The Reveille 3-9-23

MADE IN

MARCH

LSU women’s hoops prepares to dominate in NCAA tournament.

Read on page 2

LSUReveille.com

@lsureveille

THE ROAD AHEAD

Who stands in LSU’s way in March Madness

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8

The regular season is behind them. The SEC tournament is behind them. All eyes now lie on March Madness.

The LSU women’s basketball team left Greenville, South Carolina, feeling like they fell short of expectations others gave them and expectations they gave themselves after a loss to Tennessee. But the road continues for the team, as they get set to find out their seeding for the NCAA Tournament this Sunday. The Selection Sunday show will be aired Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Where does LSU stand in the Bracketology?

Their loss against Tennessee moved the Tigers down to No. 9 in the AP Poll rankings, and the loss almost moved them down to a projected No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They are still, however, projected to host their opening matchup in Baton Rouge.

According to ESPN’s Women’s Basketball Bracketology, LSU is projected to face-off with the projected No. 14 seed, Towson, who is predicted to win the Colonial Athletic Conference. If the Tigers were to win that game, they are predicted to play the winner of No. 6 seed, Arizona, and No. 11 seed, Florida Gulf Coast. The second round matchup would also be in Baton Rouge.

Where do other SEC teams stand in the Bracketology?

South Carolina remains at the top of women’s college basketball after knocking off Tennessee to win the SEC Championship. The Gamecocks are almost guaranteed to be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, as it has beaten everyone it has faced so far this season.

Tennessee moved its seeding projection up after beating LSU and making the SEC Championship. The Volunteers are now listed as a No. 5 seed in the bracketology.

The Ole Miss Rebels are listed as a No. 8 seed after making the SEC Tournament Semifinals and losing to South Carolina. Georgia is right behind the Rebels, as it’s listed as a No. 9 seed. Mississippi State and Alabama are both listed as No. 10 seeds, and both are projected as two of the last four byes into the tournament.

Who is above LSU in the Bracketology?

Other than South Carolina, of course, Stanford, Indiana and Virginia Tech make up the top seeds in the Bracketology.

South Carolina and Virginia Tech are the only two champions of their respective conferences listed as No. 1 seeds. Stanford lost in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals to UCLA, and Indiana lost in the Big 10 tournament semifinals to Ohio State.

However, their regular sea-

son performance keeps them in the No. 1 seed category. In the AP Poll, Indiana sits at No. 3 and Stanford at No. 5.

The No. 2 seeds in the Bracketology are Utah, Iowa, Connecticut and Maryland. After winning the Big 10 tournament by 33 points and sitting at No. 2 in the AP Poll, it’s very likely that Iowa will be a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday in place of either Stanford or Indiana.

The Iowa Hawkeyes have been led by star senior guard, Caitlin Clark, all season. She’s lit up the stat sheet this year with 27 points per game, which is tied for second in the country, 8.3 assists per game, which is first in the country, and 3.4 three-pointers made per game, which is tied for first in the country.

UConn having won the Big East Conference Tournament should lock them in at a No. 2 seed. Sitting at No. 7 in the AP Poll, they should remain stagnant after having won five straight games.

Both Utah and Maryland have been projected No. 2 seeds for some time, and both teams not having made their conference championship means this will be the highest seed they earn with the chance to drop to a No. 3 seed.

Who are the other No. 3 seeds in the Bracketology along with LSU?

LSU, Ohio State, Duke and Notre Dame make up the projected No. 3 seeds in the Women’s Bracketology.

Ohio State, the team LSU lost to in the NCAA Tournament

last season, will once again be a threat. Listed at No. 12 in the AP Poll, they will likely be a No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday after having made their conference championship. The only thing working against them is a 30-point loss to Iowa in the Big Ten championship, but that will likely only favor Iowa.

Duke and Notre Dame are both in a similar situation that LSU is in. The Blue Devils are No. 13 in the AP Poll and lost in the ACC Tournament semifinals to Virginia Tech. Having a good regular season performance, Duke will likely remain a No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday.

Notre Dame lost to Louisville in the ACC Tournament Semifinal. But its regular season performance will likely keep the Fighting Irish at a No. 3 seed, as they’re listed at No. 11 in the AP Poll.

Other threats in LSU’s Bracketology path

If the current Bracketology was the NCAA Tournament, LSU would face No. 14 Towson. If the Tigers were to win that game, they’d play the winner of No. 6 Arizona and No. 11 Florida Gulf Coast. Arizona is ranked at No. 24 in the AP Poll, but Florida Gulf Coast is receiving votes to be in the Top 25.

Florida Gulf Coast is currently set to play Austin Peay State in the Atlantic Sun Tournament semifinals, and if it were to win the conference, Arizona could be on upset watch.

If LSU wins its second round matchup, it would move onto the Sweet 16 and likely see either No. 2 seed Maryland, or in a more un-

likely chance, No. 7 North Carolina State. Maryland is another team in the similar position to LSU, but the Terrapins are probably in a better spot. They lost to Iowa by five points in the Big 10 Tournament semifinals and sit at No. 6 in the AP Poll. North Carolina State is not in the AP Poll but is currently receiving votes to be in it. Putting anything past an underdog in March Madness, however, would be a mistake.

If the Tigers were to make it past the Sweet Sixteen and into the Elite Eight, their most likely opponent would be No. 1 Virginia Tech. The Hokies are coming off of an ACC Championship over Louisville, so this would be a game that would require LSU’s best.

No. 4 Villanova and No. 5 Tennessee would also be two likely candidates for the Tigers’ opponent in the Elite Eight. Tennessee is another team with a lot of confidence despite having lost to South Carolina in the SEC Championship. The fact that the Volunteers took LSU down once will give them more of a reason to come in thinking they can do it again.

Villanova lost to UConn by 11 points in the Big East Tournament Championship, and at No. 10 in the AP Poll. So for the Wildcats, the talent is most definitely there.

With the chance that LSU could make it through the Elite Eight, it would head to Dallas for the Final Four, the biggest stage in college basketball. The Final Four will be at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas, from March 31 to April 2.

B-16 Hodges Hall

Louisiana State University

Baton Rouge, La. 70803

NEWSROOM (225) 578-4811

Editor-in-Chief JOSH ARCHOTE

Digital Managing Editor HANNAH MICHEL HANKS

Digital Editor JAYDEN NGUYEN

News Editor CLAIRE SULLIVAN

Deputy News Editor GABBY JIMENEZ

Sports Editor PETER RAUTERKUS

Deputy Sports Editor MACKAY SUIRE

Entertainment Editor WILL NICKEL

Opinion Editor JOHN BUZBEE

Multimedia Editor MATTHEW PERSCHALL

Production Editor MADISON COOPER

Chief Designer EMMA DUHE

ADVERTISING (225) 578-6090

Layout/Ad Design EMILY TRAN

Layout/Ad Design SOFIA RAMOS

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

The Reveille holds accuracy and objectivity at the highest priority and wants to reassure its readers the reporting and content of the paper meets these standards. This space is reserved to recognize and correct any mistakes that may have been printed in The Daily Reveille. If you would like something corrected or clarified, please contact the editor at (225) 578-4811 or email editor@lsu.edu.

ABOUT THE REVEILLE

The Reveille is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. A single issue of The Reveille is free from multiple sites on campus and about 25 sites off campus. To obtain additional copies, please visit the Office of Student Media in B-39 Hodges Hall or email studentmedia@ lsu.edu. The Reveille is published biweekly during the fall, spring and summer semesters, except during holidays and final exams. The Reveille is funded through LSU students’ payments of the Student Media fee.

