KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Two teams with dreams of postseason play meet Saturday night here at Thompson-Boling Arena as the Southeastern Conference heads to its waning days of the regular season.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. CST and the game will be televised regionally by SEC-TV (Fox Sports Net South and Southwest). The radio broadcast in Louisiana will be available on the LSU Sports Network and on the Internet at www.LSUSports.net.
The Tigers are 16-9, 5-8 in the league but winners of four of the last six games including a 94-63 win over Auburn on Wednesday in which the Tigers hit a school record 16 three pointers and tied the fourth best percentage for a team in the Southeastern Conference making a minimum of 15 treys (64.0 percent).
Tennessee is on a three-game losing streak and is coming off an 80-68 loss to Kentucky on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena. SEC Player of the Year candidate Ron Slay had 22 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. The three-game losing streak is the longest of the season for the Vols after having a six-game winning run from Jan. 29 to Feb. 15.
“We are coming off probably two of our better games, against Arkansas here and Auburn here,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We’re starting to play a lot better. (Wednesday) was just one of those special nights where anybody could have made it. I think I could have made it from the bench.
“But we’re excited about the challenge of playing Tennessee. Tennessee is a talented team. I think Slay is maybe the best player in the league. They’ve got an inside-outside game that makes it difficult to defend them. If you look at what Tennessee’s done recently, this is a big game for them.”
LSU will go with the lineup that has got them the 4-2 record with Xavier Whipple, Torris Bright and Collis Temple III at guards and Jaime Lloreda and Ronald Dupree at the forwards. Dupree leads LSU with a 15.8 scoring average, with Lloreda at 12.1, Bright at 10.5 and Temple at 10.4. Lloreda is second in the league in rebounds at 8.6 a game and for the month of February games he led the league in rebounding average at over nine a game.
“LSU’s coming off a big win,” said Tennessee Coach Buzz Peterson. “I thought they shot the ball well, especially from the three. If we can get back to where we were, then we should have a good game.”
LSU stays on the road after this game, traveling to Oxford on Wednesday to face Ole Miss before coming home for the final game of the regular season on Saturday, March 8, against Alabama.