Exams are finally finished and a 14-day layoff will end Tuesday night at 8 p.m. as the 5-2 LSU Tigers host North Carolina Central University at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game are on sale at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office all day Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and online at LSUtix.net. Tickets will go on sale at the upper concourse windows of the Maravich Center beginning at 6:30 p.m. LSU students are admitted free of charge with a valid student ID.
The game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network affiliates around Louisiana (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) with the “Voice of the Tigers” Chris Blair and Henry Hays on the call. The audio is also available at LSUsports.net. The game will also be televised on the SEC Network with Matt Stewart and Jon Sundvold calling the action.
The Tigers are coming off a win in the game prior to the break which began after LSU soundly knocked off previously unbeaten Houston, 84-65, on Nov. 29 in the Maravich Center. The Tigers played perhaps their best overall half of basketball in shooting 58 percent in the second half (making 20-of-34 shots) while out rebounding Houston, 46-28 with 20 offensive rebounds. LSU posted a 23-8 advantage on second chance points and 46-26 on points in the paint.
Antonio Blakeney had 23 points to lead LSU, while Brandon Sampson hit four treys in scoring 16 points. Craig Victor II had 13 points and Aaron Epps scored 11 off the bench, hitting all five field goal attempts.
The Tigers will not be able to come out with an exam break sluggishness as North Carolina Central has shown its ability to play well in big-time road arenas with a win at Missouri this year and a six-point loss at Ohio State. Senior Patrick Cole has had big games in their last two outings last week, with 13 assists and 18 points in a 79-56 win against LIU-Brooklyn and 28 points in a 70-67 loss Saturday at Coastal Carolina.
LeVelle Moton is in his eighth season as the Eagles head coach with 20-plus win seasons in 2013, 2014 and 2015 reaching the NCAA second round in 2014. He is a former player at the school having graduated there in 1996.
Look for the Tigers to probably keep the same starting lineup from the Houston game with Jalyn Patterson at the point (4.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.0 apg) and Antonio Blakeney (15.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg) and Brandon Sampson (11.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg) at the other two guard positions and Duop Reath (13.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.1 bpg) and Craig Victor II (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) at the forward spots.
This will be the first of three home games in seven days for the Tigers and four games in 10 days, closing out the pre-Christmas schedule with a Dec. 22 game at Wake Forest. The Tigers open up Southeastern Conference play in December for the first time in many years on Dec. 29, hosting Vanderbilt.
LSU’s next action will be Saturday at 5 p.m. against Texas Southern in the Maravich Center.
Coach Johnny Jones met with the media earlier and here are his comments heading into the game:
HEAD COACH JOHNNY JONES
Opening statement …
“We are certainly counting down the days until we have an opportunity to take the floor again against a very tough opponent in North Carolina Central. They have had some really good wins and some close defeats, one of them being by about five or six points at Ohio State. We have had a long layoff. It will have been 14 days to be exact before we have an opportunity to take the floor in a game, but our guys have done a good job in taking care of their studies, their finals. We have had some good practices, and we have had an opportunity to allow for some guys who were banged up with injuries to heal. We are looking forward to being full speed. We do know that coming off of a layoff like that sometimes you’re not as sharp. We (have tried) to make sure that our practices are simulated like games and at game speed and the pace we play. We try to make sure that we include some scrimmages in there as well. At the end of the day, it’s not necessarily games and we know that it certainly will be different at that time. I certainly like the growth of this team. We like how we finished up in our last outing against a really tough, talented Houston team. We feel like we grew and a lot of good things happened. We are hopeful that we can continue to build off of that at home having three games here before hitting the road again. We certainly hope that we put ourselves in position to continue to grow from that.”
On the point guard position …
“I think you have a freshman in Skylar Mays who has been really stellar here, and he’s continuing to learn. The good thing is he is a quick learner and has really been able to take things in extremely well and has really developed in a nice way. The great thing is that he has continued to improve each night out for us. He has shown that in a lot of different ways from his ball handling skills to his ability to score or distribute. He’s definitely shown that for us. One of the areas that we want to make sure that he continues to improve is his pace of play and his play on the defensive end of the floor. We think he has taken some positive strides in all of those areas.
“Jalyn (Patterson) has shown that he doesn’t necessarily have to score to impact the game. He’s been able to do that on the defensive end of the floor as well. One night he had eight or nine assists for us. He can impact the game, as well, without scoring. He understands what we need on the offensive end of the floor. He’s been a good distributor for us. He’s maybe one of our better defenders out there. That’s one of the areas that I think he has shined at since his freshman year, his ability to understand what another opponent is doing through scouting reports. He has been able to help us in terms of our defense because of that.”
On keeping the team sharp throughout the break of games …
“It’s very difficult to keep them game sharp because it’s hard to simulate games and opponents’ pace of play because of the numbers that you have. We can go out and go through the segments like we do with a lot of teaching moments, late game situations, playing through certain stretches as though you are in game because we get the four minute media timeouts. We try to play long stretches for conditioning purposes as well. There are teaching measures as we go along. It’s very difficult to stay in game speed. A lot of people feel like they have to shake the rust off after long layoffs like that, and it’s sometimes dangerous. However, it can help if you are going through a situation where you have injuries and have to heal. It’s certainly always tough trying to get back out there.”
On the benefits of the break …
“I think injuries, if you’re banged up a little bit, you have a chance to heal. The other thing is you have an opportunity to implement some other things. Offensively, we can install some other things that we would like to run against our opponents and sharpen up on those things. Then, we can tweak our defense a little bit. There are certain things we would like to do outside of just playing man. We are able to do that. That’s helpful and beneficial. Now, we have the opportunity to see if it works… That downtime certainly allows for a lot more teaching over the break.”
On Branden Jenkins‘ recovery …
“On the floor, he is at least doing shooting drills with us … He is working out with the strength and conditioning coach now. I think it’s a matter of time for him to find out exactly what he can and can’t do before getting out on the floor. We certainly don’t know any specific dates right now.”
On the team playing the best basketball this season in the second half against Houston …
“Absolutely. That game was the closest, in terms of the 40 minutes, that we have played as a team. Obviously, we had some down time there, but that second half we came out really strongly on the defensive end of the floor and really executed on the offensive end of the floor from our fast breaks to our sets. Guys were sharing the basketball and making the right plays. Defensively, we were as active as what we have been all year through those stretches. I thought that was good. We were very aggressive in that matter too.”