| Wednesday was one of those days where it was impossible for sports not to be impacted by the outside world. The presumed terrorist attack on Bourbon Street forced the postponement of the Sugar Bowl to 3 p.m. Thursday between Georgia and Notre Dame. One of the victims was Tiger Bech, a former player at St. Thomas More in Lafayette and brother of former LSU wide receiver Jack Bech. At the same, somehow, the sports world goes on. Thursday marks the start of SEC play for the No. 6 LSU women's basketball team, as the Tigers put their 15-0 record on the line at Arkansas. Our Reed Darcey previews the game: ------------------------------ When Kim Mulkey left the Big 12 to take a job as coach of a Southeastern Conference team, she thought she’d never play a game in Austin, Texas, or Norman, Oklahoma, again. It turns out Mulkey was wrong. Her LSU women’s basketball team now shares a conference with Texas and Oklahoma, the pair of teams that joined the SEC and beefed it up, elevating its talent level and national profile. The conference is much stronger now, but its decision to add two new teams is only one reason why. South Carolina lost to No. 1 UCLA, but it already has four ranked wins. Alabama brought back its two leading scorers. Tennessee has a new coach with a dangerous offense. Kentucky brought on a point guard-head coach duo that reached the 2023 Final Four, and Ole Miss has played close games against No. 4 Southern Cal and No. 7 UConn. “We've just made it a lot tougher,” Mulkey said, “and I think that's a good thing.” Count LSU among the squads in contention for an SEC title. The Tigers have found themselves in that mix since Mulkey took over as coach in 2021, but they haven’t had as much company in that group as they do now ahead of their conference opener against Arkansas, a road game that will tip off at 8 p.m. Thursday on the SEC Network. Eight SEC teams are ranked in the most recent edition of The Associated Press Top 25 poll, and 11 found a spot inside the top 50 of the latest NET rankings. As the calendar flipped to January last season, only two SEC squads were ranked in the AP poll, and just six had homes inside the NET’s top 50. The picture looked similar during the prior season as the conference put only three teams in the poll and nine among the top 50 squads in the NET by the end of the 2022 calendar year. The lack of contending SEC teams gave LSU a relatively light schedule in each of its previous two seasons under Mulkey. This year could be drastically different. LSU has played only nine regular-season games against ranked SEC teams since 2021. Take away the Tigers’ annual showdown with South Carolina, and they’ve played only six such contests across the three previous seasons. If the poll holds, then that number is going way up. LSU has seven more matchups scheduled against teams currently ranked in the AP Poll, excluding its Jan. 23 road game against No. 2 South Carolina (12-1). It’s set to face No. 5 Texas, No. 16 Kentucky and No. 19 Alabama on the road; it’ll meet No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 25 Ole Miss in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center; and it’ll play two games against No. 15 Tennessee in a home-and-home series. That slate doesn’t even include a Jan. 13 home game against Vanderbilt — a 13-1 team ranked just outside the AP Top 25 and inside the NET’s top 12. “I think it's good for women's basketball,” Mulkey said. “It's good for the SEC. We'll beat our brains out, and hopefully when you get to the NCAA Tournament, you take a deep breath like, ‘Oh, this can't be any harder.’ It's the way you have to approach it because we got some talented, talented teams.” How will LSU fare over that grueling stretch? And how many games will it need to win to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament? The Tigers are undefeated and off to one of the three best starts in program history. They beat the only ranked team they’ve faced — No. 22 North Carolina State — by 17 points. They also have the third-best scoring offense in the country, a top-three national average rebounding margin and one of the 10 most efficient field-goal percentages among Division I teams. But even with those impressive numbers, LSU played an uneven nonconference slate of games. It needed a last-second layup to steal a win from Washington and a miraculous comeback to defeat Stanford in overtime. LSU committed at least 20 turnovers in four different contests, and it also needed to erase a 13-point deficit to beat Murray State on Nov. 15 and a 12-point hole to defeat Albany on Sunday. “We're looking for 40 minutes of quality basketball,” associate head coach Bob Starkey said after LSU beat UL on Dec. 15. “We haven't found that yet. It's a little bit concerning.” After that game, LSU trailed for less than two minutes of its commanding neutral-site win over Seton Hall, then allowed Illinois-Chicago to hit 11 3-pointers in a road contest it played two days later. That defensive showing prompted Mulkey to tell LSU’s radio broadcast that she thought her team doesn’t “take pride” in its defense and that it needs to do some “soul searching” over its nine-day holiday break. When the Tigers