If college basketball was a 20-minute affair the LSU Tigers would be looking ahead to Villanova, and possibly farther. But as has been the case all season, with the good frequently come some bad in LSU's life.
Recent history has been proof.
LSU won 22 games this season, including wins over tournament teams West Virginia, UAB (a team that upset Iowa State on Thursday), Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas. The Tigers even gave Kentucky one of its biggest scares of the season, losing by just two points on Feb 10.
But this team doesn't always arrive for a game ready to perform.
Included in its 10 losses were horrible defeats at the hands of Missouri, Mississippi State and Auburn ... twice. As good as LSU can look at times, a stinker of a showing has usually been right around the corner.
On Thursday, the Tigers didn't wait until their next game to implode. It was quicker to fall apart in the second half.
At halftime LSU owned a 14-point lead and three stars of the game were headed to greatness. The Tigers had just played what was arguably their best half of basketball this season, and Jarell Martin -- with 10 points and six rebounds -- and Jordan Mickey (nine points, seven rebounds) were headed for double-doubles. Tim Quarterman was on his way to a triple-double with 10 points, five rebounds and six assists.
With just fewer than nine minutes to play in the second half, LSU still had 12-point lead. The Tiger hadn't pulled away, but the status quo was being held.
Bad LSU was about to show up a little early.
Shots stopped falling for the Tigers. Josh Gray and Mickey both missed layups on consecutive possessions, within 30 seconds of one another. Mickey missed two more shots right under the basket on LSU's next trip down the court. That was after Keith Hornsby missed a 3-pointer.
This is when LSU started to look a little panicked. Even with a nine-point lead the Tigers had to stare at the remaining seven minutes 40 seconds on the clock and wonder if it would be seven days before this game would end.
What didn't end were the errant shots.
LSU continually launched long-range wobblers (or complete airballs) and missed the bucket from inside five feet. The Tigers missed their final 12 shots of the games. But the story gets worse.
With 10:25 left to play, Martin landed a field goal and put LSU up 60-48. THat was the last basket the Tigers made all night. LSU was 0 for 12 from the floor from that point on, and even though NC State kept making mistakes and putting them on the line, Tigers shooters couldn't hit free throws.
LSU was 5 for 11 from the charity stripe in the final 10:25 of the game, and missed its last six free-throw attempts. LSU is a team that dropped back-to-back games against Mississippi State and Auburn, two of the worst teams in the SEC, and that period wasn't even as close to being as truly horrifying as the second half of Thursday's second half.
The Tigers blew a 14-point lead, and in the span of minutes went from looking like a team that could contend for a spot in the Sweet 16 to a squad that only scored 16 points in the final 16 minutes of its season.
For a team that was incredibly inconsistent all season, the Tigers picked the absolute worst time to completely fall apart. Matchups between 8- and 9-seeds are supposed to be close. If you look at the 66-65 final score this contest was.
But anyone that watched this game knows that there was nothing close about it. LSU dominated for a stretch of approximately 30 minutes, then had nuclear meltdown for 10 minutes that cost the Tigers their season.
