SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Coming off a renewed defensive and rebounding effort that held Florida State to its lowest point total and field goal percentage of the season in a 67-50 win over the Seminoles, the Tigers now take their act on the road again for a tough challenge against the University of Utah Monday night at the Huntsman Center.
Tipoff is at 8 p.m. MST, 9 p.m. in the Central Time Zone, including Baton Rouge. The game will only be telecast in the Salt Lake City area and the radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
The Tigers are 6-3 on the year, stopping a two-game slide with the win over the Seminoles in the Florida State game. LSU showed a more patient offensive style while still playing up-tempo when available. More importantly, the Tigers were dominant on the offensive boards and showed the defensive tenacity that has been a staple of past John Brady teams.
The Utes are 10-3 on the season after routing Colorado, 80-48, in the Huntsman Center last Thursday. Utah is led by seven-foot forward Andrew Bogut who comes in averaging 19.7 points and 11.4 rebounds a game. The Utes have won twice since losing junior guard Richard Chaney to a broken left hand, suffering a week ago in practice.
Utah is coached by Ray Giacoletti in his first year at the school who was the head coach at Eastern Washington prior to taking over for Rick Majerus after the 2003-04 season.
“This will be another good test for the Tigers,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “It will be a very difficult place to play in front of a tough, partisan crowd. “Utah is a very good team that is always traditionally tough to beat in this building. I’ve been encouraged by the way we played at Florida State holding them to their lowest point total and field goal percentage this season. I’ve been encouraged by the way we have practice since we’ve been here and hopefully we can put ourselves in position on the road to be able to come up with a win.”
This is the back half of a home-and-home game between the two schools with LSU winning, 65-51, in December 2003 at the Pete Maravich Center. LSU held Utah to 27.3 shooting (6-of-22) in the first half in building a 30-19 lead. Jaime Lloreda had 16 points to lead LSU with Brandon Bass adding 15 and Darrel Mitchell 13. Bogut had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Utah.
Brady is familiar with the Huntsman Center having brought his team to Salt Lake City for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in 2000, defeating Southeast Missouri State and Texas.
The Tigers expected to go with their same lineup of Tack Minor (13.0 ppg, 5.9 apg), Darrel Mitchell (12.4 ppg, 3.0 apg) and Antonio Hudson (14.2 ppg, 2.6 apg) at the guards with Brandon Bass (17.3 ppg, 9.1 rpg) and Glen Davis (12.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg) at the forward positions with Ross Neltner, Darnell Lazare and Xavier Whipple off the bench. Neltner played 30 minutes against Florida State and provided a strong presence as Bass and Davis got into foul trouble.
The Tigers arrived in Salt Lake City on New Year’s Day afternoon and has had the opportunity to have two strong practices in the Huntsman Center to get acclimated to the conditions. This is the fourth of five games away from the Maravich Center as LSU is on the back-end of a 30-day run of games away from home. LSU opens Southeastern Conference play on Saturday at Tuscaloosa against the University of Alabama before returning home for the first time in a month on Jan. 12 to host South Carolina.