Johnny Jones LSU Johnny Jones during the game at Mizzou Arena on January 4, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri.

Coaches are often publicly optimistic about their teams, but LSU men’s basketball head coach Johnny Jones took that to a whole new level Wednesday ahead of their clash with Tennessee. His Tigers were 9-19 overall and 1-15 in SEC play, and they had lost a school-record 15 straight games. That didn’t deter Jones from saying they hadn’t given up on making the NCAA tournament:

Jones is technically right; the winner of the SEC tournament gets an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, so LSU could still theoretically qualify. And hey, they wound up beating Tennessee 92-82, so at least they’re on a slight upswing; they’re now only 1-15 in their last 16 games. But the odds of the Tigers winning that conference tournament and making the NCAA tournament are astronomical. Even the 2007-2008 Georgia team Jones used for comparison was in much better shape than this team is.

That year, Georgia was a dismal 4-12 in conference play and 13-16 overall heading into the SEC tournament, but both of those numbers are substantially better than what LSU’s done this year. The Tigers are now 2-15 in conference, 10-19 overall, with one regular-season game left against Mississippi State on Saturday. At best, they’re entering the conference tournament with one less conference win and two less overall wins than that Bulldogs team.

That Georgia team also scored 68.1 points per game (overall, counting postseason play) and allowed 67.4, a differential of +.7. Meanwhile, LSU had scored 75.0 and allowed 83.0 heading into Wednesday’s game, a differential of -8. Yes, those Georgia numbers are slightly aided by their tournament wins, but they still seemed to have a bit more potential heading into the conference tournament.

The Bulldogs’ run through that tournament was remarkable, but a similar run from these Tigers would be even more unprecedented. LSU is tied for last in the SEC standings with Missouri (although they are better overall than the other Tigers, who sit at 7-22), with 12 teams above them, two of which are AP-ranked (No. 9 Kentucky, 25-5, and No. 12 Florida, 23-6) and two others of which (South Carolina and Arkansas, both 22-8) have over 20 wins. That calls for a collection of clips about the odds and not giving up:

Of course, the latter two of those ended (at least partially) with actual overcoming of the odds, but that was Hollywood. If LSU somehow manages to win the conference tournament and make the NCAA tournament, it will be a real-life miracle, almost on a Al Michaels scale. But if they do, Jones can say he knew something the rest of us don’t. The far more likely scenario seems that he’s just trying to pump up his team, and that this SEC tournament will play out much like the rest of this season for LSU, though.

[Cody Worsham on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.