35 Years ago this week the SEC Banner dropped vs Alabama in the Assembly Center

To be precise, it was on February 22,but I'm going to be out and about tomorrow... (Game was actually on a Thursday night).

The 1978-1979 Tigers are IMO, one of LSU's most undervalued teams. Probably many reasons, the fanbase had really just started getting into the games the prior year and for the second year in a row that season the SEC was down.Who knows.

The NCAA was in the transition period of expansion. Following the 1975 season the NCAA allowed more than one team from a conference for the first time.The rule of two teams max stayed through the '79 season.The NIT stayed at 16,but was still separate from the NCAA and was operated as a business. Point being up until the early 80's, the NIT would take a 17-11 Temple or Fairfield instead of LSU or Miss State after the '78 season. In today's NCAA format, LSU's 1977-1978 team (and Miss State's for that matter)would have been a shoe-in for the NCAA's. How they got left out of the NIT is one of the school's biggest screw jobs..

BUT...on the heels of the '78 team, LSU did start the 1978-1979 season in the top 20 and stayed there all year.In fact after reaching #10 in mid-Dec,LSU stayed in the top 10 all season.LSU went 8-0 in non-conference play and opened SEC play with a big win at home over Georgia. Up next was defending national champion Kentucky,ranked 9th.7th ranked LSU had never beaten Kentucky in Lexington. The game was on TV at Rupp so LSU was 0-fer Memorial Coliseum and 0-2 in Rupp.Actually,Kentucky had only lost one SEC game in the 3 yrs of Rupp.

Make it two. LSU held off Kentucky, 93-89. With 14:00 left,UK was up 60-52, but LSU went on a 25-6 run and survived down the stretch.This may have been the first time that Dale Brown addressed one of his defensive alignments as "the freak defense" as he did afterwords.

Now 5th in the nation and 10-0,LSU headed south to Nashville to face Vanderbilt in the second game of an odd,very difficult road schedule.Vandy was 9-1 themselves and before a regional tv audience ,and crowd so large that the Fire Marshall of Metro Nashville watching the game left his home and went to Memorial Gym to make sure ushers had fans removed from sitting in aisles,the Commodores eked out an 88-87 win .

Two nights later in Tuscaloosa against an Alabama team that was ranked 17th in the preseason, the emotion from the Kentucky win and then the quick turnaround vs Vandy caught up with LSU. Alabama clobbered LSU 90-76 in a game not that close. After sitting on top of the world after winning in Lexington for the first time, LSU was now 2-2 in SEC play tied for 5th.

But the Tigers didn't fold and lost again prior to the Alabama return game just once, to Georgia who has always had the propensity to give LSU teams fits in Athens. (Ironically LSU beat Georgia soundly in Athens in '83, the year they went to the Final Four. ) LSU would sweep Kentucky and pulverize Vanderbilt in Baton Rouge.

LSU was 13-3 in SEC play on February 22,1979 and Alabama was 10-6.One thing new that year was the renewal of the SEC Tournament after a 26 year hiatus.Alabama couldn't win the SEC regular season title even with a win over LSU,but they could keep their hopes alive of a two day bye in the SEC tournament.Only in year one in 1979, the league champion and second place team automatically advanced to the semifinals of the tournament while their opponent would have played two games. At tip off time, Tennessee and Vanderbilt were mathematically alive for a share of the SEC title.However,one LSU win in the last two would assure the Tigers of an outright title.

Before a televised audience and a packed Assembly Center,LSU routed Alabama 86-66. LSU broke open to a 12-6 lead and was never really threatened.Alabama did close to 8 at halftime, 36-28 but that was about it. In one :15 stretch, LSU scored 6 points and roared out to a 59-43 lead with 11:00 left.

Up 82-63 with :38 left,Brown called timeout. He then signalled for a banner to be unfurled from atop the catwalk proclaiming the Tigers as 1979 SEC Champions.A mini-explosion erupted with the cheerleaders coming on the court and crowd going crazy.Normally mild-mannered Alabama coach CM Newton went crazy,too,but in another way. Newton and the Alabama contingent were livid at the planned "impromptu" celebration of the title.

Brown ,as only Dale could, rejected the notion that he was trying to embarrass Alabama and especially Newton,whom he considered a friend."This is not checkers. I did not recruit Rip van Winkle."

After the game, the Tigers were on the NCAA title radar along with Michigan State,Indiana State and UCLA.However,LSU would only win one more game the rest of the year.Mississippi State came to Baton Rouge two days later and won on SR day. The following week in Birmingham, Kentucky destroyed LSU in the SEC-T.

The Tigers did beat Bobby Cremins and Appalachian State in the 'second round' of the NCAA tourney (LSU had a first round bye, a practice held through the 1984 season for the top 4 teams in each regional). But Magic Johnson and Michigan State ended the dream in Indianapolis as the Tigers were without DeWayne Scales and some agent talk surfaced in Birmingham.

One more footnote on Feb 22, this win came exactly 25 years to the day that LSU had won its last SEC title on February 22, 1954 against..Alabama.