BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team tries to duplicate its success on the road to the floor of the Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday as the Tigers take on the Kentucky Wildcats in a regionally-televised contest.
The game is set for a Noon tipoff and will be televised throughout the southeast on Raycom Sports. The radio broadcast is on the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the “GeauxZone” at LSUsports.net and on the Southeastern Conference channels on XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game remain on sale through early Saturday morning online at LSUsports.net with ticket windows opening on the upper concourse of the Maravich Center beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $14 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12). Fans are advised to arrive early as there is expected to be a large walkup sale crowd for this game. Fans can also go on the LSU web site, purchase their tickets and print them out as well.
The Tigers are coming off one of their most impressive offensive performances of the season in an 85-73 win over Florida Wednesday night in Gainesville. LSU shot 60 percent from the field and over 40 percent from three-point range for the game as Anthony Randolph scored 22 points, Marcus Thornton scored 20 and Chris Johnson added 19 as the Tigers ran their record to 9-14 and 2-7 in the SEC Western Division.
“I’m very proud of our team,” said LSU Interim Head Coach Butch Pierre, who picked up his first win as a head coach Wednesday. “We had a good win at Florida under adverse conditions. The team is continuing to improve on the offensive end and is showing some consistency on the defensive end. If we can carry that over into the game against Kentucky since we’re playing at home, hopefully we will have a nice crowd and our team will continue to play hard and execute on both ends. We will be in for a dog fight.”
The Wildcat team that comes into Baton Rouge will come in ready to play after being beaten by 41 points on Tuesday night at Vanderbilt, 93-52, the worst loss ever for a Kentucky team in an SEC game. Ironically, LSU held that mark for years after defeating the Wildcats, 76-41, in Rupp Arena in the 1980s.
Kentucky is 12-10 on the season but 6-3 in the league as the Vanderbilt loss stopped a five-game Wildcat winning streak.
“This team has had to get used to what (first-year Kentucky coach) Billy Gillispie wanted,” said Pierre, “and what has impressed me the most about them is they are defending, following the game plan, being patient, exploiting other teams offensively and scoring baskets when they need to. Kentucky is going to be a tough team to face, and hopefully we will continue to improve in both areas and it will be a great game.”
The Tigers are 2-2 in the last four games and hopes to improve offensively at home where they are 0-4 in the SEC. But it was the defense that nearly came through for LSU in Pierre’s first game as head coach one Saturday ago as they have No. 7 Tennessee tied at 45-45 before a steal in the final 15 seconds allowed Tennessee to escape, 47-45, despite scoring almost 40 points below their average.
LSU travels to Arkansas for its next game on Wednesday night in Fayetteville and then comes back home for a game with Ole Miss on Saturday, Feb. 23.