NASHVILLE — LSU coach John Brady and the LSU Tigers open play Thursday night playing with an attitude of nothing to lose in the SEC men’s basketball tournament when they play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
The Tigers and Bulldogs are expected to play at approximately 8:45 p.m. in the final game of the four-game Thursday session. Auburn meets Tennessee in the noon opener, with South Carolina facing Mississippi State at 2:15 p.m. Vanderbilt and Alabama open the night session at 6:30 p.m.
“I’m very proud of the effort and the heart which this team has shown this year,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “If you judge the team with what it has done with what it has given, I think our team has done quite well. In our game with Georgia, our team understands that Georgia probably needs a win desperately to stay in contention for an NCAA berth.
“At the same time, our team is ready to play. If you look back at the game in Athens earlier this year, we had the lead with two minutes go. Our team feels pretty good about being able to play some quality basketball.”
LSU enters at the sixth seed in the Western Division at 12-15 and 2-14 in the SEC. But in the last week of the season, LSU was able to upset 12th-ranked Ole Miss and then battle ranked Tennessee on the road for 37 minutes before falling, 78-71.
Georgia is 16-13 and 9-7 in the league, with many experts thinking they may need as many as two wins in the tournament to cinch an NCAA bid. Georgia has an RBI of 20 entering the tournament and the nation’s toughest schedule in its favor.
“If our five starters and the three guys we need to score make some baskets, then I think with five minutes to go it could be anybody’s game,” said Brady.
The Tigers will go with their normal starting lineup of the scholarship five: Torris Bright, Jermaine Williams, Collis Temple III, Brian Beshara and Ronald Dupree. Dupree finished the season as the league’s leading scorer at 17.3 points per game and was second in the SEC in rebounds at 8.9 rpg.
Georgia won the Jan. 21 meeting in Athens, 68-63 as Dupree and Bright led LSU with 18 points apiece, while Temple added 14 for the Tigers. The game was tied 59-59 with 3:21 to play and LSU trailed, 64-63, with 1:24 to play, but couldn’t convert on its final two trips down the floor.
D. A. Layne is the leading scorer for Georgia at 16.9 points per game, with Ezra Williams averaging 12.1 points for the Dogs.
NOTES
- Forward Ronald Dupree was named second-team All-SEC by the Associated Press Wednesday after earning third-team honors by the Coaches.
- Coach John Brady expressed appreciate in his press conference Thursday to Chancellor Mark Emmert and Interim Athletic Director Jerry Baudin for accelerating the effective date for the rollover of his five-year contest. The contract now runs through the 2006 season.
- Four Tigers were named Academic All-SEC: Brian Beshara, Brian Green, Collis Temple and Jack Warner. In John Brady’s four years at LSU, his players have earned 11 academic honor roll citations, four each of the past two years.
- LSU is 34-40 in the history of the SEC Tournament, 13-21 since the renewal of the event. LSU is playing on the first day for the seventh time in the last eight years. LSU’s win over Vanderbilt last year in the quarterfinals was the Tigers’ first in the tournament since 1993.