SALT LAKE CITY — LSU plays its first true road game Tuesday night as it opens a week of road games here at the Jon Huntsman Center as the Tigers take on Utah in a 7 p.m. MST contest (8 p.m. CST).
The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net. The game will be regionally televised on the Mountain West network (The Mtn.), available on Direct TV.
As mentioned this is the first of two road games this week as LSU travels to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama on Sunday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. in the first of 16 Southeastern Conference contests.
LSU is now 12-1 on the season, winning four straight since the loss to Texas A&M on Dec. 20 and Utah is 9-5 with impressive wins over Gonzaga and a Mountain West opening win over Wyoming on Saturday.
The Tigers got their game going again after some sluggish performances with a 90-61 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday. Marcus Thornton had the fifth 30-plus point game of his career with 33 and Tasmin Mitchell followed up a career high 25 against UL-Lafayette with 24 against Southeastern Louisiana.
“Offensively and defensively, I thought we were pretty good in all phases and hopefully we can take this as momentum and move forward because we are facing a different type of team right now,” Coach Trent Johnson said. “I was an assistant coach at the University of Utah for three years. It is a very educated fan base there and an institution that really understands basketball. They are big, strong and physical and coming off a big win over Wyoming. They beat Gonzaga about a week ago. It’s going to be a different type of game, but it is the point of time in the year where we need to be ready to play every game.”
Jim Boylen is in his second year as the Utah head coach and is led by 7-2 center Luke Neville who is averaging 17.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks a game. Nevill had 29 points and 13 rebounds in the win over Wyoming.
LSU will counter with the lineup that has gotten them through the first 13 games ? Bo Spencer, scorer Marcus Thornton and defensive star Garrett Temple at guard, with Chris Johnson at Center and Tasmin Mitchell at the forward.
The teams split a home-and-home series earlier in the decade and the Tigers have also played at the Huntsman in two NCAA Tournaments, taking a pair of games in 2000 on the way to the NCAA Sweet 16.