BATON ROUGE — While it seems like months since the LSU men’s team played its last game, the Tigers must try to regain the intensity and effort it showed in winning a tournament championship in Honolulu when it takes on Alcorn State Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The contest, the first since Nov. 28 for the men’s team, is the back
half of a day-night basketball doubleheader in the Assembly Center. The nationally-ranked LSU women’s team takes on Michigan at 1 p.m. in a game televised from the PMAC on ESPN2.
The LSU-Alcorn State game will not be televised but will be broadcast on
the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge). The game will also be available at www.LSUsports.net on the internet.
The long layoff was brought about because of dead week on the campus and
then the final examination period for the fall semester which ends Saturday afternoon. Through it the basketball team has had to practice around study groups and exams, meaning practices at times from 10 a.m. in the morning to 7 p.m. at night.
When asked by a reporter about his concern over the long break, LSU
Coach John Brady said, “I’m concerned about everything. I’m concerned about that an a bunch more. But since you asked me that specific question, yes.”
The Tigers have gotten some good work in over the two weeks and look to
continue that edge that has them 5-0 for the first time since the 1992-93 season.
“The week we were off we just tried to come in and condition real hard
and just tried to keep the momentum going in practice,” he said. “We gave a god effort (in a Wednesday scrimmage), but we didn’t execute real well. We just need to keep working hard.
“We’ve had 10, 11 practices here since we played our last game, and
we’re ready to get back in there and do something.”
Alcorn State is 3-3 coming to Baton Rouge for the first meeting between
the two teams since the 1980 NCAA second round matchup won by LSU in Denton, Texas. Legendary Davey Whitney is at the helm of the Braves in his 24th season and will be going for his 500th career win in 29 seasons as a college head coach (499-305).
“They are tall and talented,” Whitney said of the Tigers. “It’ is going
to be a big hill for us to climb — it’s not impossible, but it is going to be difficult. They have had the best set of athletes since Shaq. They are so physical and so talented skill wise, we are going to have our hands full.”
LSU is expected to start Hawaii tournament MVP Stromile Swift at one
forward with Brian Beshara, Jabari Smith at center, Torris Bright at point guard and either Jermaine Williams or Lamont Roland at the off-guard.
Swift comes in averaging 21.2 points a contest, while hitting 73.2
percent of his field goal attempts, first in the SEC and third in the first NCAA statistics of the season. Jabari Smith is averaging 16.4 points a game. LSU has had four players in double figures in each of the first five contests of the season.
This will be the first of three home games for LSU in eight days as the
Tigers host Tennessee-Martin on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. and then Sam Houston State on Dec. 18 at 2 p.m.