HOUSTON — The ninth-ranked LSU men’s basketball team takes to the road to face the University of Texas Sunday night at 7 p.m. in the Toyota Center in a nationally televised game on ESPN’s “Sunday Showdown.”
LSU is 5-1 on the year after knocking off sixth-ranked Texas A&M, 64-52, Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge. Texas is 5-2 and has been off since Dec. 2 and an 88-77 loss to No. 22 Gonzaga at the Hall of Fame Classic in Phoenix.
ESPN’s Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale and Doris Burke will be courtside for the first of three straight games LSU will play away from the Maravich Center.
A crowd of around 10,000 is expected in the home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
The game will be a quick in-and-out for the Tigers, as LSU must concentrate on the game while also thinking about final exams that begin for many of the players at mid-morning Monday. Two members of the Cox Communications Center For Student-Athletes will be traveling with the team to help with preparations for final exams while the players are spending time Saturday night and early Sunday at the team hotel.
Glen Davis is entering the game off two consecutive double-doubles with 20 points and 13 rebounds at Tulane on Dec. 2 and 24 points and 10 rebounds in the win versus A&M this past Tuesday. He is second in the SEC in both scoring and rebounding. The Tiger lineup may return to the starting five of the first five games with Davis, Tasmin Mitchell, Darnell Lazare, Garrett Temple and Dameon Mason.
Lazare, who sprained his left ankle in the Tulane game, returned to practice on Friday and went through the majority of the practice. He practiced again Saturday morning before the team left for Houston and is expected to be ready to go on Sunday. Magnum Rolle, who started in place of Lazare on Tuesday, also returned to practice on Friday after missing Thursday continuing to battle the effects of a bulging disc in his back.
Texas is very young, but has some outstanding talent that the Tigers will have to stop, led by Kevin Durant who is averaging 23.3 points and 9.4 rebounds a game. Former New Orleans prep star D. J. Augustin is averaging 9.3 points and 6.6 assists as the Longhorns are expected to start four freshmen and a sophomore against LSU.
The teams last met in the Elite 8 Atlanta Regional final at the Georgia Dome last March with LSU pulling away at the start of overtime, 70-60, to advance to the NCAA Final Four. LSU leads the series, 19-10 and has a 5-2 advantage in games played at neutral sites.
Coach John Brady is hoping his team can continue to grow up as it did on Tuesday against Texas A&M.
“Our team showed a lot of toughness to get that victory,” said Brady. “I thought our team grew up in that game and showed the competitiveness that I like to see in our guys and hopefully, we will continue to move forward against a very good Texas team.”