| A perfect 10 in LSU gymnastics is nothing new for someone named Finnegan. It is though if your name is Aleah Finnegan. And the LSU sophomore turned in the kind of performance Friday night against Georgia that shows she may be the star on the rise the Tigers so badly need after a season-ending injury last month to senior All-American Kiya Johnson. Finnegan recorded her first collegiate 10.0 on floor for the Tigers, bringing the crowd of 12,009 in the PMAC to their feet. She went on to finish with an all-around score (total of vault, bars, beam and floor) of 39.650, just behind teammate Haleigh Bryant who won her sixth all-around title in as many meets with a 39.700 as LSU blasted Georgia 197.700-196.925. Bryant was again typically brilliant, also winning vault with a 9.975 (just missing her own perfect 10) and sharing first place with teammate Alexis Jeffrey and a Georgia gymnast with a 9.90 on uneven bars. Bryant already has 16 individual titles this season, as many as she had in all of 2022. What she hasn't had since Johnson went out is a counterpart to her scoring, another "hammer" as coach Jay Clark put it. Maybe that is what Finnegan, younger sister of former LSU great Sarah Finnegan, is blossoming into. From the perfect in the PMAC to the, well, not so perfect. The LSU men's basketball team hosts Alabama on Saturday afternoon, the same Alabama team that obliterated the Tigers 106-66 in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 14. LSU's nine-game losing streak sure looks like it's about to go to 10 straight, but that's why they play the game, right? Maybe the Crimson Tide's bus will get lost on the way to the PMAC and they'll have to forfeit. Who knows? Anyway, the haymakers are scheduled to start falling at 3 p.m. Finally, remember Tommy Rees, Brian Kelly's former offensive coordinator at Notre Dame? Rees decided to stay at Notre Dame under defensive coordinator turned head coach Marcus Freeman, but now he's reportedly on the move to become Alabama's new play caller. Bill O'Brien recently left Bama to join the New England Patriots under Saban's friend and approximae doppleganger, Bill Belichick. Kinda sounds like from the frying pan into the fire, doesn't it? Well, that's all for today, folks. Thanks as always for subscribing and have a great sports weekend. Scott Rabalais | 
