BATON ROUGE – LSU’s 18-game Southeastern Conference journey begins Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center as the Tigers host the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide tip at just after 8 p.m. in the second game of a televised SEC Network doubleheader with Dave Neal and Andy Kennedy on the call. The game will be broadcast on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) with the Voice of the Tigers Chris Blair and former LSU basketball coach John Brady.
Fans are invited to wear gold for the annual Gold Game and the first 2,000 fans will receive gold t-shirts courtesy of Hancock Whitney Bank. The popular “Quick Change” will be the halftime entertainment.
Tickets for the contest are available online at LSUtix.net and will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office. Tickets will go on sale at 6:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center Tuesday night.
Both teams are 10-3 but Alabama is 1-0 in the league after a Saturday, 77-75, win over No. 13 Kentucky in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers are winners of three straight games at the end of non-conference play versus Saint Mary’s (in Las Vegas) and at home against No. 24 and previously undefeated Furman and ULM.
The Tigers have not played since that Dec. 28 win over ULM, but that has given Coach Wade and the coaching staff a chance to fine-tune what is now an eight player rotation that features guards Tremont Waters, Skylar Mays, Ja’vonte Smart and Marlon Taylor along with forwards Naz Reid, Kavell Bigby-Williams, Darius Days and Emmitt Williams.
Coach Will Wade did not commit to a starting lineup for the Alabama game but it is expected to include at least three guards as has started all season. In the ULM game when the Tigers went small, all four guards started with Reid.
Mays leads LSU with a 13.5 points per game scoring average with Reid averaged 12.6 points per game, Waters 12.5 and Smart 10.2. Williams is the leading rebounder at 6.6 boards a game, while Waters is averaging over 5 assists and 3.2 steals a game. Waters leads the SEC in steals and is third in the nation.
Tevin Mack led Alabama in the win over Kentucky hitting six treys in scoring 22 points. Kira Lewis, Jr., had 12 points, Dazon Ingram and Donta Hall 11 points each (Hall also 10 rebounds) and Herbert Jones 10. Lewis is Alabama’s leading scorer for the second at 14.8 points for the 13 games this season with Hall averaging 11.1 and John Petty 10.7.
Hall has had three consecutive double doubles, the first Alabama player in 11 years to achieve that feat.
This is the first of three road games in Alabama’s next four contests, while LSU will go on the road for its next two SEC games – Saturday at Arkansas (5 p.m.) and next Tuesday, Jan. 15, at Ole Miss (8 p.m.). Both games will be televised on the SEC Network and broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Coach Wade met with the media earlier Monday and here are some of his comments:
Opening statement…
“Obviously we have a great opportunity to start SEC play. Alabama played really well against Kentucky. They’re long. They’re athletic. They’re big at every position from point guard with Kira Lewis and Dazon Ingram at the two. (Tevin) Mack and Herb Jones at the three and four. They bring in Riley Norris and they just have a ton of guys. They have a kid, (Daniel) Giddens who started against us last year who has played some spot minutes for them this year … It will be a big challenge for us. Donta Hall does a great job protecting the rim, playing behind the defense and getting high percentage shots. Elite defensive team because they can switch so well and put big bodies on you. We’re going to need to do a good job keeping them off the glass which has obviously been an area where we’ve been up and down this year. We need to do a good job of keeping them off the glass. They’re good in transition. We’re going to have to keep them out of transition and try to guard them as best we can in the half court. They have a very good team. Very athletic, very long and very well coached by Coach (Avery) Johnson.”
On how LSU’s personnel matches up against Alabama…
“Last year they took the ball out of Tremont’s hands. They committed two guys to him early on and tried to force some other guys to beat them. I think this year we’re better equipped for that. We’re going to have to finish in the paint. We get to the paint a lot. We shoot a high percentage in the paint. It will be a different animal finishing against these guys. We need to be able to finish strong down there.”
On what they have worked on to clean up some stuff since non-conference play…
“We spent a lot of time on cleaning up our offense, our screening game, our screening angles and how we set things up. We spent a lot of time working on our transition defense. That’s really critical when you get into league play. We worked on cleaning up our offense with our screening. We worked on ball screen defense every day. We tried to clean up our transition defense. We spent a majority of our time on those areas.”