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball sophomore forward Angel Reese (10) shoots the ball Feb. 26 during LSU’s 74-59 win over Mississippi State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

COVERING UVALDE

Austin reporter, editor visit Manship School to discuss covering Uvalde

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN & GABBY JIMINEZ

LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, an Austin American-Statesman reporter who had spent weeks covering the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, got a late-night call from a source that was a turning point in the massacre’s coverage.

“Come get the video,” the source told him.

The gut-wrenching, 77-minute security camera footage showed law enforcement officers standing idly by for over an hour while a gunman fired shots in a closed elementary school classroom.

Plohetski and his top editor, Manny Garcia, spoke to students at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication on Monday about the video’s consequences and what it was like to cover one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.

They provided a behind-thescenes account of covering one of the most emotionally wrenching stories in recent memory— and one that was closely followed by people across the country. Their talk was part of a series of events at the Manship

LEGISLATURE

School designed to take a closer view of what reporters do and the value of it.

Plohetski’s coverage of the shooting began after he saw early reports on Twitter on what

had felt like an ordinary day in May 2022. Garcia asked him to make some calls.

“I don’t know anything about death toll, but I can tell you this is going to be very bad,” a top

official with the Texas Department of Public Safety told him.

He soon learned the death toll was over a dozen.

CAMPUS

LIFE

Safety week kicks off at LSU

BY LIZZIE FALCETTI @lizziefalcetti

Safety week kicked off at LSU on Monday, offering daily, interactive events to educate students on campus safety with a special focus on being cautious during spring break.

The informational event comes on the heels of an academic year rife with safety concerns from parents and students.

The week began with a tabling event on Monday in Free Speech Plaza. A variety of campus groups including Residential Life, LSU Police, Wellness and Health Promotion, the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, the Women’s Center, Campus Life, and Greek Life offered advice on how to stay safe, with giveaways and games to attract students.

Amanda Bartulis, a freshman finance major at LSU, attended the kickoff tabling event.

“Safety is important to maintain the well-being of all students and make sure campus is a place where they can express themselves and better them -

A month to go: More proposed laws to watch at the Capitol

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN @sulliclaire

A little more than a month remains before lawmakers kick off the regular legislative session at the Louisiana Capitol on April 10, debating issues ranging from abortion to taxes and libraries. The Reveille is chronicling some of the laws that have been filed so far.

Investigating websites

publishing materials ‘harmful to minors’

State Rep. Laurie Schlegel, a Republican from Metairie, proposed a law that would allow the state’s attorney general to investigate alleged failures of websites that distribute “material harmful to minors” to age-check users.

Under the proposed law, websites may be fined up to $5,000 for each day they’re found in violation. An additional $10,000 penalty may be requested by the attorney general and imposed by the court for each violation the company is found responsible for.

The money would go to the Department of Justice “to fund the investigation of cyber crimes involving the exploitation of chil-

dren,” the law proposes.

The law defines material harmful to minors to include content that depicts, describes or represents actual or simulated sexual contact and “lewd exhibition of the genitals,” among other things. To be in violation, the material would have to lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value as to minors,” the proposed law says.

Schlegel wrote the law that became active earlier this year requiring pornography websites to process state identification from users to ensure they’re 18 or over.

Rolling back corporate taxes

A bill by state Sen. R. L. “Bret” Allain II, a Republican from Franklin, would repeal the corporate franchise tax.

The corporate franchise tax is a tax imposed by the state on corporations doing business in the state. This tax applies to all corporations that receive income from Louisiana sources, regardless of profit.

If passed, the tax repeal would go into effect at the beginning of 2025.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, and Manny Garcia, the paper’s executive editor, talked about their coverage of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. see UVALDE, page

POLITICS

First prominent Democrat enters race for Louisiana governor

BY SARA CLINE Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — With just seven months until Louisiana’s election for governor, Shawn Wilson officially entered the gubernatorial race Monday, becoming the first prominent Democrat to seek the seat later this year.

The former head of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, who appears to be the only high-profile Democrat that will run for the state’s top government post in October, announced his candidacy on social media and released an official campaign video Monday morning.

“Louisiana needs a governor who will build bridges, not burn them,” Wilson, 53, said in his video. “I’m Shawn Wilson, that’s the kind of leader that I’ve been and that is exactly the kind of governor that I promise to be.”

Wilson served as the Department of Transportation and Development secretary for seven years after being appointed by current Gov. John Bel Edwards. He retired from the position last week in preparation for his candidacy. During Wilson’s tenure the state invested nearly $5.5 billion in infrastructure projects, consisting of more than 7,000 miles of improvements. In 2020,

“I knew then that this was going to be a national nightmare and a national tragedy,” Plohetski said.

Soon after, he made the 2 1/2-hour drive from Austin to Uvalde, a small town about 80 miles west of San Antonio, making and receiving phone calls along the way. His first stop was the Town Square, where members of the community had gathered for prayer vigils. Then he went to the school.

Back in Austin, Garcia said he was focused on getting information about the shooting posted online and mobilizing reporters and photographers to Uvalde. He started downloading pictures of staff of the Robb Elementary School website, not yet knowing which of them were among the dead.

“Think of a Category Five hurricane of information, where it’s just pounding you and pounding you and pounding you hour after hour after hour,” Plohetski said. “And that’s what it feels like to be a journalist in a situation like this.”

The video, published in July by the Austin American-Statesman, was a pivotal moment in the news coverage that was dissecting the narratives of supposed law enforcement heroism painted by government officials after the shooting.

Plohetski said a law enforcement source reached out to him

he was elected as the first Black president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

The Democrat faces a major uphill battle in a reliably red state that has four popular Re -

to show the 77-minute security footage from inside the school, capturing officers checking their phone, using hand sanitizer and fist bumping each other while children and their teachers were alone with a gunman.

Plohetski was the first reporter to see the video. He negotiated with his source to publish a screenshot of the officers in the hallway, and he could report on what he had seen in the video.

When it ran on the front page of the paper, the reaction to the screenshot was “like a bomb went off,” Garcia said.

“I knew then that the public had to see, come hell or high water, that video,” Plohetski said.

When a source told him he could pick up a copy of the video one night, Plohetski did not even tell his spouse where he was going out of an abundance of caution to protect his source.

Plohetski, Garcia and their team began to discuss next steps late that night.

They unanimously decided they would take out the audio of the children screaming, Garcia said. But “we decided we were absolutely gonna run the gunshots because this is what an AR-15 sounds like when it’s killing people in a classroom,” he said.

The gunshots also put the law enforcement inaction into context--48 minutes in, another round of shots was heard. The officers did not breach the classroom until 21 minutes later, killing the 18-year-old gunman,

publicans running for the state’s top government post. Edwards, a Democrat, is unable to run again due to term limits — opening a huge opportunity for the GOP in a state where former President Donald Trump overwhelmingly

they say, at that point.

The Austin American-Statesman made a shortened, fourminute version of the video to show the most important parts, while also making the fulllength video available to the public.

“I think that we felt that we had served the public by bring-

won the last two presidential elections.

Although the highly-anticipated October election is quicklyapproaching, Wilson is the first prominent Democrat to launch a bid for governor. Daniel “Danny”

ing truth and reality,” Plohetski said.

But not everyone was happy the truth was out.

Plohetski said he and Garcia received death threats after publishing the video. Garcia called him multiple times a day to check in after the video was published, Plohetski said.

Cole, a Pentecostal pastor and special education teacher in Central Louisiana, is also running for the seat as a Democrat. District Attorney of East Baton Rouge Hillar Moore III and Katie Bernhardt, the chairwoman for the Louisiana Democratic Party, had long been considered possible blue candidates — but both announced last month they had opted against it.

