Jay Johnson dismisses ‘disrespectful’ notion LSU benefits from losing in SEC Tournament

It is sometimes aruged that a loss in the conference tournament can be beneficial for teams entering the NCAA Tournament as it teaches them lessons moving forward. But LSU coach Jay Johnson didn’t come to the SEC Tournament with anything but the goal of taking home a championship.

That’s why Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Ole Miss was so frustrating. Johnson was asked in his postgame press conference whether he got what he wanted out of the conference tournament, at which he scoffed.

“Well, I wanted to win,” he said. “I really think it’s disrespectful and not competitive for anybody to not go for it. We did that, just would like to have scored a few more runs today.

“The main goal is the NCAA Tournament, but I feel really good about the three guys that threw today. Obviously, felt good about what we accomplished with the two pitchers last night. We had one error in two games, which was on a pick off move. Offensively, we’ll work at being better and I expect us to be better next Friday.”

Saturday’s loss to the Rebels marked the first time all season that LSU did not score at least one run. On the season, the Tigers have the fifth best batting average in the SEC at .301, so they are certainly capable of a better performance.

LSU will now wait to find out its final seeding is announced Monday evening. The Tigers are ranked as the No. 1 team in the country according to D1Baseball and No. 9 in the RPI. LSU was projected as the No. 5 seed according to On3’s Jonathan Wagner prior to the loss on Saturday.

Even without an SEC title, the Tigers have an opportunity to be one of the top eight seeds with a chance to host a Super Regional. Jay Johnson also believes that the strength of the conference will work in LSU’s favor.

“When you look at what is ahead of us from this point forward, we won’t see anything we haven’t seen from a talent perspective,” he said. “I thought 15 of the 16 teams could probably compete to go to Omaha this year and that’s because the talent on the field makes it a very competitive environment. I think how our team handled the schedule, the consistency in which they did should play with great confidence going forward and that’s what I expect them to do.”

LSU most recently earned a College World Series title in 2023 and will now look to bounce back from the conference tournament loss to reach Omaha once more. The field is scheduled to be announced at 12 p.m. ET on Memorial Day.