BATON ROUGE ? The second part of the LSU men’s basketball season comes to a close Monday night as the team hosts its final non-conference game of the season at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against McNeese State.
The Cowboys (5-8) and LSU (8-5) will tip at 7 p.m. There is no television for the contest but the radio broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge) and audio and video feeds will be available in the Geaux Zone. Tickets are on sale through LSUsports.net and at the upper concourse ticket windows at the Maravich Center beginning at 5:30 p.m.
LSU comes into the game trying to find its identity and best form with the third part of the regular season (SEC play) looming down the road on Saturday. LSU has lost three straight for the first time since the 2007-08 season and two of the games were decided by two points. LSU had a six-point halftime lead Saturday night against Utah and built the lead to 12 points before going some nine minutes without a field goal which allowed Utah to tie the game and later take the lead.
For Coach Trent Johnson it’s a chance to continue to determine the identity of the team and to hopefully have his players respond as a unit with a 40-minute possession by possession game.
“We are fighting,” said Johnson after the Utah game. “We have a lot of guys out there fighting and trying to win the game. Then, we have a guy or two not in-tune for whatever reason and not being ready to play … That hurts us. Obviously it’s my responsibility to try to get this right. You know what’s going on. You see who’s playing with passion and who’s not. You see who is working hard. That’s the problem with our team sometimes in terms of our inconsistency being up and down. When things get tough, guys have a tendency to worry about themselves. If they don’t get their number called right away, they have a tendency to worry about why they aren’t getting shots. I was pleased with the effort and energy for the most part, and again, we need to get ready.”
The Tigers got maximum effort from Tasmin Mitchell and Storm Warren as Mitchell had his fifth double double with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Warren equaled his season high with 21 points and nine rebounds both playing against a much bigger front court.
The game will also mark the final time this season the Tigers will put its long 21-year winning streak in the Maravich Center against Louisiana schools on the line. The streak, which began with a win against McNeese on Dec. 8, 1988, is now at 79 games and LSU is 5-0 this season against Louisiana schools but it hasn’t been that easy.
McNeese is coming off a one-point loss at Lubbock to nationally-ranked Texas Tech on New Year’s Day. Dave Simmons is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Cowboys.
LSU opens conference play Saturday at 4 p.m. against Alabama in a game televised by FSN.