BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers, assured of at least a tie for the SEC Western Division championship and the No. 1 seed on the West side at the SEC Tournament in Tampa next month, goes for the next step Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against the University of Florida.
The game is part of ESPN’s long-running Super Tuesday package and is billed as part of the Judgment Week segment of games the network is showing. It is also being billed as part of rivalry week on the campus as LSU hosts Tennessee on Thursday night in women’s basketball, also at the PMAC.
This marks the first time ESPN has televised from the Maravich Center on a Fat Tuesday since 1994 when Kentucky rallied from 31-down in the second half to beat LSU.
LSU is offering a special Mardi Gras promotion for the game of $5 upper level tickets with tickets available online at LSUtix.net. The ticket windows at the Maravich Center will open Tuesday night one half-hour prior to gates opening at 6 p.m.
The Super Tuesday broadcast team of Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes and Jeannine Edwards will handle the ESPN broadcast. The radio broadcast of the contest will be available 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 Tigers (23-4, 11-1) moved up to No. 18 in both major basketball polls announced on Monday after a 72-69 win on Wednesday at Arkansas and a 79-72 win over Auburn at home on Saturday. LSU is now 6-0 in the league at home and the winner of a school record 18 games so far at home.
Florida (21-6, 8-4) has also won its last two games, 83-74, against Alabama and 82-68 against Vanderbilt. Both games were in the O’Connell Center in Gainesville.
LSU is three games ahead of Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky all at 8-4 in the chase for the SEC overall regular season championship. South Carolina and Kentucky play on Wednesday night in the league so an LSU win would eliminate all but the SC-UK winner from a chance at the league title. An LSU win Tuesday would guarantee LSU no worse than a tie for its 10th all-time conference crown. LSU’s magic number is two to win the league outright.
But right now all Coach Trent Johnson is concerned with is Florida, not the rankings, the standings or the bright lights that go with TV.
“Florida Tuesday is the most important game because it is the next game,” Johnson said earlier Monday at a media session. “We need to concentrate on just doing the things that put us in this situation and not worry about anything else. It’s still another game. To be able to compete at a high level is the most important thing. It’s not how many people might be watching it on television because those watching on TV haven’t been in the locker room from Day 1 and know how hard these guys have had to work to get better whether it’s our team or any college basketball team. If you lose sight of what you have been doing in practice every day and start playing for TV you are not going to be able to play to the standards you want to play.”
With Bo Spencer showing no ill effects after returning to play on Saturday, he will trigger the three guard offense with Marcus Thornton and Garrett Temple at the other guards, along with Chris Johnson at center and Tasmin Mitchell at forward. All five players were in double figures scoring in the win over Auburn. Thornton is averaging 20.5 points per game with Mitchell cashing in at a 16.8 points per game clip and Spencer is at 11.7.
After Tuesday’s contest, LSU will travel to Lexington on Saturday for a 3 p.m. (CST) nationally-televised (CBS) game with Kentucky.
Coach Trent Johnson
“It is a pretty quick turnaround to play a really skilled basketball team. They are playing really well right now. What Florida does is try to get multiple possessions by speeding the game up. Calathes, Parsons, all of them can really pass and catch it. Calathes is probably as versatile a player that there is in college basketball. It’s a team that’s just very versatile, skilled and very good.
“Florida Tuesday is the most important game because it is the next game. “We need to concentrate on just doing the things that put us in this situation and not worry about anything else. It’s still another game. To be able to compete at a high level is the most important thing. It’s not how many people might be watching it on television because those watching on TV haven’t been in the locker room from Day 1 and know how hard these guys have had to work to get better whether it’s our team or any college basketball team. If you lose sight of what you have been doing in practice every day and start playing for TV you are not going to be able to play to the standards you want to play.”
Bo Spencer’s play
“He played well considering he hadn’t played in about 4-or-5 days. He was able to play multiple minutes without any setbacks to his injury, considering he hadn’t been out there in a while, I thought he played well. He’s practiced and there’s no question his conditioning will get better.”
After first Alabama game, seemed to develop a stronger mental toughness —
“Everything was new, system was new, voices of the coaching staff were new. I think they are the ones that have to make a commitment to put you in a situation to win. Does that develop over time? I think so but also we’ve been fortunate to be in situations where we’ve won games. If we start to lose games, we’ll find out if guys will still make the maximum effort to do the little things. We’ve managed to beat some teams and haven’t always been the quickest to the balls. We’ve developed a level of mental toughness that has gotten us to this point.”
Challenging week of games —
“Florida is the cream of the crop in the SEC the last couple of years, winning two national championships in a row and Kentucky is Kentucky. They are both playing for their lives on the Eastern side and they will be coming at us hard. It’s two games we’ve got to get prepared for. Florida is a good team. They have a great playmaker in Calathes. We are going to take it one game at a time, but we do know what is ahead of us if we are going to be able to win the SEC Championship.
“When you have a guy like Calathes who can make plays with the ball in his hand ? he’s the leader in assists in the SEC, but he can also score. They have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball real well and they spread you out. It’s going to be a good game for the guards to stop penetration. Defensively, they love to pressure you, get some steals. They play a matchup zone and run and jump defense, I’ve faced it three times and they like to come up behind you and knock the ball away from you. We can’t be careless with the ball at all.”
Having Bo Spencer back —
“It didn’t take us long at all. Bo came in and it was like he never left. He came in and hit open shots. He drove the open lane when he had it and did what he was supposed to do. We had a real balanced attack that night. He parked the game for us at the beginning of the game. He’s a real integral part of this team and we will need him for the stretch run. From here on out, every team we play is going to be above 500 and give us a great game.”
How ankle feels —
“I feel better every day. I got out there yesterday and got a few extra shots up. I’m almost back 100. It was kind of tight after the game but I’m able to go on it. It’s no big deal. I’m getting back in shape quickly.”