BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, winners of four straight conference games, travel to the difficult sold out O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla., for a 2 p.m. CST tip against the University of Florida.
The game will be televised in the Southeast on Jefferson Pilot Sports and on WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge. The radio broadcast will be heard in Louisiana on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers are 16-4 overall and 6-3 in the SEC West, a solid second in the division and while unranked by the two major polls, they are anywhere from 18-20 in the major RPI formula lists available. The Gators are ranked 20th in the ESPN/USA Today poll, 22nd in the AP poll with a record of 14-6 overall and 5-4 in the SEC East.
Both teams have had the week off since LSU won 65-52 at home over Arkansas, while the Gators are coming off an 81-71 win over Vanderbilt at the O’Connell Center last Saturday.
“We have to play very well in order to have a chance to win this game in Gainesville,” said LSU head coach John Brady. “We are shooting the ball better from the perimeter, much better than we were earlier in the season. We really need to do a good job of controlling their perimeter.”
Jaime Lloreda, the senior forward from Panama, continues to be the dominant player in the league, working on five straight double-doubles and a league best 13 overall. He comes into the contest averaging 17.4 points per game and 12 rebounds. He is fourth in the league in scoring and leads the league both overall and in conference games in rebounding and is second in the nation, hitting 59.5 percent from the field.
Brady is expected to keep his normal lineup of late with Xavier Whipple and Darrel Mitchell at the guards and Lloreda, Brandon Bass and Regis Koundjia at the forward positions. Since moving into the starting lineup, Mitchell has found his touch, averaging almost 14 points a game over the last five games. He put up a career high of 22 against Tennessee and has made nine treys, 10 assists and no turnovers in the last two contests.
Anthony Roberson leads Florida in scoring, averaging 17.3 points a game and it was Roberson and Matt Walsh (14-of-14 at the line) who each hit 25 points in the win versus Vanderbilt.
After the Florida game, LSU returns home to face Auburn on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Center. Advance upper level tickets are available through the close of business Tuesday for half price at $6 through the LSU Athletics Ticket Office, the Internet at www.LSUsports.net or on the phone to the ticket office at 225-578-2184.