By Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
BATON ROUGE — History will not be on the Tigers’ side Wednesday evening when Arkansas comes to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for a 7 p.m. tip-off. The Tigers are 1-8 all-time vs. the Razorbacks at home and 1-15 against the visitors from Fayetteville overall since Arkansas joined the SEC in 1991-92.
But those were very different Tiger teams. This Tiger team is 14-3 (2-3 in SEC play) and is intent upon getting back into the hunt for the SEC West title. Wednesday evening’s game against Arkansas is the perfect opportunity to show just how far they have come.
A win at home against a traditional thorn in their side would move the Tigers back to the .500 mark in conference play and in the thick of things. Arkansas is 11-7 (3-2) and currently in second place of the SEC West. With Ole Miss beating Auburn, the complexity of the entire division has changed.
“If we can beat Arkansas, will be right back in the thick of things,” said Coach John Brady.
“Auburn has to play Tennessee Wednesday night in Knoxville. They may lose that game giving them a second loss which would really open up the race in the division.”
The Tigers could move into second place in the west with a win against Arkansas. Pending an Auburn loss they could be either one or two games out of first place.
The Razorbacks have a scoring threat in Chris Walker. Walker is one of the top scorers in the conference averaging 14.3 points a game. The Tigers will have to keep an eye on the hot-shooting Hog when playing defense.
The Tigers will have to reduce the turnovers in order to be successful against Arkansas.
“We have to take care of the ball,” said Brady. “We can’t give them points off of turnovers.”
Arkansas is a team with a very good perimeter defense. The Tigers will need to use their weapons inside. Stromile Swift and Jabari Smith will need to step up for the Tigers. LSU has struggled getting the ball to the post at times this season. The two big men need to receive plenty touches and turn those touches into points.
Arkansas will also use a half court press frequently. This is worrisome for a Tiger team with turnover problems.
“We have to break the press consistently if we want to win,” said Brady.
A recent bright spot for the Tigers has been the development of power forward Brad Bridgewater. He had a great game against Georgia and has been seeing more and more playing time of late for the Tigers.
“Brad is a hard worker,” said Brady. “When he doesn’t play its usually because of match-ups. Vandy went real small on us so I really couldn’t utilize him, but Georgia had some big bodies inside. Brad matched up well and played a lot.”
Bridgewater will continue to develop and become more of a roll player in the future. His contributions along with those of Jermaine Williams, Collis Temple and Ronald Dupree off the bench will be critical in the Tigers’ quest to get back into the hunt for the SEC West title.