From death to disaster to scandal, LSU players have seen it all during Final Four streak

4/2/2008 3:22 PM

BY BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -Death, disaster, scandal, upheaval.

LSU's eight seniors have dealt with all of it, and yet they've made the Lady Tigers one of the most dominant forces in women's college basketball.

``We're a really strong group. We've been through just about everything - bad weather, coaching changes,'' said scrappy 5-foot-3 point guard Erica White. ``We've had tough losses, real good wins and I think that makes us a poised group, an experienced group. We just basically know how to handle every situation that comes our way.''

LSU (31-5) is about to complete a fifth straight season at the Final Four. Early on in this historic stretch, the Lady Tigers lost Hall of Fame coach Sue Gunter, first to an illness that forced her to retire in the summer of 2004, followed by her death a year later.

Less than a month after Gunter died, Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans and numerous coastal communities in southeast Louisiana, a catastrophe that inundated Baton Rouge with storm victims and transformed LSU's home basketball arena into a temporary refuge for evacuees. One month later, Hurricane Rita laid waste to Louisiana's southwestern coast.

Some players' home communities were destroyed in the storms. Every player had a friend or relative affected. Yet they kept winning, appearing in a third straight Final Four in the spring of 2006.

Last season, just before the NCAA tournament, their charismatic young coach, Pokey Chatman, resigned after an assistant told administrators that Chatman had an improper relationship with a former player.

Under assistant Bob Starkey, who never wanted the head coaching job permanently, LSU played its way to yet another Final Four, stunning Connecticut in the regional round along the way.

By comparison, this season has been a calm one, with the only major adjustment being that of another new coach.

``Last year, I think my teammates and I handled that situation very well and I thought we were able to focus through it all,'' White said. ``This year, it's really great to just go through the tournament and just be asked about basketball and just have to worry about playing basketball.''

Seeking an experienced and credible leader for its senior-laden squad, LSU lured Hall of Fame coach Van Chancellor out of retirement. Chancellor had won four WNBA titles, a FIBA world championship in 2002 and Olympic gold in 2004. About the only thing missing from his resume was a trip to the Final Four.

Not anymore.

Top-seeded North Carolina's potent offensive machine, which never scored fewer than 71 points in any of its first 35 games, failed to get within 20 of that figure in Monday night's regional final against LSU. The Lady Tigers beat the Tar Heels 56-50.

``I'm so proud of them for making the Final Four,'' Chancellor said Wednesday. ``No one else in college basketball as a team has overcome the loss of a coach, the loss of another coach, another coach for your senior year. You've gone through all the hurricane problems. You've done it all. This team has not been a discipline problem. This team has gone to class. ... This team has been everything that you would want as human beings.''

They've also got talent, starting with 6-foot-6 All-America center Sylvia Fowles, who has averaged 17.2 points and 10 rebounds per game this season. LSU's second-leading scorer is Quianna Chaney (14.6 ppg), an adept perimeter shooter. Along the way, role players including guard RaShonta LeBlanc and forward Ashley Thomas have shown an uncanny knack for making big plays when needed, as LeBlanc did against North Carolina, hitting a late 3 and a pair of clutch free throws.

Shortly after Chatman's resignation last spring, Fowles said Chatman remained like a second mother to her. Fowles also emphasized, however, that she and her teammates understood they had a responsibility to each other to keep practicing and playing hard. They knew rebelling against a new coach or the administration would do nothing but tear apart a team with the potential for greatness.

The only real worry, Fowles said, was how well players would adapt to a new coach's philosophy on how to score and play defense. Chancellor eased those concerns by retaining Starkey, the program's scouting and strategic guru under both Gunter and Chatman.

``He didn't come in and change a lot of things,'' Fowles said of Chancellor. ``He adjusted to us.''

The 64-year-old Chancellor - who personifies charm with his cherubic face, Southern drawl and self-effacing humor - was an instant hit with the players on and off the court.

``I don't think there was a better fit for this job,'' White said. ``With him having so much success behind him with the championships in the WNBA and USA Basketball, you had to respect him. But just coming in, he was such a great person and such a fun guy to be around. That was the best thing for us, that you had to respect him as far as basketball goes and then you couldn't help but love him off the floor because he's such a great guy.''

Chancellor, meanwhile, had definite ideas about how to help the Lady Tigers move forward - an approach he hopes will help them do one thing they haven't yet: win a national championship.

``I wasn't going to let the pressure get to this team. I just enjoyed the year,'' Chancellor said. ``The first thing I did when I got here, I said, 'I don't want to hear about anything that went on yesterday.' I wasn't interested. I let no one talk to me about anything - no one. No assistant, nobody. No fan, nobody. I did not discuss with my wife or no one else, anything else but what we were going to do today (and) tomorrow.''

On Sunday night, LSU will play Tennessee (34-2). A date in the national championship game awaits the winner on Tuesday.