KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The LSU Tigers return to Southeastern Conference play Wednesday night with a difficult road task against the University of Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. EST tipoff (7 p.m. CST) and will be regionally televised by Raycom Sports (WAFB-TV Channel 9 in Baton Rouge). The LSU Sports Radio Network affiliates (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net.
Both Tennessee and LSU fell in non-conference contests on Saturday on their home floors with Tennessee losing to Memphis, 54-52, in Knoxville, while LSU had their 17-game home winning streak snapped by nationally-ranked Xavier, 80-70. LSU is 15-4 on the season, 3-1 in the Western Division, half a game behind leader Mississippi State, while Tennessee is 12-6, but also 3-1 in conference play.
LSU played a strong game against the Musketeers taking a four-point lead early in the second half but LSU was out rebounded, 40-27, on the glass and went through a seven-minute plus period where they missed 13 consecutive field goal attempts and fell behind by 10 before a ticket sellout crowd of just under 14,000 in the Maravich Center.
“What I learned (from the Xavier game) is that we’re not there yet, but we’re not far in terms of competing at a high level like that and be able to win that kind of game,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “To start the second half, we came out hard and played well and had a stretch there offensively where we had some good shots that just didn’t go down, so it’s one of those situations where you have to put it behind you and understand now we’re back into league play and we have 12 games before the SEC tournament. We have six on the road and six at home and you have to compete at a high level like we did against Xavier.”
The Tigers will need to compete on a high level as they have in the past three SEC games when they posted scores over 80. That included a road win against Ole Miss that the first-year LSU coach hopes is the type of effort he will see against the Vols.
“They are very, very battle tested,” Coach Johnson said of the Vols. “They’ve probably played the toughest schedule out of any team in the country. Offensively, they are very, very skilled; they are capable of going off on large scoring spurts if you’re not defending at a high rate. It’s hard to find something wrong with Tyler Smith. Probably the biggest compliment I can give a player like him is he probably impacts more than any other player in our league, let alone maybe in the country, but he’s not the only guy on that team. You can go on and on about Wayne Chism and J.P. Prince, who was at Arizona when I was in the Pac 10. They’re very skilled, very talented and we’re going to have to be at our best to have a chance to compete at a high level.”
The Tigers are a little banged up Johnson said in his Monday SEC teleconference saying Quinton Thornton was battling an Achilles problem and Garrett Temple was having some leg problems. Temple is listed as probable for the game and Quinton Thornton will be a game-time decision.
“Other than that it’s just the normal nicks and bruises that occur this time of the year,” Johnson said. “Obviously, there are some guys on the team that are freshmen that haven’t played multiple minutes, so I fully expect them to have an opportunity to step in and play and get back to playing quality basketball.”
One person scoring at ease for LSU is senior Marcus Thornton who scored 31 against Mississippi State and 30 against Xavier last week, the first LSU player to score back-to-back 30 games since Ronnie Henderson topped 30 in three consecutive games in 1995. Thornton was named the SEC Player of the Week.
After the one-game road swing, LSU is back at home for a Saturday 4 p.m. against with Arkansas in the Maravich Center. The game will culminate the Centennial Weekend activities that will bring over 130 alums together for two-days of activities. The All-Century team will be announced at the game and there will be an alumni game at 12:30 p.m. that is open free to the public and then music and food in front of the Assembly Center from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.