BATON ROUGE — The Tigers went through a 70-minute workout Saturday to conclude a good week of practice sessions prior to Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. contest against the Arkansas Razorbacks at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The contest is part of the Jefferson Pilot Sports syndicated television package throughout the Southeast and will be televised in the Baton Rouge area on WAFB-TV. The radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.lsusports.net.
Tickets for the game will go on sale at 11 a.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center box office at a price of $10 each.
Both teams are 10-4 overall, but LSU is 0-1 after losing last Saturday to Alabama in final seconds, 76-74, in Tuscaloosa. Arkansas is 2-0 with a road win at Alabama and a win Tuesday at home against Mississippi State.
The Tigers did not a game this past Wednesday and while most coaches don’t like the break, this time it may have come at a good time for LSU.
“We had four really strong, very good practices heading into this game,” said LSU coach John Brady. “I think the break of not playing came at a good time for us. We feel good about what we’ve tried to do and look forward to the challenge of playing an Arkansas team that is playing very well at the present time.”
The Tigers are expected to go with its normal starting lineup of Torris Bright and Collis Temple III at guards, with Ronald Dupree, Jermaine Williams and Brad Bridgewater at the guards. Arkansas starts two Louisiana players in its lineup, seniors Teddy Gipson of Farmerville and Brandon Dean of Monroe. Joining them are guard Jannero Pargo and forwards Berry Jordan and Dionisio Gomez.
Temple leads the Tigers in scoring at 16.8 points per game, while Dupree of LSU was the league leader in rebounding entering the weekend at 8.6 rebounds per game. Pargo leads Arkansas averaging 17.0 points per game, while Dean checks in at 13.6 points per contest.
LSU’s sixth man, Antonio Hudson, averaging 9.9 points per game off the bench, returned to practice Saturday after minor nose surgery Friday to set his nose broken in practice Tuesday. He is expected to play in the contest.
LSU goes on the road Wednesday night to the O’Connell Center in Gainesville to take on 3-0 and second ranked Florida before returning home for a Jan. 19 game against Auburn. Due to a change in the NFL playoffs and the television coverage of the game, the start time is 1 p.m. Many tickets and schedule cards printed prior to September have the game listed at 3 p.m.