TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The LSU Tigers, looking for the push that will take them back to the win column, try their luck here late Saturday afternoon against the 23rd-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide before a sold-out crowd of over 15,000 at Coleman Coliseum.
The 4 p.m. contest will be televised by SEC-TV over Fox Sports Net South and Southwest and the radio broadcast will be available throughout Louisiana on the LSU Sports Network and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers, 12-6 and 1-5 in the SEC after losing four straight games, comes in off a 70-53 loss to Florida on Tuesday. In that game, Collis Temple led LSU with 21 points, while Ronald Dupree added 20. However, LSU failed to get any offense from the other starters or any of the reserves that came in.
Also in the game, Jaime Lloreda of LSU was slapped with a technical foul for an elbow to the back of Florida’s Brett Nelson’s head. LSU Coach John Brady announced Thursday on the SEC Teleconference and after practice as well, that after reviewing the tape of the incident, he called Florida coach Billy Donovan to apologize and has had Lloreda write a letter to Nelson apologizing for the incident. In addition, Brady said that Lloreda would not start the game against Alabama on Saturday.
That would put Brad Bridgewater back in the starting lineup along with Dupree at forwards and Torris Bright, Antonio Hudson and Temple at the guards.
“We held Florida’s top three scorers to very low point totals,” said Brady. “They just had other guys step up and struggled to score at times. Now we go to Alabama and they are really in need of a win. We’ve really caught some teams at bad times for us this year. They’ve had a week off. We’ve played well in the past there and I hope we will again on Saturday.”
Erwin Dudley, the only player averaging a double double in the league with 13.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game, leads the Tide. Guard Mo Williams is the team’s leading scorer with 15 points a game.
“We expected to have a great game Saturday,” said Tide coach Mark Gottfried. “We’ve had a great week of practice and our guys are excited about getting back on the floor. We’ve practiced very hard this week. LSU is well coached and has great players. They’ve just played a really tough schedule.”
LSU returns home Wednesday to play South Carolina at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center.