BATON ROUGE — A sellout crowd to go along with an arena full of some of the great players in LSU basketball history will be on hand Saturday when the Tigers host Arkansas in a key Southeastern Conference matchup at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Saturday’s game between LSU and Arkansas serves as the celebration of 100 years of LSU basketball as over 130 former Tiger players will be on hand for the event. At halftime, LSU will announce its All-Century team.
Tipoff for Saturday’s contest is scheduled for 4 p.m. The game will be televised to a regional audience on Fox Sports Net. The game will also be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net.
The LSU-Arkansas game will be preceded by an alumni game, which tips off at 12:30 p.m. and will feature at least 30 former LSU players. Admission to the LSU Alumni Game is free of charge, while the LSU-Arkansas game has already been declared a sellout.
LSU, winners of four-straight SEC games, brings a 16-4 overall mark and a 4-1 league record into the game. The Tigers are coming off a 79-73 road win over Tennessee in their last outing. Arkansas, now 13-5 overall and 1-4 in league play, picked up its first league victory on Thursday with an 89-80 victory Alabama.
“It’s a big week obviously with what’s going on from the 100-year celebration and the game that we have to play,” first-year LSU coach Trent Johnson said. “It’s a good time for us to continue to try and play well.
“This is a team (Arkansas) like any other team in our league that is extremely talented. I take defense having been through five league games when people say that this league is down on a national level. This league is young. A team like Arkansas, you may say, has had its ups and downs, but they’ve been able to beat two nationally-ranked teams and then struggled against teams who supposedly aren’t that good.”
The Tigers go into the Arkansas game riding the hot shooting of guard Marcus Thornton as well as solid inside play from Chris Johnson and Tasmin Mitchell. Thornton is averaging 30.0 points over LSU’s last three games, which includes scoring 31 points in a road win over Mississippi State and 29 on Wednesday night against Tennessee.
Thornton brings a team-high 19.5 points per game into the contest, while Mitchell is averaging 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a contest. Mitchell goes into the Arkansas game having scored in double-figures in nine-consecutive games.
Johnson is coming off one of his best performances of the season, posting his second double-double of the season with 14 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Tennessee. Johnson, who added four blocks and one steal against Tennessee, is averaging 8.2 points and 8.0 rebounds a game for the Tigers.
“Chris Johnson is what he is. He’s 6-11 and very long, and he struggled for about four or five games against guys that are blessed with something he’s not,” Trent Johnson said. “I tend to dwell on what he does have ? shot-blocking ability, very coachable kid. Sometimes he loses his focus, but if you look at what he’s done in the league, it’s pretty impressive. He’s playing pretty well.”
Rounding out the starting lineup for the Tigers will be sophomore point guard Bo Spencer and senior guard Garrett Temple. Spencer is third on the team in scoring with 12.1 points per game while also dishing out 2.6 assists a contest. Temple is averaging 7.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and a team-best 4.2 assists per contest.
The Tigers will face an Arkansas team that has lost four of its last five games after opening the season by winning 12 of its first 13 games, which included a pair of top 10 wins over Oklahoma and Texas.
Arkansas is paced by 6-9 junior forward Michael Washington, who is averaging 16.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, and 5-11 true freshman guard Courtney Fortson, who is scoring at 14.2 points a clip. Washington is the only player in the SEC averaging a double-double.
Other starters for Arkansas include 6-3 guard Stefan Welsh (12.4 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game), guard 6-0 Rotnei Clarke (11.3 points, 1.2 assists) and 6-8 forward Michael Sanchez (6.6 points, 5.3 rebounds).
“We need to continue to get better,” Trent Johnson said of his squad. “A big concern for me right now is that we have some guys who are banged up. Obviously, some of the veterans who have been logging a lot of minutes are happy, not because they won, but because they (had) a day off (on Thursday).
“We have some guys who need to start playing better, and I have to find ways to get them in the game. I’m talking about the freshmen in terms of Delwan Graham, Storm Warren and Chris Bass, and we have to get Alex Farrer back up to where he needs to be in terms of his ability to help us.”