Currently four prominent Republicans are running to lead the state: Attorney General Jeff Landry; State Treasurer John Schroder; state Sen. Sharon Hewitt; and state Rep. Richard Nelson. Also considering entering the race is U.S. Rep. Garret Graves and state House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, both Republicans. Gubernatorial candidates are required to officially submit qualifying papers to the secretary of state between Aug. 8 and Aug. 10.

In addition, three lesserknown candidates have entered the race: Hunter Lundy, a Lake Charles small business owner and attorney is running as an independent; Xan John, a businessman who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate twice is running as a Republican; and Jeffery Istre, an oil field worker and U.S. Army veteran, is running as an

see GOVERNOR, page 5

The Austin-American Statesman’s coverage of the shooting has not stopped. Plohetski said he did over 50 network interviews in the days following the shooting. 10 months later, they are still trying to obtain more information from authorities.

“Sooner or later, the truth comes out,” Garcia said.

AP PHOTO / Melinda Deslatte

Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson, left, speaks about proposed surplus spending on roadwork as Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards listens, March 28, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La.

UVALDE, from page 3

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / LSU Manship School News Service

Austin American-Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski shows a video of himself reporting on the Uvalde school shooting on March 6 as part of a talk about covering the Uvalde school shooting given at the LSU Journalism Building in Baton Rouge, La.

selves through education in a safe way,” Bartulis said.

The dining halls hosted tabling events on Tuesday.

Bart Thompson, LSU’s chief of police, said simple tactics like locking car doors, paying attention to your surroundings and walking in lighted areas can help students avoid dangerous situations.

“The big thing with safety, whether you’re on campus or off campus, is be alert,” Thompson said. “We have become a big city, so we are trying to educate our student population when you go around areas, be alert.”

A large focus throughout safety week is how students can protect themselves during spring break.

The LSU Shield app is available for students to use no matter where they’re traveling or what city they’re in. Through GPS tracking, a student can use the emergency call in the Shield app, and it will alert the closest county 911, Thompson said.

Advice shared with students and events held throughout the week are offered to initiate safety conversations in activity-based and non-judgemental ways.

The LSU Student Health Center hosted “Sex Signals,” a program by Catharsis Productions,

on Wednesday. It aimed to dismantle rape culture, promote healthy relationships and educate students about consent.

“It’s important to engage in preventive conversations, so that we have a basic knowledge, tools, skills and approaches to keep ourselves safe when we find ourselves in troublesome situations,” said Michael Eberhard, the director of wellness and health promotion at the Student Health Center.

Eberhard said students have a variety of resources to help them stay safe.

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Eberhard said. “There are so many great resources on campus and I think a lot of students sometimes will see the resource and think, ‘Oh, that’s for somebody else, not me,’ but it is for you, it’s for everybody.”

Safety week also targeted pedestrian safety with tabling events on Wednesday at the Old President’s House, the Tureaud Hall crosswalk and the Nicholson Gateway Apartments. Information aimed to help students improve their knowledge on navigating traffic and campus walkways.

Students interested in learning more about Safety Week events can visit tabling events throughout campus or visit Residential Life’s social media channels for a full list of activities.

LEGISLATURE, from page 3

Another bill, also proposed by Allain, would lower corporate income tax rates and change the corporate tax brackets. The two brackets would be below and above $50,000, instead of an additional bracket that currently exists for taxable income over $150,000.

Extending the time to charge juveniles as adults

Another law, proposed by Schlegel and state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, a Republican from New Orleans, would extend the time allowed to consider whether to charge a juvenile as an adult.

The proposed law would give prosecutors 60 days, instead of the current 30, to make the choice

GOVERNOR, from page 4

Independent.

Under Louisiana’s “jungle” primary system, all candidates — regardless of party affiliation — will run against one another on the same ballot on Oct. 14.

If no candidate tops 50% in that primary, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election on Nov. 18.

Along with navigating a crowded ballot, Wilson will have to race against time to successfully campaign. For context, when Gov. Edwards first entered the 2015 governor’s race, he did so two years and eight months in advance — giving more time to travel around the state, discuss his goals, earn endorsements, gain name recognition and, most importantly, raise campaign

funds.

As of right now, the candidate with the most cash on hand in the race is Attorney General Landry, who has amassed more than $5 million, according to campaign finance reports. The conservative Republican and staunch Trump supporter received a controversial early endorsement from the state’s Republican Party.

Given the state’s demographics, the trending of the parties and the lack of time ahead of the election, it seems that Democrats would have to find a way to defy political geography in a race that is the GOP’s to lose. But that has been done before — in Kentucky in 2019, in Kansas in 2018 and in Louisiana when Edwards, then a rural state representative, went on to shock the country not once, but twice.

for 15- to 17-year-olds facing certain charges.

Schlegel told 4WWL that “we have to make sure juveniles that do horrific crimes are being charged as an adult.” The lawmakers told the news outlet they believe the increased timeline would give prosecutors more time to screen cases.

Some advocates oppose the practice of trying teenagers as adults entirely, saying it puts them at heightened risk of abuse and suicide and limits the possibility of rehabilitation.

“The juvenile justice system, designed to emphasize rehabilitation over punishment, is better suited to meet youth’s needs,” said the Juvenile Law Center, a nonprofit law firm for children.

LAYNE DAVIS/ The Reveille

LSU Residential Life kicks off safety week on March 7 by handing out merch and giving advice to students in Free Speech Plaza.

TARUN KAKARALA / The Reveille

The Louisiana State Capitol building stands in front of the Mississippi River on March 1 in Baton Rouge, La.

ALEX TIRADO/ LSU Manship School News Service Gov. John Bel Edwards holds a press conference shortly after the Legislature convened the 2022 Regular Session.

ENTERTAINMENT

Checkmate: LSU students share why they think chess is king

BY EMILY POIRRIER @Emily_Poirrier

If you’ve ever been walking through Free Speech Alley, Highland Coffee or the parade grounds, you’ve most likely come across people playing chess – but why is a game that is centuries old still so popular on LSU’s campus?

The LSU chess community is full of students who started playing chess from a young age, and their love for it has only grown stronger in college.

Brock Forsyth, a member of the chess community at LSU, said he mostly learned chess from taking lessons online, but his uncles are the ones who taught him how all the pieces work.

Forsyth mostly plays by himself, competing against a computer or other online players, but he doesn’t need to be competing against real life opponents to achieve his main goal. He believes that the most important aspect of chess is the learning process and always working to improve yourself in every game.

Forsyth believes everyone should give chess a try.

“I think other people should begin to play just because it’s fun,” Forsyth said. “It’s a simple

enough thing to learn the basics of, but it’s impossible to master and the improvement process feels good.”

He noted his favorite piece on the board was the knight. It’s the only piece that can move in an “L” direction, making it unique compared to the other chess pieces.

Claire Hedges, an LSU freshman, benefits from chess in a different way. She says playing chess creates an outlet for her to relieve stress.

“Chess is a very strategic game that requires practice and patience. It requires thinking multiple steps ahead for your moves and your opponents,” Hedges said. “The ability to develop a game plan makes me feel intelligent and gives me a nice break from school.”

Hedges originally learned how to play the game from her cousins and found that she couldn’t stop.

“Growing up in a competitive family, I wanted to prove I was worthy,” Hedges said, “so I kept practicing to get better.”

In college, she’s found many people who feel the same way about chess as her. Several other students have reached out to her at Highland Coffee about playing

against each other on Saturday mornings. She prefers playing the game in-person and getting to read her opponent as opposed to playing online.

John Michael Sweat, another LSU student who loves to play chess, said he benefits from the mental aspects of the sport as well. It’s a hobby he has revisited off and on throughout his life, af-

ter his uncle taught him to play at a young age.

While Sweat never played in a club or competitively, he finds playing online to be a nice way to relax – although he does enjoy a friendly competition, and he keeps a chess board at his house to play with his siblings and friends.

