancellor’s fourth season.
If you’re wondering how good the Lady Tigers are, you won’t have to wait long to find out.
Led by All-Big Ten center Amy Jaeschke, Northwestern returns four starters from a team that went 18-15 last year with a pair of wins in the WNIT.
The Wildcats welcome the Lady Tigers to Evanston, Ill, for today’s 2 p.m. tipoff in only the third meeting of the schools. It’s the start of a brutal pre-conference schedule for LSU that includes matchups with No. 1 Connecticut, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 16 UCLA, plus three more teams that reached the NCAA tournament last season.
“This is a classic example of over-scheduling,” Chancellor said. “If you want a textbook version of over-scheduling, this is it.”
The schedule is reminiscent of the one LSU played two years ago. Nonconference games against the likes of UConn, Florida State, Notre Dame and Xavier helped LSU grab a No. 6 seed in the NCAAs despite a pedestrian 18-10 record.
LSU’s schedule wasn’t as strong last year, and the Lady Tigers were given a No. 7 seed and shipped to Duke for the start of the NCAA tournament.
After beating Hartford, LSU bowed out against the host Blue Devils in the second round.
The Lady Tigers must replace all-conference guard Allison Hightower from that team, but they have junior forward LaSondra Barrett — the second-leading scorer for LSU as a freshman and sophomore — and nine more returning letter-winners.
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