It’s one day at a time for Will Wade and his LSU Tigers

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LSU is right in the middle of a three-team chase for the Southeastern Conference with six games remaining on the schedule.

The Tigers are tied with Tennessee for first place in the conference with Kentucky one game behind the co-leaders. LSU will play host to the Volunteers on Saturday. First up this week for the Tigers will be Florida, which visits the PMAC on Wednesday.

LSU must avoid looking past the Gators with Tennessee making its appearance at the PMAC on the weekend. Tigers coach Will Wade is not worried about his team overlooking Florida. Wade’s philosophy does not involve even talking about the next opponent.

“We just talk about what we need to do today,” Wade said. “We want to win the day. We don’t talk about the next game. We want to have championship habits each day. If we do that, we will have a chance to win on game day.”

Even though they are tied with Tennessee for first place and owns a victory against Kentucky at Rupp Arena, the Tigers are not in the forefront of college basketball observers. Both the Vols and the Wildcats are ranked in the top five in the Associated Press poll. LSU sits at No. 13.

The lack of attention being drawn by the Tigers does not bother Wade.

“Kentucky has been doing it for a long time,” Wade said. “Tennessee won the league last year. People aren’t shaking in their boots when they see the Purple and Gold. We haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. We’ve got to keep plugging away.”

LSU has certainly grinded its way to victories in the past three weeks. All but one of the Tigers’ past six victories have been by a margin of six points or less. Five of those victories have come on the road with two going into overtime.

“The players have confidence when we are in close games,” Wade said. “We work on playing in close games. We talk about winning the six-minute game (at the end). It is stuff we work on. We have a good plan for the last six minutes. We just have to execute our plan.”

LSU must develop a different plan for its game against the Gators, who are one of the best defensive teams in the SEC. Florida is allowing 63 points per game. Opposing teams are making just 42 percent of their field goal attempts, including 31 percent on 3-pointers.

By comparison, the Tigers are averaging 83 points per game. LSU is shooting 47 percent from the field. The Tigers are making just 33 percent of their 3-pointers. In an attempt to slow down the pace, Florida uses a 1-2-2 zone defense.

“This game will be a big test,” Wade said. “Florida is the best defensive team in the league. Florida will give us a lot of problems with their 1-2-2 zone. They want to control tempo. We must run good offense against Florida. We have to change up what we do. We have to do a good job attacking the zone.

“We can’t turn the ball over. One of every four possessions against Florida results in a turnover. We can’t give Florida easy points. They are going to grind it out on offense, so we can’t just give them eight free points. We are not going to outscore Florida. It will be tough sledding.”

The Gators (14-11, 6-6) are trying to play themselves into the NCAA tournament. Florida has a rematch with LSU in two weeks and ends the regular season at Kentucky. The Gators are 3-3 in SEC road games. The losses came at Mississippi State, Auburn and Tennessee. Only the game with the Bulldogs was close.

Two Florida players are averaging double figures for the season – wings KeVaughn Allen (12.6) and Noah Locke (10.8). Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard is averaging eight points and five assists per game. The Gators are making only 42 percent of their field goal attempts.