“Playing chess is a good mental exercise,” Sweat said. “It’s

fun not knowing all of the possibilities that can happen. I find it very rewarding.”

Chess is a game that provides an outlet for people who want to push themselves and their minds.

Students view it as the perfect way to relax and take a break from hectic college life on campus, which may be why the hobby continues to grow in popularity.

Indie rock band Futurebirds shares its southeastern sound

BY OLIVIA TOMLINSON @OliviaMersade

Indie rock band Futurebirds took the stage at the Varsity Theatre on Thursday night in a concert that saw all proceeds donated to the St. Jude’s Hospital.

The seven members, Daniel Womack (vocals, guitar), Carter King (vocals, guitar), Spencer Thomas (keyboard), Kiffy Myers (pedal steel), Brannen Miles (bass), Thomas Johnson (vocals, guitar) and Tom Myers (drums) all come from musical backgrounds.

The members have been together for 13 years and had various bands together, but it wasn’t until its core four members –Womack, King, Johnson and Miles – met while attending The University of Georgia that the idea of Futurebirds would form.

“Carter took a pulley evaluation class at UGA and learned that Germanic tribes back in the day used chicken to foretell the future, and we thought it was hilarious. Futurebirds, that’s it,” said guitarist and founding member Womack.

Growing up in Georgia has affected the band’s music greatly.

“You can hear Georgia and the Southeast in our voices, and it’s hard to hide, but we’re proud to be from a very musical culture and state,” said Womack.

This is not the Georgia boys’ first tour, and it definitely won’t be their last. Futurebirds has per-

formed in Baton Rouge before at Chelsea’s Live on Perkins Road, but the Varsity night show was its first theater show, so the band was expecting it to get loud.

“Playing live has always been our main thing,” Womack, nicknamed Womz, said. “There’s nothing like connecting with a crowd. It’s a synergy we’re very lucky to experience often.”

The band’s donations from the show went toward the St. Jude’s Hospital Research Donation because, according to the band, “charitable donations to children is one of the easiest contributions

to make as a human.”

Killer Whale, a local laid-back band, opened for Futurebirds. The band opened with one of its hit songs, “College Drive.” Whether the crowd knew the lyrics or not, everyone was having a great time. It didn’t matter what song was playing, the band made the crowd feel comfortable.

LSU freshman Claire Hedges has seen the band more than five times. She is an Athens, Georgia native, so when she saw the band was having a show in Baton Rouge, she knew she had to get tickets.

“I have not been to a show where I did not enjoy it. Seeing them in Baton Rouge made me so happy. It was like my two lives crossed over,” Hedges said.

Most of the songs played by Futurebirds were from its newest EP, “Bloomin’ Too,” which was produced by the band with American rock guitarist Carl Broemel.

“We wanted to make a guitar record with our hero, Carl, so we got our best collection of songs to him and ripped ‘em,” Womack said.

Although the band is on tour,

its members are still constantly writing songs. Womack even has over a thousand voice memos of ideas on his phone.

Futurebirds have a unique sound to its music. The band is not too country, but not too indie. When asked what two bands would make Futurebirds, Grateful Dead and Boys II Men came to mind for the group.

Another fan at the show, Chloe Cattanach, said she would describe Futurebirds’ music as “A summer day – it’s something you put on when you drive around with friends.”

Tour life is not easy. In between shows, Futurebirds still try to find time to make music. Before each performance, they have a ritual of standing in a circle and staring at one another until its pedal steel player, Myers, yells “Quack.” Then, it’s show time.

Creating a successful band is not easy. It takes lots of skill and talent, luckily for Futurebirds they have both. Many young aspiring artists, especially those from Georgia, look up to this group.

The band’s biggest piece of advice they could give to any artist just starting out?

“Practice hard, focus hard, check your intention and always be humble and honest,” the band said. “Those are the only sustainable practices in anything. And if you’re not having fun, what’s the

BLAINE SWANZY/ The Reveille

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

Futurebirds singer and guitarist Carter King performs March 2 at the Varsity Theatre on Highland Road in Baton Rouge, La.

How we got engaged to scam Cracker Barrel out of $2,000

BY WILL NICKEL & JAYDEN NGUYEN @WillNickel & @jaydenguyen_

For clarity, J: indicates that Jayden is speaking and W: indicates that Will is speaking.

The best things in life are free – love, biscuits, etc. The secondbest things in life are acquired through mischievous means –love, biscuits, etc.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Cracker Barrel created a contest to give away a free year’s worth of meals in the form of $2,000 in gift cards.

You just had to do one thing to enter: Get engaged. At a Cracker Barrel. And record it. And post it on Instagram. And have your mom freak out (this part isn’t required for the contest, but it’s likely to happen).

So, we did what any two sane people would do: got engaged. At a Cracker Barrel…you know the rest.

J: For the record, this was all Will’s idea.

W: For the record, this was all my idea.

Before we get too far into the story, we should clarify: we are not really engaged. Sorry Cracker Barrel (W: and also my friends from high school who sincerely congratulated us), you have been fooled.

Our initial plan was to get a group of our friends to also do fake engagements. The contest

could have up to five winners and the more entries we had, the more likely we were to win. How many people would actually get engaged at a Cracker Barrel? We figured we wouldn’t have much real competition and having multiple entries would guarantee a win.

We got plenty of people to say they liked the idea, but we didn’t get any people to say they wanted to do it. Apparently proposing at a Cracker Barrel and posting it publicly to Instagram is “really embarrassing and weird.”

In the end, we had to settle on just one fake proposal and bank on that being enough to win the contest. We just had to make sure the proposal was good enough to convince the Cracker Barrel judges panel.

We went to the only Cracker Barrel in town a few days after Valentine’s Day to avoid the real couples celebrating their love and as many people as possible. The goal was to make the proposal as cute as possible without getting a single person to notice us.

J: I supplied the ring and the ring box – a Christmas gift I’d gotten from my parents.

W: I supplied the cuteness – an important part of a cute proposal.

We filmed ourselves walking into the store and messing around in the world-renowned Cracker Barrel gift shop to make it more believable. We also sat down and enjoyed a meal to make it more believable. We also asked for more biscuits three times to make it more believable.

After eating, we went outside and set up our camera on a barrel (presumably full of crackers) that was in front of part of the restaurant where no customers were sitting. We decided this would be the ideal place to propose so no one would see it, but you could tell it was at a Cracker Barrel.

As we were preparing to film, a bus full of families pulled into the Cracker Barrel parking lot and we began to panic.

J: Will got down on one knee as fast as possible. I probably should’ve tried to fake cry, but I didn’t want to draw more attention to this already stupid idea – unlike Will, who picked me up and spun me around.

W: I like to spin. You should see me in our office chairs.

After editing together, the video and coming up with a cute little caption, we uploaded it to Instagram and waited. We patiently stalked the contest hashtag to see

other posts and if we had any competition.

J: Will did not “patiently stalk.” He looked at that hashtag every day. He would count how many posts there were. He would show them to me and be like “there’s just no shot that they can beat us.”

W: I am a competitive person. I like to engage in a little trash talk, and I like to win.

Then, six days after we posted the video, we received the notification we had been dreaming of: Cracker Barrel has DMed you. We won the contest.

After giving Mr. Barrel our emails and signing some documents, our free year’s supply of Cracker Barrel in the form of four $500 gift cards arrived along with a handwritten note congratulating us on our engagement. You may be asking yourself, “Is it ok to lie?”

To that we would say we didn’t lie. There is no legal definition of an engagement and there was never a stipulation that we had to actually get married. I did propose which was the only real requirement. Did we mislead? Yes. Did we lie? No.

