FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The LSU men’s basketball team will look to continue its strong road play when it concludes the 2015 regular season with its final Southeastern Conference game here Saturday against the University of Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena.
The Tigers are 21-9 overall and 10-7 in the SEC, while No. 18 Arkansas is 24-6 and 13-4. The Razorbacks clinched the No. 2 seed for next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville with a rallying 78-74 win over South Carolina on Thursday night in Columbia.
LSU is still trying to figure out its tournament seeding and a few other games are involved in that process. An LSU win will meet LSU is no worse than the fifth seed and the lowest seed LSU can be is the sixth seed. There is still a chance for LSU to be the fourth seed depending on other games.
The game is set to tip at 1 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN with Mark Jones and Len Elmore on the call. The radio case with Jim Hawthorne, Ricky Blanton and studio host Kevin Ford is available in the GeauxZone at LSUsports.net and on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network.
The game will be available on these stations in the following areas: 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 AM); Natchitoches (KWLV 1907.1 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 coming off a 78-63 loss at home to Tennessee on Wednesday night, but goes on the road where it is 7-3 on the season, including five wins in the league – at Ole Miss, at Florida, at Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Auburn.
Jarell Martin had 16 points in the loss to Tennessee, while Keith Hornsby was in double figures for the 13th consecutive game with 25 points. Tim Quarterman had 10 points and seven assists.
This will be the first time the Tigers and the Razorbacks have met in 2015 after five straight games against teams LSU had already played once in the season. The teams split meetings last year.
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Coach Johnny Jones met with the media prior to the team’s departure and here were some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“After coming off of a tough game (Wednesday) night, we certainly have to put our attention and sights on a really tough Arkansas basketball team, a team that has played well all year. They have a lot of returning players from last year’s team with a great deal of experience. When you look across the board in terms of statistical leaders in our league, they are right up there at the top and rightfully so. They’ve done a marvelous job offensively. Defensively, they certainly get after you with their pressure and try to wear you down. We have to be really prepared for the challenges that will exist for us on Saturday.”
On playing the game against Arkansas at the speed they are comfortable with…
”We have to play how we play. We are better when we are an up-tempo team. They sit there around third or fourth in the league in terms of points per game with 79. We are at our best when we play up-tempo. We get a lot of opportunities from fast-break opportunities, be it steals or turning people over, and they play the same way. That’s why they pressure you and try to create steal opportunities. We are hopeful that because of their press, if we handle it the right way, we can attack instead of pulling the ball out. That’s where I think some teams generally get across half court, and they back it out and wait. I think you have to attack that type of pressure.”
On similarities between West Virginia’s and Arkansas’ press…
“Both of them are really aggressive in presses. Arkansas probably has more depth. A lot of guys come in and play. The intensity level throughout the game may be better in what they are capable of doing. There are a lot of similarities in it, but Arkansas certainly extends their pressure and has a great bench to do it with.”
On the difficulty of understanding the team after being 30 games into the season…
“Coaching basketball for 30 years, you understand that those nights are going to exist. Sometimes it’s not your team; it’s the other team. I don’t want to discredit anything from Coach Tyndall and what his team did last night. I think if you look at what we were able to do when we played there in the first half—the way that we played and had a 27-point lead the way that we executed and shot there—and some other games we’ve had this year and fighting and coming back to get victories is a big plus for us. In basketball, you have those waves. You look at Arkansas who was up on Texas A&M by a great number in the first half. Then, it became a two-point basketball game with about two minutes to go. That happens to be basketball. We just weren’t able to recover last night. Those guys came in. We talked before the game about how they had a lot to play for, trying to get above .500 and be eligible for postseason. We were going to get their best shot. We did, and I thought they performed quite well.”
Is it one reason for different reasons for the peaks and valleys throughout the season…
“I think it’s been different. We have good teams in this league and people play at different styles. Some nights, we have been able to click on all cylinders. Again, we are who we are. We are freshman and sophomore dominated team along with two transfers. I think these guys have done a tremendous job to win the number of games that we have won and really in the fashion that we have won and the places that we have been able to compete and win. Unfortunately, we have dropped some as well to teams that are probably not in the top of our standings … Those things happen in basketball. As far as excuses, you look for ways that you can overcome obstacles and be able to make plays. Some nights we were not able to do that.”
On the emotional effect of last night’s loss…
“Well, you want your players to be passionate about what they are doing and care enough. When you care enough about it, a lot of times you have the ability to dig deeper, play harder, and stronger because you do care. It is good to have that. I think it could certainly rub off because you feel that way. You understand how that feeling is and you understand the feeling of success. You certainly want to be on the other side of it.”
On the NCAA Tournament talks and the approach for Saturday’s game…
“It has been that way since Gardner-Webb. First game of the season. All of our games have been must win situations. For us, it’s good to be talked about because people are passionate about what they see. It’s all coming down to reality here in the next week or so. We have to compete and our focus has always been to win. I think if you win enough games, you take care of all the other stuff. It does not do any good to worry about the next one because they are all big games from playing McNeese St. to West Virginia. We have to win. We have been very fortunate to have success in a lot of those games. We are hopeful that because of that, it will all pay out.”