returned, a sloppy start put them in an early hole against Albany, but a 25-2 fourth-quarter run gave them a 22-point win. And that’s the last impression they left ahead of a gauntlet of an SEC slate, set to become the toughest one that LSU has faced under Mulkey. “We know what lies ahead,” she said. “Every time you play an SEC team, it's gonna be just a dogfight. And if we're fighting and we can win enough of them, we'll be all right. But we've got a lot to clean up. We've got a lot to improve on. And it's gonna be a challenging coaching year and a fun coaching year.” ------------------------------ Finally, our Wilson Alexander takes a look ahead to the 2025 season for LSU coming off the Tigers' 44-31 Texas Bowl win over Baylor: ------------------------------ HOUSTON — Before LSU played in the Texas Bowl, coach Brian Kelly framed the game as a way for the team to start the 2025 season. It provided an ending to this year, but as non-playoff bowls often do these days, it also offered a chance to look ahead. “It's definitely a big confidence boost,” quarterback Garrett Nussmeier said. “We talked about how good we really were and how close we were. I think we kind of proved that tonight, so I think that's a great feeling for our team going into 2025 with all the momentum we have right now.” The 44-31 win against Baylor on Tuesday marked the last game for many key players, including six defensive starters, and breakout moments for young players who will be expected to contribute more next season. Topping the list were freshman tight end Trey’Dez Green, freshman linebacker Davhon Keys and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Tyree Adams. Green caught two touchdowns, and Keys returned an interception for a touchdown. Making his first start at left tackle, Adams was part of a shuffled offensive line that did not allow a sack. “Some of the guys that got pressed into starting roles, Tyree Adams at the left tackle position, that really bolsters what you're thinking about from an offensive perspective,” Kelly said. Others may have propelled themselves into next season as well. Javien Toviano made his first start at safety, and freshman safety Dashawn Spears played significant snaps. So did redshirt freshman defensive end Dylan Carpenter, freshman cornerback PJ Woodland, freshman offensive lineman Coen Echols and redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Bo Bordelon. “There's just so many guys now that have experience playing, and now add some additions that have veteran experience,” Kelly said. “And now you have a healthy roster. You have depth on your football team going into the SEC.” Now that the offseason is officially here, Kelly and his staff have a few more things to do to finalize the 2025 team. A lot of the work has already been done. LSU landed 14 transfers over the past three weeks, addressing the main offseason priority. The Tigers have added three edge rushers, three wide receivers, two offensive linemen, two cornerbacks, a tight end, a quarterback, a punter and one defensive tackle. LSU has the No. 1 transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports, but it still has to fill a few holes. The Tigers need safeties, and Kelly said they want to find another offensive lineman. They may consider signing one more tight end for depth, though Green’s performance created confidence in what he can do alongside Oklahoma transfer Bauer Sharp. “How good do you feel about that with a veteran player also coming in from the portal at that position?” Kelly said. “You feel really good there.” At the same time, Kelly has to solidify his coaching staff. He already has to replace tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Slade Nagle, who left after one season to become the offensive coordinator at Houston. Kelly was asked about evaluating his staff after the LSU offense dropped from first nationally to 48th in scoring. During a three-game losing streak in the middle of the season, the Tigers averaged 17 points per game. They then averaged 35 points during the last three games with wins over Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Baylor. Kelly said LSU would assess everything from travel to recruiting and development after a 9-4 season. He pushed back against the notion his third year was disappointing, calling the team “less than perfect because of inexperience,” and he thought young players gained valuable reps that could help them in 2025. “We have to do some things better, there's no question,” Kelly said. “And that's part of this process every year, whether you're a football program or whether you're a Fortune 500 company. You're going to evaluate everything within your program. “All of those things over the next four to six weeks will be evaluated. This is a championship program. This is about winning championships, and we fell short of that. So, we have to evaluate all of those things. It starts with me and how I led, and it goes through the entire program.” ------------------------------ Thanks for reading and subscribing, folks. As they used to say on "Hill Street Blues," let's be careful out there. And let's look out for each other a little harder. Scott Rabalais | 