You may then ask, “Well even if you didn’t lie, isn’t it unethical to mislead someone like this?”

Unfortunately, you can’t hear our response because our mouths are too full of biscuits.

Louvre curator delivers talk at LSU College of Art and Design

BY NYX CROOKS @voiceofnyx1

LSU was visited by Blaise Ducos, the Chief Curator of 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish paintings at the Musée du Louvre in Paris last week.

On his visit, he gave multiple free lectures and completed a reading from his own book of poetry. He was named the Paula G. Manship Endowed Lecturer at the College of Art and Design, which allowed him to give his lecture titled “Bodies as the end? The Inquiry into the Human Form in Rembrandt’s Time.”

For his visit to the LSU Museum of Art, he was part of the Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series that was created in 2021 by LSU MOA to invite experts and artists annually to share their knowledge to the public. Ducos’s arrival was orchestrated with the help of LSU professor Darius Spieth.

Ducos trained as a philosopher at the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, then he continued his studies in art history at the Ecole Du Louvre. Eventually, he completed a Ph.D. on Flemish painter Frans Pourbus the Younger at the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens in 2008.

His current job at the Louvre is how he crossed paths with Spieth.

“I believe it was in 2018, I hope I’m not mistaken, that we met first in a roundtable at the Lou-

vre where Professor Spieth was delivering brilliantly a paper and I was taking part at the roundtable,” Ducos said. “We met and had a dinner with quite a number of people and then a conversation started and here I am. He’s been very kind and supportive.”

Ducos has a long list of achievements in art history. He has written and edited many exhibitions from Frans Post, a dutch painter from the 1600s. Along with George Keyes and Lloyd DeWitt, Ducos curated the Rembrandt et la figure du Christ (Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus) exhibition.

“It’s an old love affair with the field. I had a fantastic teacher at the Ecouvre de Louvre that introduced me to the field, and I just never left,” Ducos said.

At the Louvre, most of its collection is 17th-century Flemish and Dutch art. For Ducos, art is an act of storytelling and allows the viewer to ponder over the past and the present.

“Studying art history is not only studying the elite or a few great names like Rembrandt,” Ducos said. “It’s about studying people and the way they lived, the way they felt. It’s about discovering a continent that’s been engulfed. We call that period a century, but for me, it is a very remote place that has been engulfed and we need to dig it out.”

Ducos’s also performed a poetry reading of his book while at

LSU. His writing is organized into folios, individual pieces of paper, where each folio intertwines with loops, remembrances and foreshadowing across volumes. The goal of this structure was to create a microcosm that alludes to the bigger picture.

“This is also an approach I have when studying art. Delving into minuity in order to unlock wider stories.” Ducos said “I think that if you are a hypersensitive person and at the same time, structured, then you can strive to

not only be a historian, but also a writer. If you are possessed by some sort of necessity to express yourself, then it’ll all come out.”

For Ducos, this passion for art and poetry is deeply embedded in his early life.

“I’m the son of bookshelves. I grew up amongst bookshelves,” Ducos said. “My mother had a gigantic library at home, and my first remembrances were about lifting books that I could not read. They were art books full of images and, maybe because I’m a

visual person, I was attracted to that.”

This trip marks Ducos’s first visit to Louisiana and LSU. Experiencing new cultures and meeting new people is one of the driving factors of Ducco’s visit.

“It’s not about me or even what I say in those lectures, even though it’s of course very important, it’s about meeting new people and being aware we’re not far from each other and we live in the same world. It’s about discovery and remembrance,” Ducos said.

WILL NICKEL / The Reveille

A handwritten note and four $500 gift cards to Cracker Barrel

Courtesy of LSU College of Art and Design

A SEASON IN REVIEW

Here’s a look back at the LSU women’s basketball 27-1 regular season home games at the PMAC.

Former LSU women’s basketball player Seimone Augustus is recognized at halftime on Jan. 15 during LSU’s 84-54 win over Auburn after her statue unveiling.

LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey watches the action on Jan. 15 during LSU’s 84-54 win over Auburn.

LSU women’s basketball 5th-year senior guard Alexis Morris (45) goes for a layup on Jan. 15 during LSU’s 84-54 win over Auburn.

Basketballs sit on their rack on Jan. 15 during LSU’s 84-54 win over Auburn.

LSU women’s basketball freshman guard Flau’jae Johnson (4) shoots the ball on Jan. 30 during LSU’s 76-68 win over Tennessee.

LSU women’s basketball fifthyear senior guard Alexis Morris (45) runs down the court on Jan. 30 during LSU’s 76-68 win over Tennessee.

Mike the Tiger stands on the court on Jan. 30 during LSU’s 76-68 win over Tennessee.

LSU women’s basketball 5th-year senior guard Alexis Morris celebrates a win Jan. 19 during LSU’s 79-76 win against Arkansas.

LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey reacts to a play from the side on Jan. 30 during LSU’s 76-68 win over Tennessee.

LSU women’s basketball sophomore forward Angel Reese (10) takes the court on Jan. 15 prior to LSU’s 84-54 win over Auburn.

Photos by Matthew Perschall, Erin Barker, Tarun Kakarala

TEAM OF DESTINY?

Column: Where LSU must improve

TRE ALLEN @treday314

Tournament time is when teams are the hungriest and on any given night an upset can happen if the other team isn’t locked in.

The seeding in front of the team begins to disappear and starts to become all about basketball which causes many upsets every year.

That’s why teams need to put away their opponent so they don’t have another chance to come back, and the LSU women’s basketball team is a victim of this.

Comparing the 2023 LSU women’s basketball to past Final Four teams

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus

LSU women’s basketball is getting ready to enter the NCAA Tournament, coming off one of

its best regular seasons in school history.

LSU tied its program best regular season record this year, but that would feel all for nothing if it’s not followed up by postsea-

son success. That was already the case for LSU in the SEC Tournament.

Looking back at LSU’s best tournament finishes, there are similarities to this season.

The last time the Tigers made the Final Four was 2008. That team dominated the SEC during the regular season, finishing

The Tigers have finished their regular season and conference tournament with 28 wins and two losses. One loss came from the No. 1 team in the country and another was a good Tennessee team. But the way LSU went down left a bad taste in fans’ mouths.

LSU was up by 17 at one point but ended up losing 69-67. Comebacks happen, so it’s not entirely shocking but this isn’t the first time that LSU has failed to close see IMPROVE, page 13

Column: The NCAA must stop mistreating women’s athletics

women’s game as much as it does the men’s.

March Madness has been a crowning example of how great the NCAA can be.

The men’s tournament draws in millions of viewers per year as everyone watches the drama, excitement and heartbreak.

The women’s game, though, has been consistently mistreated by the NCAA and viewers. That may not seem the case at LSU where the women’s team has a lot of hype surrounding it and is breaking records.

The LSU’s women’s team has garnered the support of the whole state with Kim Mulkey’s electric attitude and fashion sense and Angel Reese’s tough play on the court. The team here has all the support it needs to continue to grow and become one of the best programs in the nation.

In March, as women’s history month, it’s interesting to see how the NCAA fails to support the

From underfunding games, to not building proper weight rooms in the bubble and making teams play in a hotel conference room, the mistreatment of women’s basketball by everyone has been disappointing to read about.

For example, a report published in 2022 by the NCAA itself reveals that men’s teams receive twice as much funding as women’s teams.

This is seen across all sports and is simply unacceptable for the women that work just as hard as the men to play the same game. Both programs need to be equally funded.

During the times of bubble play during the COVID-19 pandemic, teams were in need of gyms or work out rooms wherever they were staying, to stay in shape for the upcoming games.

