Tigers Advance

Andy Katz of ESPN writes a great report on the LSU Tigers who will be one of the last four standing going in to next weeks Final Four.

Here are some excerpts:

This just doesn't happen too often. Teams don't get to the Final Four relying on forwards.
Guards rule college basketball, at least they have since most of the legit big men began to check out early to the NBA in the '90s.

But this LSU team hardly can be considered a trail blazer for a return to big-man basketball. These Tigers are freaks. There is nothing here that can be duplicated.

How many teams have a player with bionic calves like Tyrus Thomas, someone who can leap over 7-footers in one move, snatch balls off the high side of the backboard for putback dunks and block shots in the lane and out on the 3-point line?

How many have a player like Glen Davis, an agile 6-foot-9, 310-pound center with the force to push LaMarcus Aldridge of Texas out of the lane, throw down a spin move for a deuce, drain a silky 3-pointer, handle the ball from the top of the key and rumble down the lane for layups?

How many teams sport a small forward like Tasmin Mitchell, who can make 3s, board, guard and play the perfect complement to the other two?

Or bench players like Darnell Lazare, a scoring forward who can easily sub for Mitchell, or Magnum Rolle, who can spot Thomas and block shots, too?

"They're going to be a tough matchup," Texas senior forward Brad Buckman said after the Tigers (27-8) beat his Longhorns 70-60 in overtime to win the Atlanta Regional and earn a meeting opposite UCLA next Saturday in the Final Four in Indianapolis. "I wouldn't count LSU out against anybody."...

This also isn't your typical college team, where LSU's cohesion comes from a season or two of playing together. Mitchell, Davis and Thomas are all from Louisiana and have known each other for years; the latter two went to different Baton Rouge high schools. Defensively, they rarely get mixed up, and often know when to gamble and when not to on a block or defensive switch.