Check back here throughout the day for tidbits and news of the latest commitments to send their Letters of Intent to Les Miles and the LSU Tigers. Here's to hoping for no signing day surprises.

UPDATED 11:27 AM

These basketball posts have become a rollercoaster. Two weeks ago, we pretty much hit rock bottom. Last week, LSU pulled out their first conference win, so the world indeed was not ending. This week, LSU took down a ranked foe for the first time since 2007 AND won the following game. Johnny Jones has us all along for the ride this season. What's he got for us next?

Last Wednesday at the Maravich Center the LSU Tigers got off the mat and notched their first Southeastern Conference victory. Not only is that cause for hope, but the Tigers also gave Kentucky all they could ask for Saturday afternoon in Rupp Arena. The game was tied with only minutes remaining, before UK got the shots they needed to fall and LSU didn't. The Tigers rode their wave from the A&M victory to that fantastic performance in Lexington. So is there hope for this basketball season after all?

0-2 Start. Eh, could kind of see that coming, right? New coach, thin talent, going up against a surging team and one of the best in the country. All could see two loses.

Except LSU has lost two more, to what many believe are two of the worst teams in the conference in Georgia & South Carolina. Both teams only conference win to this point is against LSU as both stand 1-3. The Tigers now find themselves as the only team in the SEC without a conference win at 0-4. Where do we go from here?

This is the first edition of the Monday Hoops report...yes I know I'm late, but it's still Monday. We'll chronicle LSU's men's team throughout SEC play and the postseason, if there is one.

Through the first two weeks of SEC play, the Tigers are finding out just how much tougher life in the SEC is compared to a soft nonconference schedule of vanilla cupcakes and little patsies. LSU fell in a close game to Auburn 63-68 and then got run out of the Maravich Center against Florida, falling 52-74, their lowest scoring output of the season.

It's a fire sale! Everything must go! Or so it seems with LSU as a total of 8 juniors have announced that they are leaving school early to enter the NFL draft. It's an unprecedented amount of early departures for LSU, a team that has seen it's share of juniors leaving early but never in this much bulk before. LB Kevin Minter, S Eric Reid, P Brad Wing, RB Spencer Ware, CB Tharold Simon, DE Sam Montgomery, DE Barkevious Mingo, and DT Bennie Logan represent the eight players leaving LSU early.

It was almost guaranteed that Mingo and Montgomery would leave. Those two dynamic defensive ends have been projected top 15 picks since the beginning of the season. Wing's recently troubles almost assuredly guaranteed that he would declare as well. The short shelf life of NFL running back's and his time to shine being dwindled by the emerging Jeremy Hill likely prompted Spencer Ware to declare and the amazing season Kevin Minter had likely encouraged him to declare as well. However, the three most questionable announcements came from S Eric Reid, CB Tharold Simon, and DT Bennie Logan.

The past three years of LSU football have seen the Tigers regain their form from the first three years of Les Miles' tenure. After posting two sub 10-win seasons, the Tigers have rebounded to post 11, 13 and 10 win campaigns. One part of that resurgence was the phenomenal hire of John Chavis in 2009, who brought swagger back to the LSU defense. 

The offense, then, became the lynchpin upon which the LSU teams of 2009 and beyond would be judged and would be measured by. With a stout defense to depend on yearly, all the offense had to do was get it out of its own way, right? 

This infographic is a snapshot of the LSU offense over the past three years and demonstrates why it's had so much to do with LSU's success, or lack thereof relatively speaking. See it after the jump.

2012 ended exactly as it began, with a painful, agonizing defeat.

That night in January of 2012 needs not be discussed further, but it's effect on the year was felt all the way until around 11:20PM Eastern on December 31st. Only after that could the cleansing finally begin...on a 10-win season.

Ever since the 2013 SEC schedule came out, local Baton Rouge media & fans have groused about how, for the second straight year, the "temporary" SEC football schedule gave LSU teams like Georgia & Florida, while Alabama got to play the patsies of the league. To add insult to injury, LSU was shoved down the bowl pecking order by the SEC to "protect" other teams & other matchups.

The Baton Rouge Advocate recently went to print with two articles with reasons for LSU to stay and reasons for them to go. I think its ridiculous to even think of LSU leaving the SEC, but here we are discussing it.

In one week, LSU faces the Tigers of the ACC in Clemson. Say what you will about LSU being in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, this will be a great matchup in the Georgia Dome, a place that's treated LSU very well throughout the years. The offense comes into this game a more effective unit than it was six weeks into the season. The defense comes into the game with a decided limp, having given up 450+ yards to both Ole Miss and Arkansas in the final two games of the regular season. Will this turn into a shootout or will LSU's defense do what it normally does in bowl games, shut the opponent down?