The men’s teams walked into nice expansive

and large weight rooms with everything

gyms

SPENCER VERRET @spencerverret

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey stands with sophomore forward Angel Reese (10) Feb. 26 during LSU’s 74-59 win over Mississippi State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. see MISTREAT, page 14

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball sophomore forward Angel Reese (10) looks to shoot the ball Feb. 26 during LSU’s 74-59 win over Mississippi State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

see FINAL FOUR, page 12

Woodward’s outlier: LSU men’s hoops’ underachievement

BY HENRY HUBER @HenryHuber_

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward has made a lot of big moves since the start of 2021, replacing head coaches in women’s basketball, baseball, football and men’s basketball all within a span of a year.

So far, most of those changes have paid off in a big way.

Kim Mulkey quickly turned a women’s basketball program that hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in three seasons into a championship contender.

Jay Johnson grabbed the torch from legendary baseball coach Paul Mainieri, prospered and currently headlines the No. 1 team in college baseball.

In just his first season, Brian Kelly took a football team that bordered on bowl ineligibility in the two seasons prior and turned it into one that was just two wins away from a spot in the College Football Playoff.

While there’s still time for each move to cascade, the opposite is appearing to occur, with expectations in all three programs currently being higher than ever.

But in completing the superfecta and reinvigorating four of LSU’s biggest sports programs, one pillar appears to be falling short, eroding an all-but-perfect foundation assembled by Woodward. That is the men’s basketball program under head coach Matt McMahon.

Lead-up to disappointment

Now, none of the head coach-

FINAL FOUR, from page 11 14-0 in conference play. However, LSU fell in the SEC Tournament to Tennessee, the same team it lost to this season.

LSU entered the NCAA Tournament that year as a No. 2 seed, narrowly missing out on being a one-seed after losing in the SEC Tournament.

That’s a fate LSU looks to have suffered this year as well. The Tigers were on the fringes of being a No. 1 seed for much of the latter half of the season, but the loss to Tennessee all but ended that possibility.

This year, LSU is currently projected as a three-seed, still allowing it to host its first two games. That was the situation LSU was in last season, where it narrowly avoided an upset versus Jackson State in the first round before losing to Ohio State in the Round of 32.

Despite only being a year removed, LSU has almost completely reshaped its roster since last year. The Tigers only returned one real key player from that run, LSU’s current secondleading scorer Alexis Morris.

With that said, last year doesn’t necessarily serve as a good predictive measure for this year’s team. However, it’s possible that LSU will be faced with similar matchups to last year to

es listed ahead of McMahon had perfect first seasons.

Mulkey’s squad was upset in both its SEC quarterfinal matchup against Kentucky and Round of 32 matchup against Ohio State, concluding an impressive season in disappointing fashion. Johnson suffered similar postseason woes and fell two runs short of a super-regional. Kelly went from at least a Sugar Bowl projection to not making a BCS bowl, with the worst of its collapse coming in a two-score loss to 5-7 Texas A&M.

Those three outcomes were disappointing. But discounting them in any way would be ignoring the obvious.

Each coach not only showed flashes of potential but also beat out their preseason projections. LSU baseball finished one spot ahead of most SEC West projections and women’s basketball finished ahead of Tennessee when predictions stated otherwise heading into the season.

Those examples of surpassing expectations may be minor at face value, but there are multiple considerations that make them more impressive.

For one, the SEC turned out to be the deepest conference in baseball, and LSU still managed to place third in the West ahead of College World Series representatives in Auburn and Ole Miss. And because she had already won three championships during her time with Baylor, expectations for Mulkey were already tremendously high.

With two coaches already ex-

ceeding decent-to-high expectations, imagine the ecstasy of the LSU fanbase when LSU football went from being projected to finish at-or-near the bottom of the SEC West to earning its crown.

Directly corresponding with that was the supposed rise of LSU men’s basketball, which attained a top 10 win just a few days before Kelly secured his tenth win in the Citrus Bowl. Nobody knew that the end of 2022 would cap off LSU sports’ most recent and balanced pinnacle.

Transition to Anguish

After an ugly end to the Will Wade era of LSU men’s basketball, former Murray State head coach McMahon was granted the impossible task of building a respectable SEC squad from scratch in under eight months. Hearing that, you probably wonder how we could be hard on him given the hopelessness of the description.

While patience is warranted here and comparing McMahon’s situation to the aforementioned

game and 15.5 rebounds per game. Both of those numbers are more points and rebounds than either Augustus or Fowles averaged over the course of one season.

That doesn’t automatically mean that Reese is a better player than either of the two, but her production is that of an Augustus or Fowles-level player. The big difference, though, is that unlike LSU in 2005 and 2006, it doesn’t have two players of that caliber like those teams did.

The aforementioned Morris is LSU’s next most productive player after Reese, averaging 15.1 points, 4.2 assists and three rebounds per game. Individual star quality isn’t the only factor in making a deep tournament run, but with LSU, that’s been the case in all five of its Final Four runs.

When looking at the personnel and individual production, the 2008 team once again stands out as the most similar of the Final Four teams to this year.

isn’t entirely fair, there is a scenario where that patience becomes exhausted. That comes when early promise is followed by a lack of progression—a short but accurate description of this season of LSU men’s basketball. Following a miraculous offseason, where McMahon kept star guard Adam Miller from transferring and surrounded him with experienced transfers and promising prospects, the pro -

see OUTLIER, page 14

was LSU’s second leading scorer that season, and put up similar numbers to Morris, averaging 14.4 points, 3.3 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game.

One key difference, though, was the strength of schedule of the 2008 team compared to this year. LSU has received its fair share of criticism this season for its weak nonconference schedule. The lack of quality wins is also a major reason why LSU is only projected as a No. 3 seed.

In 2008, LSU played three top 10 ranked teams during nonconference play while also securing a win over then No. 1 Tennessee in conference play.

Though that schedule resulted in a couple more losses for the Tigers, it improved their resume and helped prepare them for big games in the postseason.

That experience is something LSU lacks this season, as the Tigers have only played two ranked teams all year, and one of those games was a 24-point loss to No. 1 South Carolina.

start the tournament.

When looking at LSU’s Final Four teams, all of which come between 2004 and 2008, there are a couple key similarities in the makeup of the teams.

In that time where LSU made it to the Final Four in five straight

seasons, each of those teams featured either Sylvia Fowles or Seimone Augustus, true superstars who could will their teams to big wins.

This year’s LSU team features superstar Angel Reese who currently averages 23.4 points per

In 2008, Augustus was gone, but Fowles was in her senior season and averaged 17.4 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game. She was LSU’s leading producer, and played a similar style to how Reese plays for LSU now.

When looking at production outside of Fowles, the similarities continue. Quianna Chaney

The NCAA Tournament is impossible to predict, the similarities between this year’s team and other successful LSU teams are there. After a semifinal exit in the SEC Tournament, the Tigers now await their fate as the 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.

MORGAN COOK / The Reveille

LSU men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon yells Feb. 4 during LSU’s 79-69 loss to Alabama at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille LSU women’s basketball head coach Kim Mulkey talks to her team on Feb. 26 during LSU’s 74-59 win over Mississippi State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

Bracket busters: Three teams to watch out for this March

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus

It’s officially March, which means the sports world is getting ready to focus in on a 68-team college basketball tournament that is consistently just as unpredictable as it is exciting.

Every year, the most causal to the most diehard college basketball fans put together brackets predicting the results, with those brackets often in the paper shredder already by the second weekend of the tournament.

Upsets are synonymous with March Madness. Underdogs, Cinderellas, whatever you like to call them, there are always teams that come seemingly out of nowhere that bring joy to their fan bases and dismay to those who had their opponents going far in their personal brackets.

Some are more expected than others, with it ultimately nearly impossible to predict what teams will put their best foot forward in a 68-team single elimination tournament. However, there are always a handful of mid-major schools who look poised to make a run headed into the men’s NCAA Tournament.

