BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers begin their February portion of the Southeastern Conference schedule Saturday with their second meeting of the season with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The game is set for a 12:47 p.m. tilt in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The game will be televised by the SEC Network (Alexandria – KLAX-DT; Baton Rouge – WAFB; Lafayette – KADN; Lake Charles – KVHP; Monroe – KARD; New Orleans – WUPL; Shreveport – KMSS). The contest will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (New Country 100.7 FM The Tiger in Baton Rouge).
As part of Fan Appreciation Weekend at LSU, tickets start at just $5 for the game and are available at www.LSUtix.net and beginning at 11 a.m. CT Saturday at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center. Quick Change, one of the most popular halftime acts to ever appear at the Maravich Center, will be back for halftime entertainment.
LSU is 12-9 and 2-5 in the SEC after a difficult January schedule that saw them play three ranked teams to close the month. Arkansas is 16-6 and 4-3 in the league.
LSU will play without forward Malcolm White who will serve a one-game suspension imposed by Coach Trent Johnson for his Flagrant II foul against Kentucky on Jan. 28 in the second half of the contest.
The Hogs won the first meeting with LSU, 69-60, on Jan. 14 at Fayetteville. In the game, LSU’s Justin Hamilton went off in the second half to score 20 total points with three blocks and eight rebounds (six offensive), while Anthony Hickey hit 5-of-10 shots (2 treys) to get 12 points. But LSU shot just 34.8 percent overall and 3-of-18 from the arc. The Tigers did out rebound the Hogs, 46-38, including 17-9 on the offensive boards.
Arkansas freshman Hunter Mickelson blocked seven shots in the game and freshman BJ Young scored 19 points in the game.
The Tigers are expected to go with freshman Anthony Hickey at point guard, sophomore Ralston Turner on the wing, freshman Johnny O’Bryant III at forward and Justin Hamilton at center. The other spot will go to Eddie Ludwig or Andre Stringer. Ludwig has started the last two games to allow Stringer to come in off the bench at some point early in the contest.
Hamilton leads the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game and 7.2 rebounds a contest. Stringer is averaging 10.6 points per game and Hickey 9.7.
Hamilton, the junior transfer from Iowa State, is 10th in the league in scoring, 8th in rebounds, 5th in field goal percentage (%1.%), 10th in free throw percentage (75.6%), 8th in blocks (1.4) and 2nd in offensive boards average (3.5). Hickey is shooting just under 50 percent in SEC games, making 31-of-63 and 15-of-31 from the arc. Hamilton is averaging 16.1 points in the seven league games, while Hickey comes in averaging over 11.
LSU travels to Vanderbilt to begin the official second half of league play on Wednesday night in an 8 p.m. tilt. The Tigers then return home for two more important home games against Alabama (Feb. 11, 6 p.m., ESPN2) and Mississippi State (Feb. 14, 8 p.m., ESPNU).
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Here are some of the comments from LSU Coach Trent Johnson at Friday’s media session:
LSU Men’s Basketball Media Session
February 3, 2012
HEAD COACH TRENT JOHNSON
Opening statement …
“The (Arkansas) game couldn’t come soon enough, I’m trying to go back over our practice schedule (from the week). We had Sunday off, came out and practiced hard on Monday, had Tuesday off and have practiced the last three days. We’re trying to clean up a lot of things, our offensive execution. Probably more importantly, defensively getting our intensity back up, cleaning up some breakdowns. We haven’t done a very good job during the last three games in terms of putting a body on people and blocking them out. Quite frankly, we’ve done a decent job of taking care of the ball. First halves have caused a problem for us. For the most part, considering who we’ve played and where we’ve played them, I thought we’ve done a decent job of taking care of the ball offensively and offensive execution. Early in the week, it was tough. Make no question about it; they were down a little bit. I think it was good coming off the game versus Kentucky in terms of being home for a while, school, all those things. They’ve been pretty good the last couple of days.”
