| The first half was filled with such promise for the LSU men's basketball team Wednesday night against Missouri. Even seldom-used senior guard Parker Edwards was bombing 3-pointers, threatening to become the story in his final home game. In the end the story was LSU's typical heartbreak, the kind that was made worse by how much the Tigers seemed on track to winning in the early going. LSU had a 19-point lead at home against Missouri late in the first half but gradually frittered it away and turned that nearly unblowable lead into an 81-76 loss that mercifully at least brought and end to the Tigers' home schedule at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The gruesome record: LSU is now 13-17 overall, 2-15 in SEC play with one game left to go Saturday at Florida. The news is much lighter virtually everywhere in the LSU world. So we'll start with football, where the reigning SEC West and Citrus Bowl champions have released their schedule for spring practice and the annual spring game. Women's basketball obviously has a lot more promise than the men. Those Tigers left campus with a pep rally infused with excited fans and the LSU basketball band outside Tiger Stadium on Wednesday, bound for Greenville, South Carolina and the SEC Tournament. Kim Mulkey and her coaching staff will be there scouting Thursday's 5 p.m. CST game between No. 7-seed Georgia and No. 10 Auburn, as the winner advances to meet No. 2 LSU in the tournament quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Friday. Yours truly is heading to Greenville and will have coverage of the Tigers every step of the way in the postseason. Check out LSU's NCAA Tournament resume heading into the SEC Tournament. The Tigers have bounced up to No. 2 in the NCAA's NET rankings, which at least puts LSU in the conversation for a No. 1 seed in an NCAA regional. Also a must read: an excellent feature by our intern Reed Darcey on LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson, the SEC Freshman of the Year. It's a gripping read that will certainly help pass the time until the Tigers hit the hardwood Friday afternoon. Well, that's all for now. Got to get back to my packing. Thanks as always for subscribing and reading. Scott Rabalais | 