Many factors go into what makes a good NCAA Tournament team, but with these teams it can also be pretty random. Sometimes it’s as random as who gets hot on the right day.

Other times, though, it’s easier to tell. This article will look primarily at teams’ schedules and efficiency metrics, along with their personnel.

Oral Roberts

Making its second NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three seasons, many fans still remember Oral Roberts’ fairy tale-like run in 2021. The Golden Eagles were a 15-seed in 2021 and made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen before narrowly losing to Arkansas.

IMPROVE, from page 11 out games.

Looking at their most recent games the Tigers have had some close calls. Starting in January when they played Arkansas, to when they played Ole Miss in February, these wins have come down to the wire. Especially with a team like this and with all of their talent, they are expected to take care of business. Not taking anything away from the teams that they played, but it has become a theme that they become a little careless down the stretch of games.

Another example is when a six-win Texas A&M team kept it close all game long and LSU didn’t pull away until late in the fourth quarter. When LSU played Tennessee the first time the Vols hung around toward the end when it seemed LSU was going to pull away.

Missing defensive assignments, becoming sloppy with the ball, having bad turnovers, getting late into the shock clock and

The star of that team was point guard Max Abmas, who is still with the team and currently averages 22.2 points per game, good enough for sixth in the country. Having an elite scorer like that is often a key for teams like this to make a run in March, and Abmas already has the experience coming from Oral Roberts’s run in 2021.

The Oral Roberts offense, led by Abmas, ranks third in the country in total points per game at 84.2 and ranks 24th in adjusted offensive efficiency at 115.5

hoisting up a shot, all allow teams to stay in the game. For LSU to make a deep run in the tournament, it has to take care of these mistakes.

As generic as it sounds, you have keep the foot on the pedal and play like the score is 0-0, especially in tournament games. There are many talented teams in the tournament and by the second-round matchup, it starts to get serious to where little mistakes become big and have an impact on the game.

It would be better for this team to continue to apply pressure throughout the whole game to make sure that they don’t have a situation where the game is closer than it should be.

Whether it begins at the beginning of the game or halftime, there’s little doubt Kim Mulkey would like her team to put away teams when they have a chance. Mulkey along with Alexis Morris has stated that there is work to be done to make the type of run that they are capable of.

points per 100 possessions.

This team has talent and experience and is an efficient offensive unit that could give many big teams problems. The Golden Eagles have also won 16 games in a row heading into the tournament, so momentum is on their side.

College of Charleston

Charleston was a fan favorite team for much of the season, even spending a portion of the year ranked in the AP Top 25. The Cougars finished the season 31-3 and in the eyes of many should have been a lock to make

the NCAA Tournament even if they hadn’t won their conference tournament.

The team is about as balanced as it gets with five players averaging 10 or more points per game and no one averaging more than 28 minutes per game.

Experience is also on Charleston’s side. Its leading scorer, Dalton Bolon, is currently in his seventh year of college basketball and is one of four graduate students on the roster.

The stats and advanced metrics don’t favor the Cougars as

much as they do Oral Roberts, but the importance of having an experienced, cohesive group shouldn’t be underestimated.

Drake Drake is also making its second NCAA Tournament appearance in the last three years as the Bulldogs were an 11-seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs still have a handful of players from that team, but are led by sophomore Tucker DeVries, the son of head coach

MITCHELL SCAGLIONE / Associated Press

The LSU basketball team warms up before their game against Maryland on Saturday, March 23, 2019, in Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.

see BRACKET, page 14

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball Angel Reese (10) celebrates with Flau’jae Johnson (4) Feb. 26 during LSU’s 74-59 win over Mississippi State at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

OUTLIER, from page 12

gram sported surprising promise heading into the 2022-23 season. Preseason projections even had the Tigers scraping into the NCAA Tournament.

Come March, and those projections are merely a distant memory to fans that were simply desperate to see McMahon pick up a win down the stretch.

It initially secured promising wins over Wake Forest and Kentucky, which correlated with strong, flawed performances in losses to Kansas State and Kentucky. But just as the Tigers entered the bubble, as analysts projected they would, their success would fall at an alarming rate.

The result was a near-historic low in program history, where LSU not only came one loss short of tying its worst losing streak in history, but also concluded the season with a tie for its worst SEC record in 50 years at 2-16.

That record would be understandable if McMahon had expectedly struggled to assemble a talented squad. But despite his team showing clear promise, especially in later games, things never seemed to work out for it

MISTREAT, from page 11 they could have needed to make sure they were physically right for the tournament.

The women’s weight room was a couple of dumbbells all under 25 pounds and a few sanitized yoga mats.

This incident sparked outrage all over social media as people learned how the women were being mistreated during the time of bubble play. The women’s teams also were given pre-packaged meals while the men were given chefs with full buffets.

The bubble was the turning point for the women’s game, and while the treatment has improved, there is still much work to do.

in the end. Its ever-growing list of flaws remained prevalent until its last loss of the regular season.

One game, the Tigers would start slow offensively, the next it would finish slower. They followed one of their best rebounding performance against Alabama with one of their worst against Mississippi State and could not defend the three through much of SEC play, finishing as the second worst team in the conference ahead of only Missouri.

When it showed progress in a tough stretch in February, it followed that up by progressing backwards in an easier one. In its final six games, four came against teams in the bottom half of the conference. It managed to win just one of them, despite having notable leads in its last two games.

While there’s still plenty of time for McMahon to turn things around, he was the only coach of the four to not meet preseason expectations and he wasn’t particularly close. His situation warrants one more season before the verdict is truly out but if the next season produces little-to-no improvement, Woodward’s hiring of him will be a blow to his resume.

Just this season at the Las Vegas Invitational, Indiana and Auburn played against each other in a hotel conference room. More ridiculous than that was the inadequate seating. A small group of chairs were placed on one side of the court, allowing little space for fans.

These are just a few of the many instances that the women’s game has dealt with over the years. The NCAA, spectators and organizers of events must do better.

The women’s game has everything it needs to grow. It just needs the support of the NCAA and fans alike to continue to grow the great game of basketball in universities around the states.

BRACKET, from page 13

Darian DeVries.

Tucker Devries averages 19 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game and had 22 points in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game.

Much like Charleston, Drake also has an abundance of experience, with three graduate stu-

dents and two seniors on the roster.

Statistically, there are a couple things that stand out about the Bulldogs. They rank in the top 50 in adjusted efficiency margin, allowing 97.8 points per 100 possessions. They also like to slow it down on offense, averaging just 66.6 possessions per game. Depending on the matchup, this can

be an adjustment for teams who can be thrown off by having to play at a slower pace.

Defense travels in tournament settings like March Madness and combining that with Drake’s experience and possession of a high-level scorer makes them a team many high-seeded teams won’t want to play in the NCAA Tournament.

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille LSU women’s basketball senior forward Emily Ward (11) walks onto the court during LSU’s senior day 74-59 win over Mississippi State on Feb. 26 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

REAGAN COTTEN / The Reveille LSU men’s basketball freshman forward Jalen Reed (13) shoots a layup on March 1 during LSU’s 81-76 loss against Missouri in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

The LSU men’s basketball team and coaches yell from the side on Feb. 11 during LSU’s 74-62 loss to Texas A&M at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

OPINION

Uncommon mental disorders deserve recognition, advocacy

attacks depends on the person. Some people have panic attacks multiple times a day and others once a month.

When you suffer from an uncommon mental health disorder, it’s important to advocate for others with that disorder who are uncomfortable openly speaking about it.

Mental health disorders like anxiety and depression are celebrated by advocates, but typically other, lesser-known mental health disorders, like panic disorder, go undiscussed.

