MORGANTOWN, West Virginia – The LSU men’s basketball team hopes its strong performance of Tuesday can carry over Thursday night as the Tigers have traveled here for the first time since 2005 to take on West Virginia in the WVU Coliseum to lead off night two of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge presented by Sonic.
The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. CT and carried on ESPN2 (Dave Lamont and Darrin Horn) with the radio broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network with Jim Hawthorne and Ricky Blanton in Morgantown and studio host Kevin Ford.
The broadcast will be available in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net and on the following network affiliates: Baton Rouge, WDGL (98.1 FM); Alexandria, KSYL (970 AM); Bogalusa, WBOX (92.9 FM); Ferriday, KFNV (107.1 FM); Houma, KJIN (1490 AM); Jena, KJNA (102.7 FM); Lafayette/Opelousas, KLWB (103.7 FM); Lake Charles, KXZZ (1580 AM); Leesville, KJAE (93.5 FM); Monroe, KMLB (540 AM); Morgan City, KFRA (1390 MA); Natchitoches, KWLV (107.1 FM); New Orleans, WWL (870 AM, 105.3 FM); Ruston, KRUS (1490 AM); Shreveport, KWKH (1130 AM); Tallulah, KTJZ (97.5 FM); Tylertown, Mississippi, WFCG (107.3 FM); Ville Platte, KVPI (1050 AM).
LSU is 5-2 on the season after one of its best start-to-finish efforts Tuesday night in dismantling Massachusetts, 82-60, while West Virginia is on a roll earning national attention at 7-0 and ranked No. 16 in the AP poll and 17 in the Coaches poll.
This will be the third meeting between the two teams, having split games early in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 season. Ironically, the visiting team won on both occasions, with LSU taking an overtime victory in the second meeting in November 2005.
LSU was 2-1 in its appearances in the old SEC/Big East Challenge and will make its first go in the SEC/Big 12 series of games that runs through Saturday. West Virginia loss to Missouri last year in the Challenge and split its two games when it was a member of the Big East against the SEC.
WVU has some astounding numbers that the Tiger coaching staff has had to look at, leading the nation in steals (97), steals average (13.9 per game) and offensive rebounds (20.7 per game). The Mountaineers have won 55-of-their-last-58 non-conference games at home.
The Tigers have won eight games on opponents courts in Johnny Jones‘ first two years and this will be the first road test of the 2014-15 season.
LSU has shown in its wins in points in the paint with numbers of 52, 48 and 52 in its last three victories. The Tigers in the last 60 minutes of basketball (second half versus McNeese and the UMass game) is shooting well over 55 percent from the field.
This will be LSU’s first game of the year against a ranked team and LSU has won 20 percent of the time in the history of the AP poll when facing a ranked team. However, against teams ranked 16th in the AP poll, LSU has an 8-5 mark.
It was a quick turnaround for LSU flying out immediately after class early Wednesday afternoon and making about an hour stop at WVU Coliseum to walk through and shoot before heading to dinner at a local restaurant. This is the final game of the first section of LSU’s schedule before settling in for a week of finals before the next game on Saturday, Dec. 13, against Sam Houston State at 6 p.m. at the Maravich Center.
“I think it’s a great week. It’s a quick turnaround for us,” said Coach Johnny Jones after the UMass win. “They’re a Top 16 basketball team, and it’s going to take that type of effort to play against a team with the quality of West Virginia. We’ve got to do a great job of making sure we’re composed in that type of environment being on the road. It’s going to be a great experience for our young basketball team.”
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