by SCOTT HOTARD; Advocate sportswriter; , The Advocate

The Lady Tigers, with six freshman contributors and merely one senior on the roster, sat at 12-9 and shared sixth place in the SEC standings with a 5-4 conference mark.

Coach Van Chancellor had used 10 starting lineups.

"Run upstairs and try to save our jobs," Chancellor said he told Bob Starkey, the associate head coach. "We may not make it."

Chancellor made it, all right. So did the Lady Tigers.

LSU blasted to a 5-0 regular-season finish, highlighted by upsets of ranked foes Florida and Tennessee; finished 10-4 in the SEC, good for a share of second place in the league standings; easily made the NCAA tournament and pushed eventual Final Four qualifier Louisville in the Big Dance's second round.

Better news?

Having kept LSU among the league's elite during a full-blown rebuilding year, Chancellor welcomed nine returning letter-winners for offseason workouts. When the team slipped back into uniform Wednesday afternoon, gathered on the floor of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and answered questions from the media, few of the 14 players required introductions.

"We're motivated to start this season the way we finished the last one," sophomore forward LaSondra Barrett said.

LSU lists Barrett, the conference's co-freshman of the year last season, as one of four returning starters, along with guards Latear Eason, Katherine Graham and Allison Hightower. But four other returning players combined for 29 starts.

Beyond all the returning experience, the Lady Tigers have added five newcomers: Southern Miss transfer Erica Williams from Dutchtown, Taylor Booze and Jasmine Nelson from Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College and Bianca Lutley and Adrienne Webb, the team's only freshmen.

"We have to find a way to utilize our depth," Chancellor said.

LSU had little depth last year - and even less experience.

Coming off its fifth straight Final Four appearance, LSU entered Chancellor's second season minus All- American center Sylvia Fowles and seven other seniors. It took the coaching staff a chunk of the year to educate a young team on the culture of LSU basketball, and even longer to decide on a regular starting five.

The one steady force was Hightower, who led the Lady Tigers in scoring, assists, steals, blocks, minutes played and field-goal percentage.

Hightower, a National Player of the Year candidate, spent the offseason working to build strength, become more comfortable making plays with her right hand and tweaking a jump shot that kept the lefty from being a steady outside threat.

"When your best player is your hardest worker," Chancellor said, "that gives you a shot to win."

Even so, Chancellor said LSU's search to find a No. 3 scoring option behind Hightower and Barrett, who averaged 11.4 points as a freshman, will be a point of emphasis.

Possibilities abound.

"We have a variety of players who can score," Hightower said.

With their depth a strength, the Lady Tigers can now come at opponents in waves, pick up the tempo and look to create easy transition opportunities on the offensive end.

Nonetheless, LSU's backbone won't change.

The Lady Tigers may press more than last year. But they still plan to win - or lose - with defense.

"We're not going to do anything to alter our defense in a bad way," Starkey said. "We're not going to run the ball more at the risk of our defensive play suffering."

A hallmark of LSU basketball, defense sparked last year's postseason run.

The Lady Tigers led the SEC in scoring defense for the fifth straight year, yielding only 52.4 points per outing. During their five-game surge at the end of the regular season, they held three opponents to 50 points or less.

Not bad for a team that came off a Feb. 8 loss at Mississippi State squarely on the NCAA bubble. Not bad for a team that began the season with only one player (Hightower) who had ever taken the floor as a starter.

At the media day news conference, someone asked Chancellor if coaxing 19 wins out of last year's bunch was the most impressive thing he has done in his Hall-of-Fame coaching career.

Chancellor struggled with the question for a moment.

"I hate to say it like this," he finally said, "but I got my contract renewed. LSU didn't run me off. I guess you did OK any time you can keep your job."

LSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ROSTER

Numerical roster

No. Name Pos. Ht. Yr. Exp. Hometown

1 Katherine Graham G 5-11 Jr. 2L Birmingham, Ala.

2 Jasmine Nelson F 6-2 Jr. JC New Orleans

3 Latear Eason G 5-8 Jr. 2L Chicago

10 Adrienne Webb G 5-9 Fr. HS Madison, Ala.

11 Andrea Kelly G 5-9 Sr. 1L Shalimar, Fla.

15 Biance Lutley G 5-11 Fr. HS Plantation, Fla.

20 Destini Hughes G 5-10 So. 1L Fort Worth, Texas

22 Courtney Jones F 6-2 So. 1L Midfield, Ala.

23 Allison Hightower G 5-10 Sr. 3L Arlington, Texas

24 Taylor Booze G 5-5 Jr. JC Carrollton, Texas

25 Swayze Black F 6-3 So. 1L Brookhaven, Miss.

32 Erica Williams G 5-8 Jr. TR Gonzales

35 Taylor Turnbow F 6-2 So. 1L Stone Mountain, Ga.

55 LaSondra Barrett F 6-2 So. 1L Jackson, Miss.

Coaching staff

Head coach: Van Chancellor, Mississippi State, 1965

Associate head coach: Bob Starkey

Assistant coach: Travis Mays, Texas, 1990

Assistant coach: Kenya Larkin-Landers, Texas 2002

Director of operations: Brittany Carvalhido, Oklahoma State, 2005

Athletics trainer: Micki Collins, Nebraska, 2000

LSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 2009-10 SCHEDULE

The 2009-2010 LSU women's basketball schedule:

November

10, Loyola-New Orleans (exhibition), 7 p.m.; 15, Centenary, 2 p.m.; 18, Middle Tennessee, 7 p.m.; 21, Houston, noon; 22, Nicholls State, 7:30 p.m.; 25, at Tulane, 7 p.m.

December

1, at Louisiana Tech, 7 p.m.; 13, New Orleans, 2 p.m.; 15-16, Sue Gunter Classic (15, UL-Lafayette vs. NC A&T, 4:30 p.m.; LSU vs. Houston Baptist, 7 p.m.; 16, Consolation 4:30 p.m., championship 7 p.m.); 20, at Nebraska, 1 p.m.; 22, Southeastern Louisiana 7 p.m.; 30, at Xavier (Ohio), 6 p.m.

January

3, *at South Carolina (ESPNU), 5 p.m.; 7, *at Arkansas, 7 p.m.; 10, Auburn (FSN), 2 p.m.; 17, *at Ole Miss (CSS), 2 p.m.; 21, *South Carolina, 7 p.m.; 24, *Tennessee (ESPNU), 5 p.m.; 28, *Kentucky, 7 p.m.; 31, *at Alabama, 2 p.m.

February

4, *at Georgia (CSS), 6 p.m.; 7, *Ole Miss (SEC Network), 1 p.m.; 11, *at Florida, 6 p.m.; 14, *at Auburn (FSHOU), 3 p.m.; 18, *Vanderbilt (FSHOU), 7 p.m.; 22, *at Tennessee (ESPN2), 6 p.m.; 25, *Arkansas (CSS), 8 p.m.; 28, *Mississippi State, 2 p.m.

March

4-7, at SEC Tournament, Duluth, Ga., TBA; 20-23, NCAA first and second rounds, TBA; 27-30, NCAA regionals, TBA.

April

4 and 6, NCAA Final Four, San Antonio, TBA

*Southeastern Conference games

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