| With the Citrus Bowl behind us and baseball still a ways off, LSU basketball takes center stage. Two nights after the LSU men put everything they had into a 74-71 loss at Kentucky, the LSU women's basketball team is back at home taking on Texas A&M in the PMAC. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and the game can be seen on the SEC Network. While it's true that the Tigers played a soft non-conference schedule, they still won them all. No. 7-ranked LSU now stands at 14-0 and 2-0 in the SEC after opening conference play with a 69-45 drubbing of then No. 24 Arkansas in Fayetteville and an 88-63 home win over Vanderbilt. A victory against the struggling Aggies (5-7, 0-2) SEC, would allow Kim Mulkey's Tigers to tie the best start in program history 20 years ago. LSU started 15-0 in 2002-03, which was Seimone Augustus' freshman season. Augustus, by the way, is getting her statue on the north side of the PMAC unveiled on Jan. 15 when LSU hosts Auburn. Meanwhile, the football news keeps coming with one surprising return and one surprising depature. Punter Jay Bramblett, who played for coach Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, announced he will be back for the 2023 season. But highly regarded freshman linebakcer DeMario Tolan has apparently entered the transfer portal. More on the LSU men's gutsy effort at Kentucky in Sheldon Mickles' follow story, as first-year coach Matt McMahon said he learned a lot about his team. The Tigers are now 12-2 and 1-1, and according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi are among the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament at this point. Finally, the PGA Tour schedule resumes Thursday in Maui with the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Former LSU golfer and PGA Tour winner Smylie Kaufman will be there in his new role as an NBC/Golf Channel on-course reporter, which NBC made official this week. Such a shame that his first assignment has to be in Maui. Why do bad things happen to good people? I'm just kidding, of course. But I'm not kidding in that I need an assignment in Maui. Thank you for following us into the new year. We appreciate you subscribing and tell a friend about the easy way to get links to all our LSU sports coverage in your in box. Until next time, Scott Rabalais | 
