BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU's Angela Crockett had her college hoops career all planned out in high school, a coach remembers.

Dennis Chandler remembers Crockett as a 5-foot-6, "maybe 90-pound" freshman at McCall High in Tallulah. He asked her about her plans, three years before she accepted a scholarship to play at LSU.

"She expected to play three minutes a game as a freshman," Chandler said. "She had this keen interest in the game, and she knew early how to work toward her goals."

Crockett, who now starts at point guard for the Lady Tigers (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today; No. 17 AP), averaged 19 points a game and made the All-State team as a high school senior. She attracted the attention of LSU coach Sue Gunter and later secured the scholarship with her performance at McCall.

Two years ago, as a freshman, she played far more than three minutes a game at LSU, earning time as a backup point guard and a reliever at shooting guard and small forward. She started three early-season games, scoring career highs in back-to-back starts.

Her minutes slipped in her sophomore season, but she continued being a three-position backup. When Kisha James, tabbed in the preseason as the starting point guard, tore a knee ligament in LSU's final exhibition game, Crockett was recovering from a stress fracture but knew she had to heal because it was her shot to start.

Going into Thursday's game at Arkansas, which could be Gunter's 600th career victory, Crockett had started nine consecutive games, of which the Lady Tigers won seven. She averages about 3.5 points, and had nearly a 2-to-1 assists-to-turnovers ratio going into the loss to Tennessee.

Crockett, an avid reader who spoke as her class valedictorian in high school, said she can flip through a novel in a week when school's not in session. She's reading Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" right now, but she likes to splurge with horror novelist Stephen King's latest.

A King-sized stage fright struck Crockett against Tennessee.

Like her teammates, Crockett stopped her dribble a little too early, succumbed to Tennessee's defensive trap a little too much and gave up too many turnovers. She took two shots, scored three points and committed five turnovers.

In LSU's 61-54 victory Sunday against Mississippi State, Crockett was back -- if not scoring, at least making the passes that resulted in scores. Crockett made her only shot of the game, and she had six assists and two turnovers.

She brought a constant to LSU's floor play as the only Lady Tiger to play the entire game.

"To watch a kid sit back and tell you her goals and her dreams," said Chandler, who left McCall after 13 years and now coaches at East Ascension High. "To see that she set a goal and went out and did all she could to obtain that goal, that's been wonderful."