| Stop us if you've heard this before: LSU lost to Alabama. Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa, a short-handed LSU men's basketball team fought hard but came up just short against Alabama, this time by a 70-67 score. It was a valiant effort, especially with point guard Xavier Pinson out again and Darius Days leaving in the first half with an ankle injury. But in the end a loss is a loss, and LSU's brilliant start has come unraveled a bit. The Tigers lost their second straight to drop to 15-3 and 3-3 in SEC play going to Tennessee on Saturday. The Tigers headed straight there Thursday after their charter plane for Baton Rouge developed mechanical problems. The news was much better on the LSU football front as Wednesday, Tigers defensive end Ali Gaye announced he is returning for the 2022 season. This follows linebacker Micah Baskerville, LSU's top returning tackler, announcing his decision to return on Tuesday. Meanwhile, our Patrick Magee gives us the lowdown on new defensive coordinator Matt House (he's still coaching in the NFL playoffs with the Kansas City Chiefs), former coach Ed Orgeron and others have been dropped from LSU's sex discrimination lawsuit, and Wilson Alexander tells us how much more Brian Kelly's staff will make than the last one. While the men's basketball team has hit a rough patch, the LSU women's team is still riding high. The Tigers don't play again until Sunday at Florida, but meanwhile they cracked the USA Today coaches' poll top 10 for their first top-10 ranking since 2009. Jim Kleinpeter also paints this feature picture of LSU's top player, All-SEC point guard Khayla Pointer. And I've got a gymnastics notebook, talking about how LSU will be without two of its best floor performers Friday against Arkansas. Finally, let's talk rankings and projections. D1Baseball.com puts LSU at No. 8 in its preseason poll (just wait until you see how many SEC teams are in its top 10) and Sheldon Mickles gives us LSU's pre-Alabama NCAA Tournament projections. That's all for now. Please support our work by subscribing to one of our three print editions — The Advocate, The Times-Picayune or the Acadiana Advocate — or online at TheAdvocate.com or NOLA.com. Until next time, The LSU beat team (Scott Rabalais, Sheldon Mickles, Wilson Alexander and Leah Vann) | 