BATON ROUGE — LSU and Kentucky will meet in an important men’s basketball game for both teams Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be regionally televised by CBS Sports (WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge) while the radio broadcast in Louisiana will be available on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
Former LSU basketball coach Dale Brown, one of the 2004 Living Legends of SEC Basketball who will be honored at the March SEC Tournament in Atlanta, will be honored in a special halftime ceremony at the contest.
Both LSU and Kentucky held practice sessions Saturday afternoon at the Assembly Center.
The Wildcats are 20-4 overall, 10-3 and ninth ranked in both of the major polls and still fighting for the SEC overall title while in position to clinch the SEC Eastern Division with a win. LSU is 17-7, 7-6 in the SEC West after losing three straight for the second time this season and battling for the second place bye position in the SEC Tournament from the West.
LSU will be looking for their first win in the series since the 2000 NCAA Sweet 16 team won at the Assembly Center.
LSU’s starting line up will apparently be changed for the game as Coach John Brady indicated freshman Darnell Lazare will start in place of senior forward Jaime Lloreda, who only went through the first few minutes of the practice before watching the remainder of the session from courtside while still feeling the effects of the injuries he has suffered in the past few weeks.
It is expected that the rest of the lineup will be freshman Brandon Bass at the other forward and guards Xavier Whipple, Antonio Hudson and Darrel Mitchell.
Kentucky is coming into the game off three straight wins having beaten Arkansas (73-56), Auburn (68-59) and Tennessee (92-60). The Tigers art of defense and rebounding has taken a hit in their three most recent losses to Auburn (68-50), Vanderbilt (74-54) and Mississippi State (84-58).
“We’ve got to get back to doing what we were doing when we were able to win five games in a row,” said Brady. “Somewhere between the Florida game and the last three games we lost our continuity. We’ve got to get back to stopping people and rebounding better.”
LSU’s final week of the season will feature a home game Wednesday against Ole Miss and a road game at Auburn.