BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers will face their biggest challenge of the season when they host seventh-ranked Tennessee Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers and Volunteers will meet in a regionally-televised game on Raycom Sports that is the second game of a split-region doubleheader. The radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net and on the SEC channels at XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game are available online at www.LSUsports.net and at the upper concourse windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $14 for adults and $5 for youth (3-12). The Beale Street Flippers from Memphis will be the halftime entertainment and this will be a student point game for LSU students who get in free with their student ID.
The Tigers are 8-13 and 1-6 in the SEC and will be coached for the first time by interim coach Butch Pierre who has directed the Tigers through most of the practice on Thursday and the entire practice on Friday after the announcement earlier in the day that Coach John Brady would no longer coach the Tigers.
“Unfortunately in this business, sometimes things like this happen,” said Pierre. “The players understand and what I am trying to do with them now is make sure that they draw something positive out of all this.”
Tennessee is 20-2 in the SEC and leading the SEC Eastern Division at 7-1. The Volunteers, coached by third-year coach Bruce Pearl, are averaging 85 points a game while giving up just 70 points and love to play the fast-break, pressing style that will attempt to give the Tigers trouble inbounding and bringing the ball into play.
LSU is coming off a split in its last two games prior to a week off, winning at Auburn, 82-81, and losing at Alabama, 81-72. Marcus Thornton will put his six-game streak of scoring 20 points in a game on the line that has propelled him into a tie for the league lead in scoring, while Chris Lofton of Tennessee, averaging 15.7 points a game will be looking to get his sixth consecutive game in the 20s. Thornton is averaging 19.8 points a game overall and over 24 points in conference play.
LSU freshman forward Anthony Randolph who missed most of Thursday’s practice after suffering a bone bruise on his right knee when he collided with teammate Terry Martin, returned and went through the entire practice on Friday and is probably to make his 22nd consecutive start on Saturday.