On how different Arkansas is now versus the first time LSU played them …
“They have been a different team at home than they’ve been on the road. But when you look at how they’ve played versus Alabama and look at how they played versus Michigan at home, they’ve shown that they can play on the half court as well as go up and down. We have to do a better job in terms of defending their perimeters, all three of them (Julysses Nobles, Mardracus Wade and B.J. Young) are immensely improved. They’re getting real adequate post play out of their freshman. He’s a good player, got great hands, great feel. So they’re a much-improved team than the team we saw the first time. For us, we have to chase them off the three, but also level them (defensively) because all of their perimeter players shoot the three deep, but also can put on the floor … Then, [we need to] rebound the thing and establish a post presence. I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside to Justin (Hamilton) and Storm (Warren) up there (at Arkansas). As usual, if you don’t let limit transition baskets, if you don’t really do a good job of taking care of the ball, make some shots and be efficient offensively, we’re going to struggle. But, yes, we do have to take away the three-point line. No question.”
On LSU’s offense …
“We’ve got to get there sooner than later versus everybody. We’re getting good shoots. The Kentucky game was a different deal, because they didn’t give you anything. They really defended you … We have to have good offense, good efficient offense, take good shots and score the ball. Then, we can get back and get our defense formed. When we shoot 40 percent or whatever we’re shooting, you’re putting way too much pressure on your defense to get stops versus the caliber of the people we’re playing. We have to score the ball; we have to start scoring the basketball and shoot good percentages.”
On Andre Stringer coming off the bench …
“Well, in Andre’s (Stringer) situation, it was just a matter of trying to get him to relax. It was either him or Ralston (Turner) in that particular game. It’s all about feel, it’s all about what I see in practice in terms of our guys being aggressive or are they really mentally starting to wear on them. One of the things I talk to them about is, we have five games at home; we have three on the road. It’s February. Just enjoy playing. We’ve got three seniors. You have to enjoy playing down the stretch so to speak. This is the time of the year where regardless of what’s said and what you do, everything gets over-magnified. That shouldn’t take away from your overall enjoyment of coming out here and trying to enjoy playing basketball because you’re a college student-athlete. That’s all that matters. When I say that to them, I’m trying to get them to relax. I’m not trying to say what everybody else has been saying, ‘Oh, you went through this juggernaut of a schedule.’ We still have a juggernaut of a schedule. I mean, the teams that we’re playing are much improved and are good quality basketball teams. Quite frankly, I look at our league, and I would have to agree exactly what [Mississippi State coach Rick] Stansbury said. I was watching his show two days ago. This league, he said, in his last ten years from top-to-bottom is probably as talented as it is. I’d agree with that. You look at South Carolina how they’re playing right now having a chance to go into Florida and beat Florida. For me, it’s just these guys understanding ‘You know what, let’s just lay it all on the line. We’ve got to improve in these areas, we’ve got to continue to improve, we’ve got to continue to stay together and we’ll see what happens.'”
On Arkansas being a different team on the road versus at home …
“What I meant by that was it’s a different team at home than on the road. They’re so much more dominant at home, but they’ve shown versus Alabama that they’re getting a lot better (on the road). It’s just a matter of time before they break through. They’ve shown that they can dominate you at home and score up in the 80’s and 90’s. But also, on the road, now they’ve shown they can slow it down, they can play a half-court game and still beat you. That’s what happens when you have a young team, you have a new system. It just takes time. Arkansas is a very quality team. As far as I’m concerned, they’re an NCAA team, an NCAA tournament team. They’re right there. So, early on, they’re real dominant, now I’m talking about at home now, but now I think they’re equally playing as good on the road as they are at home.”
On Malcolm White‘s suspension …
“I came to the decision real quickly. Malcolm (White) is not going to play (against Arkansas). He’s going to sit on the bench in street clothes and cheer his teammates on. That decision was made real quick … I know what Malcolm White‘s about. That was very disturbing what happened. We’ve squashed it right away, and we move forward.”