BATON ROUGE – The LSU and Wake Forest men’s basketball teams, both looking for momentum heading into conference openers this weekend, will meet Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
With the LSU football bowl game set for an 8:10 kickoff, the start time for the game has been moved up one hour to 6 p.m. CT and will be televised now on ESPNU.
Mike Couzens and Barry Booker will have the television call while Patrick Wright and Ricky Blanton will have the call on the LSU Sports Radio Network. Because of football commitments the game will air on 100.7 FM in Baton Rouge and be free to all areas in the Geaux Zone at LSUsports.net.
LSU is 7-4 with three straight wins, while Wake Forest is 8-3. The Tigers are 7-0 in the Maravich Center coming off three consecutive 20-plus point wins for the first time since November/December 2008. LSU has beaten Gardner-Webb (78-57), Oral Roberts (100-77) and a week ago defeated American (79-51).
Wake Forest, off a two-win performance in Maui, has shown strong play under second-year head coach Danny Manning. The Demon Deacons had a 15-point halftime lead at home last week in their last start against undefeated and sixth-ranked Xavier, but Wake Forest shot just 20 percent in the second half as Xavier powered past for a 78-70 win.
The Tigers open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday night at Vanderbilt in an 8 p.m. game on ESPN2 and then come home on Tuesday, Jan. 5, to face Kentucky at 8 p.m. in the Maravich Center. Wake Forest opens Atlantic Coast Conference play on Jan. 3 against Louisville.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media prior to the team’s Monday practice session and here are some of his comments:
Opening Statement…
“After a long week off, we are looking forward to getting back out on the floor Tuesday night against a very talented and tough Wake Forest basketball team, a team that knocked off UCLA, Indiana and played a top-ranked Xavier team very tough. We know it will be a great challenge for us. They have great size, quickness. They have balance in terms of scoring attack. They’re averaging around 78 points a game. They like to get the ball up and down on the floor. Our styles in terms of pace of play … (are) similar. At the same time, we look forward to hoping we can build on our winning here at home, especially getting ready prior to a tough, conference schedule that we have in front of us that’s right around the corner. This game really couldn’t come at a better time. We are interested to see how we will play after the long layoff since Dec. 22.”
On building off of the three home wins…
“It gives the team confidence. You want to be hopeful that you’re getting better each night out and are continuing to improve in a lot of areas. Defensively, we’ve showed some signs of getting better and improving in terms of the score and what we are holding our opponents to after a couple of games where we’ve given up too many points. We started holding our points to a considerable amount, which will give us more of a chance of an opportunity to be successful with field goal percentages as well.”
On rebounding against Wake Forest…
“They’re a very good, strong rebounding basketball team because of the size that they have in terms of their starters. They come off of the bench with great length, as well. They’re a good, physical, tough basketball team. They look for second-chance opportunities. It will be a great test for the battle of the boards in the game. It’s one that we need to measure up and make sure that we’ve improved since our earlier games.”
On the rebounding emphasis and changes throughout the season…
“The addition of Craig Victor has helped because of his size and his strength he possesses and he brings in there. He may have only had one rebound last game, but his presence out on the floor will help. At the same time, I think Keith Hornsby (has helped) as well because of his aggressiveness and his style of play. We’ve all made more of a conscious effort in the last few games to be better rebounders and to get second-chance opportunities. That may have fed in as well. With the addition of Keith and Craig, I don’t think it’s any mistake…I don’t think we’ve lost the war on boards since Craig has been eligible.”
On improvements that are needed…
“We have to continue getting better and growing on the glass. We have to become a better rebounding team. We are scoring nearly 80 points or so a game. We are putting up numbers. On the defensive end, we have to constantly get better. When you talk about that, you talk about guarding and penetration, keeping people out of the lane, making sure they play up over top of us, as well. With that, it will allow us easier opportunities … In a couple of games, we gave up driving lanes. Again, we’ve improved since then. The test that we will have Tuesday against a really tough Wake Forest team will give us a better idea of where we are right now.”
On Wake Forest…
“… If you look at them on tape, they may be as good as anyone we’ve played so far this year. I’m talking about the likes of NC State and Marquette. Those teams we feel have the size and the matchup presence with us, along the lines of Houston as well.”
On playing a Wake Forest type of game before SEC play…
“Most of the time you come back off of Christmas break and you’re looking for that game to get your feet back under. Then, you get into conference play or your tougher schedule. We won’t have the ability to have that type of transition. We are playing a conference-like opponent in this game. We will be tested as such, as well. It’s a great game for us, either way, because we are going to have to come out and be more focused with attention to detail more than normal in a setting like that.”
On coming off of the break…
“I think it’s good that we will be at home. That will help us as well. When you’re playing a Charleston team (where LSU fell behind 10-0 after a near week break), who is a really good, solid basketball team. In that setting and environment, they came out and jumped on us early. We came out and played a good second half. We certainly have to get off to a much better start against any opponent of that quality or especially the quality of Wake Forest. You want to make sure that you get off to a great start because that’s the way they will play.”