NEW ORLEANS — The LSU Tigers went through a spirited one-hour workout Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s Southeastern Conference Tournament game with Arkansas at the Louisiana Superdome.
The Tigers, the No. 3 seed in the Western Division, will play the Razorbacks, the sixth seed in the West, at 2:15 p.m. CST in the Superdome.
The game will be regionally televised in the South and Southeast on JP Sports and the game will be broadcast on radio throughout Louisiana on the LSU Sports Network and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers are 19-9 and 8-8 in the SEC after winning five straight games.
The Razorbacks are 9-18 and 4-12 in the SEC West. This match up of two Western Division teams was put together after Georgia withdrew earlier this week from the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. This moved all the teams in the Eastern Division up one spot, dropping Georgia to sixth and Tennessee as the new Eastern third seed, received the bye based on a better conference record (9-7) than LSU.
Other first round games find Ole Miss (W5) facing South Carolina (E4) at noon and in the lone night session game Thursday, Vanderbilt (E5) will face Alabama (W4) at 6:30 p.m.
The Tigers in their long history have had success in New Orleans and in the Superdome in particular. LSU is making its first appearance in the Louisiana Superdome since the 1996 SEC Tournament when the Tigers lost to South Carolina. LSU has been a regular visitor to New Orleans under John Brady as the host team for the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic at the New Orleans Arena, located next door to the Superdome.
LSU has won 22 of its last 26 games in New Orleans and is 17-4 in the Superdome/New Orleans Arena venues. In all, the Tigers are 79-59 in games played in New Orleans since 1911.
“Personally, I love coming down here to play,” said Brady, 4-5 in his five previous SEC Tournament appearances. “Anytime I can bring the team down to play is a great opportunity. Hopefully, the fans will come down to support us. Fan support gives us a great home court advantage.”
“It will be good to have fan support from home,” said senior guard Torris Bright. “Fans are always helpful. They are the sixth man for our team. I’ll have to stay focused with my family being here.”
Arkansas and LSU split during the regular season with Arkansas winning, 73-65, at Bud Walton Arena, while LSU used a big first half in which they outscored the Razorbacks, 24-2 over the first nine minutes en route to a 49-19 halftime advantage.
“Arkansas has a young team and they will be coming out after us,” said senior forward Ronald Dupree. “We have enough respect for them as a team to practice as hard as we possibly can. We are starting to play better as a team. We have more open shots and are guys are staying positive. Our team defense is definitely improving.”
The stats show the Tigers improvement, hitting just 24.8 percent from three-point range in the eight conference losses, while hitting 52.1 percent in the eight conference wins including back-to-back school record games of 16 treys against Auburn and 17 at Tennessee.
After giving up 73.3 points a game in the first seven SEC games, the Tigers held the last nine opponents to an average of 61.6 points.
The winner of the LSU-Arkansas game will meet Florida, the second place team in the Eastern Division in Friday’s quarterfinal game at 2:15 p.m.