SEC Tournament 2012: LSU Walking into World of Hurt vs. Kentucky Wildcats

LSU dominated Arkansas to move on in the SEC tournament. Their prize is an inevitable defeat at the hands of the best team in the nation. 

Now is not the time to sugarcoat what we all know to be true. LSU is a good team that can play like a great one, but there is no way they take down a team comprised of some of the best talent in the nation. 

LSU showed on Thursday that they can put together a string of buckets like nobody else. They executed the break and opened a 10-2 scoring surge that had Arkansas on their heels. 

The punches continued to pummel Arkansas into a corner, which has me hopeful that LSU will make a game of this going into Friday against No. 1 Kentucky, at least for the first few minutes. 

If you are looking for a scorching hot team, you won't find one better than Kentucky, whose one loss came after a magical buzzer beater from Indiana. 

Since then, Kentucky has rolled through teams like a machine with a purpose, and that means the SEC—and quite possibly the NCAA title—belongs to them. 

That streak of games includes a late January drubbing that saw Terrence Jones net 27 points as LSU were sent off by Kentucky. Even the friendly confines of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center couldn't help the Tigers. 

Since that game, LSU has been a streaky mess, losing three straight to end the regular season. That streak began with a shellacking against Ole Miss. 

The fact is Kentucky is too deep and far too talented for LSU's defense to match wits. In their regular season encounter, Jones and Anthony Davis proved too much to handle. 

Consider Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was a no-show, going 0-for-5 in that game, and you can see where Kentucky can do even better in this mismatch. 

With Davis most likely owning the paint, LSU will have to shoot a hot hand like they did against Arkansas. Even then, I still take the best team in the land to move on in the SEC tourney. 

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