BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, after a most challenging non-conference schedule, begins defense of its Southeastern Conference Western Division Championship, Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville against the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.
There is no television for the game, but the radio broadcast of the game will be available throughout Louisiana on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and to subscribers of the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net.
LSU is 8-5 entering the game, coming off a tough 67-66 loss against No. 2 Connecticut on Saturday in Hartford, while Arkansas is 11-3 and had its nine-game winning streak snapped Saturday night in its conference opener at Mississippi State, 69-67.
The Tigers non-conference schedule is showing anywhere from 24-28 in the country and should be just the preparation this young, athletic team needs heading into one of the tougher SEC venues to play — 19,000-seat Bud Walton Arena. While Arkansas leads the overall series, 25-15, LSU has won five of the last six games against the Razorbacks and John Brady is 9-10 in his tenure against Arkansas. The teams split last year’s meetings with each team winning by three points on their home floor.
The SEC schedule makers are sending LSU on the road for the fifth consecutive year to open SEC play and this will be the fourth time in the Brady era that the Tigers have opened in Fayetteville.
LSU is again expected to go with senior Darrel Mitchell (18.3 points per game, 4.9 assists per game) and freshman Garrett Temple (3.9 ppg, 2.3 apg) at guards, with freshman Tasmin Mitchell (11.2 ppg, 6.0 rebounds per game), freshman Tyrus Thomas (13.9 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.1 blocks per game) and sophomore Glen Davis (18.0 ppg, 9.6 rpg) at forwards.
Arkansas will counter with its talented twosome of Ronnie Brewer (18.7 ppg) and Jonathon Modica (14.2) leading its lineup.
The game will feature the first (Brewer), second (D. Mitchell) and third (Davis) leading scorers in the conference.
Thomas for LSU will enter SEC play as this week’s SEC Freshman of the Week and he leads the SEC in rebounds (9.8 rpg), blocks (3.1 bpg) and field goal percentage (62.3 percent).
“We open up at one of the most difficult places to play in the league,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “We expect a tough environment and we think we are going to get their best shot. We have to be ready to play.”
LSU returns to Baton Rouge to open the home part of the conference schedule on Saturday against Tennessee. The game time is 7 p.m. as the second half of the Saturday night doubleheader on Fox Sports Net. The game was changed from 5 to 7 p.m. in the fall after much of the printed material was already done, but the network reversed the games for that night and LSU will be the nightcap at the Maravich Assembly Center at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale for the game at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at LSUsports.net.