Panic disorder is often recognized by chronic and generally frequent panic attacks.

I was recently diagnosed with panic disorder, but prior to being diagnosed, I hadn’t heard of it.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says about 2-3% of Americans experience panic disorder in a given year.

Scotland’s National Health Service says that people with panic disorder regularly have panic attacks, but the frequency of the

For me, the number of panic attacks is sporadic, but when I’m really stressed, I normally have at least one attack a day.

The website also says if panic disorder is left untreated, it can become a very debilitating and isolating illness.

I find panic disorder to be extremely debilitating at times, causing me to be unable to attend class or go to work. While I know there are many others that suffer from anxiety, I sometimes feel alone in the sheer frequency and severity of panic attacks that I suffer from.

Anxiety attacks and panic attacks are very similar experiences, but a panic attack is usually more extreme and occurs for no reason, whereas anxiety attacks are usually caused by a stimulus.

An extremely harmful outcome of untreated panic disorder is the development of agoraphobia.

Scotland’s National Health

Service defines agoraphobia as a strong fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult and/or help wouldn’t be available if things go wrong.

Agoraphobia can make someone incapable of leaving their house at all, which is why it is important to treat the panic disorder as soon as it’s noticed.

Panic disorder’s main treatments are therapy and medication. Therapy for panic disorder usually takes the form of cognitive behavioral therapy.

The National Institute of Mental Health says cognitive behavioral therapy teaches how to think, behave and react in different ways toward the thoughts and feelings that preface a panic attack.

Continued use of this type of therapy can lead to fewer panic attacks and better reactions to attacks.

The other type of treatment is medication, mainly the use of antidepressants and anxiety medications.

The most common antidepressants used to treat panic disorder

are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which increase the level of serotonin in the brain, according to Scotland’s National Health Service.

With the use of cognitive behavioral therapy and medications, panic disorder can be managed, but living with it can still be a struggle.

It’s more of a struggle if you feel alone, which is why I find it beneficial to share my experiences so others with similar experiences can feel comfortable in themselves.

Performance enhancement drugs aren’t going anywhere

JEMIAH’S JUSTIFICATIONS

JEMIAH CLEMONS

@Miclemah

Doping has taken a prominent role in professional sports. As a spectator, it seems as though many athletes participate, but only a few are caught. When consequences are handed out, sports organizations appear to be more concerned with politics instead of the health of their athletes.

Performance enhancement drugs have been associated with health risks such as increased blood pressure, stroke and heart attack. These risks can lead to more serious and fatal consequences.

“There’s cardiovascular system risks and it can disrupt hormone balances and homeostatic systems. It’s not my area of expertise, but I’ve anecdotally heard and seen some evidence for some mental related effects of doping,” said kinesiology professor and athletic trainer Melissa Thompson.

Organizations like the NFL,

EDITORIAL BOARD

Josh Archote Editor-in-Chief

Managing Editor Hannah Michel Hanks

Claire Sullivan News Editor

MLB and FIFA use the unwavering regulations set by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency to determine consequences for athletes and staff that participate in doping. PEDs have short and long-term effects, but when athletes are punished, their health seems to be an afterthought.

The punishments are so in-

tense that athletes have turned to various forms of cheating to pass the mandatory drug tests throughout the season. If athletes are caught, the punishments can be potentially career ending.

San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. recently tested positive for PEDs. He was suspended for 80 games and lost

brand deals. Instead of inquiring about his health, most onlookers were worried about his lowered income and his ineligibility in the 2022 World Series.

Internationally, Russian athletes have had many incidents concerning doping. This political turmoil caused the Olympics to ban Russian participation until 2024. While PEDs are always at the forefront of the conversation, I can’t help but wonder if it’s truly because of politics.

These examples again show that sports organizations place the health of their athletes on the back burner while prioritizing money, politics and public image.

“One of the key principles we see throughout health and medicine is that when people try to take shortcuts to achieve things, it’s often disastrous. It may work for a little while, but long term it ends in destruction,” Thompson said.

When it comes to doping, sports organizations are trying to juggle public outrage, sponsors, and their athletes all at once. Trying to please everyone is nearly impossible, so it looks

like they take shortcuts to please the sponsors and the fans. When sponsored athletes dope, they destroy their brand’s investment and the public’s trust; that’s why the consequences are so severe. When brands sign a player, they’re investing time, money and resources to make them a top athlete. In return, the athlete should win games, bring in fans, earn publicity and more. So when a player is doping, they limit their potential and wholistically ruin the organization’s investment.

PEDs benefit sports organizations, sponsors and athletes short term, but in the long run, the athlete’s performance may start to deteriorate.

Based on the history of consequences and public outrage, it’s safe to say that sports organizations care more about the politics surrounding doping rather than the act itself. The health of athletes should always come before pleasing the sponsors and spectators.

Editorial Policies and Procedures Quote of the Week

Deputy News Editor Gabby Jimenez

John Buzbee Opinion Editor

The Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, The Reveille or the university. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to editor@lsu.edu or delivered to B-39 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must provide a contact phone number for verification purposes, which will not be printed. The Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consideration while preserving the original intent. The Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without notification of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Reveille’s editor in chief, hired every semester by the LSU Student Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.

“And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”

Robert Frost American poet 1874

— 1963

Kate Beske is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Destrehan.

Jemiah Clemons is a 19-year-old kinesiology freshman from Miami, Florida.

GRAPHIC BY BLAINE SWANZY

You’re probably the villain in someone else’s life story

MADDEN’S MADNESS LAUREN MADDEN @lllomadd

In the story of our own lives, we are the main character, the protagonist, the hero. Anyone who acts in a way that conflicts with the desires we have for our lives is often branded as a villain in our personal narrative.

Your significant other broke up with you, so you label them to be a villain.

Your friend told you that they were too busy to hang out, but you see a social media post of them out with other people. They lied to you and hurt you. They, too, receive the label of villain.

Your mom won’t let you go to the house party everyone else is going to. She’s the villain, destroying the quality of your social life.

Whether they were intentional or not, the actions of these villains negatively affected different aspects of our lives. They opposed the goal of the hero in our story.

But each of these villains also has a story of their own lives, where they are the hero.

Your significant other, while

hurting you in the process, was most likely dealing with things you didn’t know about. They decided to put themselves first, making a decision best for them.

Your friend may have made those plans months ago, with people you aren’t close with. She decided that claiming to be busy

was her best choice of action in that moment. She didn’t intend to act in a cruel manner.

Your mom, like most moms, wanted to do what was in the best interest of her child. She wanted to keep you safe, even if it meant enforcing strict rules.

In the multitude of life stories

that exist in the world, there are an endless number of heroes and villains. You may be portrayed as a hero in one story and a villain in another, and the cycle continues. But being the villain in someone else’s story doesn’t necessarily make us bad people.

You and a classmate are inter-

viewing for the same internship. You receive the news that you landed the job, while your classmate receives a rejection. From their point of view, you are the villain that took the internship they wanted. You negatively affected the trajectory of their life plan.

The boss of a company must fire an employee due to budget cuts. That employee’s termination meeting is most likely going to ruin their day. While the boss becomes the villain of that employee’s life, he acted in a manner that was a part of his position in the company.

The classification of hero or villain is simple. It’s good versus bad. If you’re good, you’re a hero. If you’re bad, you’re a villain. But placing people in these categories isn’t realistic because as humans, we are all imperfect. We make multiple heroic and villainous choices every second of every day.

You can’t control how others narrate their own life stories, so accept that you may be portrayed differently by others and continue to live as the hero of your life.

Lauren Madden is a 21-yearold mass communication senior from Mandeville.

GRAPHIC BY MADDIE FITZMORRIS