NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The LSU men’s basketball team takes to the road here Saturday to take on the nationally-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores in the first of an all-day schedule of televised Southeastern Conference basketball games.
LSU and Vanderbilt tip at noon CST on the newly renamed Raycom Sports (formerly Lincoln Financial Sports) with lead announcers Tom Hammond and Larry Conley on the call. The game will be seen in Louisiana on the following channels: Alexandria ? KLAX; Baton Rouge ? WAFB; Lafayette ? KLAF; Lake Charles ? KVHP; Monroe ? KEJB; New Orleans ? WUPL; and, Shreveport ? KMSS. The game is also available on ESPN Full Court outside the Raycom markets.
The radio broadcast of the game with Jim Hawthorne and Kevin Ford will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net or on the SEC channels on XM Satellite Radio.
Vanderbilt is 16-2, 1-2 in the league after losing last Saturday in double overtime at Kentucky and Thursday night at Tennessee, 80-60. In that game Shan Foster led Vandy with 14 points, while center A. J. Ogilvy had 12 as the only double figure scorers for the Commodores. Vandy shot 36.8 percent from the field, just 14.3 percent from the arc (3-of-21) and was out rebounded by the Volunteers, 43-38. Foster averages 20.2 points per game this season for the Commodores, while Ogilvy has a 19.0 points per game average and Alex Gordon, held to four points by Tennessee, averages 10.2.
LSU is 7-10 and 0-3 and still looking for the consistency needed to put together the 40-minute game. There have been great starts like game Wednesday night against Auburn that ended in a 71-64 loss for LSU and great finishes like last Saturday at Ole Miss when the Tigers rallied from 60-38 down to get within two points of the Rebels before losing, 74-71.
“We’re still a team that is playing inconsistent at best. We played the first 12 minutes of the game against Auburn as good as we could play,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “Then we had a lull and didn’t score it as easily or as well as we had. I don’t know if late in the game against Auburn we got tired defensively, but we couldn’t make enough stops. We had the opportunity to make timely shots and needed shots that we looked at on the film, and we weren’t able to make them. The inconsistency of our being able to make timely shots or getting critical stops has made the difference in us winning or losing a number of close games. We need to try to stabilize that a little bit and get better at critical moments of the game in terms of just making the play. I think the play is there to be made. We just haven’t been able to do that,”
The Tigers face a Commodore team that is nationally-ranked at No. 16 in the Associated Press poll and No. 14 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
“Certainly, going to Vandy is not a good place to get well right now because they are playing extremely well and scoring baskets easily,” said Brady. “For us to be able to match them basket for basket will be almost a monumental task, so hopefully we can keep it down in the 60 (point) range as opposed to the 80 (point) range because if it gets to that point we don’t have the firepower or the support off the bench to be able to put those kinds of points on the board. Our team still feels good about what it’s doing. I still think we can win games; they (the players) do. That’s our approach, and that’s what we are going to do.”
After the Vandy game, the Tigers will have a week off between games, the first of two mid-week byes the team will have, before returning to the Maravich Center to host Arkansas on Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. on ESPN Classic. Tickets are on sale online at www.LSUSports.net for $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12).