PHILADELPHIA — The LSU men’s basketball team faces its biggest test of the young season as the Tigers face No. 21 (ESPN/USA Today)/No. 25 (AP) ranked Villanova here Thursday night in the final game of the inaugural Pizza Hut Big East/SEC Invitational.
Providence meets South Carolina Thursday in the first game at the Wachovia Center after an opening round of play in the event in Birmingham on Wednesday night. LSU and Villanova will tip off at approximately 9:30 p.m. EST (8:30 p.m. CST) with the game nationally-televised on ESPN with Dave Pasch and Bill Raftery on the call. Jim Hawthorne and Kevin Ford will have the game on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net and on the SEC Channels of XM Radio.
The Tigers are 5-2 on the season after dominating wins over Nicholls State and Southern University, while Villanova (5-1) got back on the winning track after their only loss of the year in the finals of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando to North Carolina State (69-68) by downing Penn last Saturday, 87-61.
LSU puts lots of points on the board in their last two games but also held both teams in the 40s, hopefully signifying an improvement in some of the LSU defensive problems. But LSU turned the ball over 19 times against Nicholls State and nine in the first half against Southern before getting on a roll in the second half against the Jaguars shooting over 60 percent from the floor and turning it over just three times.
Coach Brady feels that LSU can match up with the Wildcats, but handling the guards and handling the ball will be important.
“Their guards are really good,” Brady said. “They are the best group of guards we have faced so far. We can match up with them fairly well. Our perimeter and big guys can get out there and guard them. They have a postman (Casiem Drummond) who is 6-10, 275 points who doesn’t score a lot but gets a lot of offensive rebounds. He almost has as many offensive rebounds as he has defensive rebounds.
“Their perimeter play and ability to go on a string and make baskets concerns me,” Brady said. “Comparing their assist-to-turnover ratio to ours may be the difference in whether we win it or lose it. Whether we can take care of the ball and make good decisions with the ball will be extremely important because their assist-to-turnover ratio is extremely good.”
After seven games, LSU has dished out 98 assists but turned the ball over 118 times, while Villanova in its six games has 93 assists and just 73 turnovers.
One stat the Tigers have dominated in this year is the blocked shots. LSU has 58 in the first seven games and the team’s 8.3 blocks per game average is ranked fourth in the country in the first NCAA statistics.
LSU expects to start the same lineup it has gone with since Tasmin Mitchell‘s injury with three guards ? Marcus Thornton (19.9 points per game), Garrett Temple (7.0) and Terry Martin (7.6) ? center Chris Johnson (12.9) and forward Anthony Randolph (15.4).
Villanova is led in scoring by Scottie Reynolds, averaging 17 points a game with Shane Clark, who missed Villanova’s last game with a minor injury, averaging 12.6 a contest.
It did appear that this past week that both the LSU coaching staff and players are now after four games used to not having Tasmin Mitchell on the floor for the team.
“We are learning to play without him,” said Brady. “It is all about his presence. It took me about a week to get use to it. I would walk in the locker room and think ?Is everybody here?’ Without Tasmin it is almost as if the room had changed and was smaller. I miss his whole attitude and presence there. We are filling in the holes and getting some guys that can score the ball. The biggest thing is defensively. We have to get better and at least the last couple of times it seems like we have. It will show against a team like Villanova who is good at taking care of the ball and passing the ball. We will see how much we have improved.”
The Tigers practiced early Wednesday morning before busing to New Orleans to catch a flight here, arriving mid-afternoon to temperatures in the upper 20s and a light snow fall. The team was scheduled to go to the Wachovia Center Wednesday night to watch the NBA game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics, with former LSU star Glen Davis.