On how they will attack the game…
“I think what they do is they’ve got a ton of long athletic bodies. They’re able to try guys out in the first half and see who’s playing well and whoever’s playing well gets the majority of the minutes in the second half. I didn’t even mention Alex Reese, and he killed us last year. He may be their best low post scorer. They just ty a bunch of different guys and they see who’s playing well that day and he sticks with them. His son plays some point guard for them. They have 10 or 11 guys that they put in there and try. It’s a matter of getting a feel for who they’re going to go with and trying to make them react to us as best we can, but that’s easier said than done. They’re just so long, so athletic and can run many different bodies that it makes it a challenge.”
On the opening SEC game …
“… We have to win games and we certainly have to win home games. That’s the most important part. I thought Alabama did a great job of protecting its home court against Kentucky. It was a great crowd. That’s the number one thing. Last year we got off to a slow start at home in league play so we need to protect our home court. You’ve got to dig out what you can on the road, but we need to do a good job of setting the tone. Any team that’s going to compete in any league, especially the SEC, has to be very good at home and has to be very tough at home. I think that’s the number one thing. We have a great opportunity against a good Alabama team who is coming off a really big win. We need to set the tone with how we’re going to play at home and get off to a great start.”
On why last year’s team was able to finish strong at home after a rough start to SEC play…
“I thought we were a little bit more focused. We were able to sustain our focus a little more. We’ve changed up some things and we’ve obviously continued that through this season.”
On how important the big guys will be tomorrow against such a physical team…
“Important. Last year we had some 6-4 guys out there guarding 6-10 guys. This year, we’ll have 6-10 guys guarding 6-10 guys. That will be a little bit of a help. But you have to play well and do the right things when you’re out there. Just because you’re as tall doesn’t mean anything. You need to be executing how you’re supposed to be. We’ll be with Kavell (Bigby-Williams) who’s 6-11 and long and Naz (Reid) and Emmitt (Williams). We’ll be bigger at the three with (Darius) Days. We have Emmitt in there who plays a little bit bigger than he is. We have some guys that can hopefully get in there and bang around a little bit better than we did last season.”
On why Tremont Waters has been playing better over the last couple of games…
“I think it’s just adjustment. Adjustment for all of us, me as well. It was just an adjustment for him being around a bunch of new guys. At the end of the day we have an eight-man rotation. We’re playing six guys that didn’t play together last year. We have some junior college kids and some freshmen. Skylar and Tre are the only two who played together. We tried to play some pick-up and do some things to enhance the growth process, but it just has to happen. It won’t happen overnight. I think Tremont has a much better feel for where he fits in and how all the pieces fit together. His comfort level has allowed him to play better. I think he’ll continue to play better as we move into the SEC.
“I think he’s been able to see some things. He’s a smart kid and he see a lot of things on the court. I think the game’s always been slow for him. He sees things pretty well.”
On the improved competition in the SEC from non-conference play…
“… This is the real deal. We’ve got to step up our game as needed. This is why we all came here. To compete against the best, to play in the SEC. This is what we all signed up for. It’s too late to cancel so it’s time to rock and roll. We should be ready to go. There will be some adjustment. It’s one thing to talk about the length and the athleticism and how intense the games are, but it’s another thing to experience it. We need to handle ourselves the right way. Stay connected and I think we’re better equipped to handle it than when we went to Orlando. Hopefully that will prove itself out as we get into SEC play.”
On his relationship with Coach Avery Johnson…
“Great coach. Great person. Does a really, really good job with their team and personnel. He recruits long, athletic guys. Coach Johnson was a tremendous point guard. They had Collin Sexton last year who was a tremendous point guard and what they’ve done with Kira Lewis, who is a great player and has a great family, has been impressive. Coach Johnson does a great job with those point guards. He gets those guys ready to play. They have a very, very good team and have a very, very good coaching staff and they put them in good positions to win. It will be a big challenge for us.”