Let's face it, crunch time is here for our basketball team and we have the chance to finish the season off strong with three straight W's. We got the first one on Saturday against SCarolina, tonight we get the LSU Tigers in Athens. So far this year, we are 4-0 agains the SECw and we certainly MUST get to 5-0. Simply put, lose this game and I honestly think we have to do serious damage in the SEC tourney and would need to beat Bama on Saturday as well to make the tournament. Win this game, the Bama game will still be important but I can see us getting in regardless with our 9-7 conference record. But, there is no doubt with Bama winning the west, coming off two straight road losses, realizing their chance at the NCAA is slipping away, that is going to be a war on Sat. But of course first, we have to find a way to take care of LSU. Let me give a scouting report on our opponent tonight.
LSU has an overall record of 11-18, 3-11 in the SEC. This team simply put, is just NOT very good. Let's take a look at their losses, first non conference-Nicholls State, Memphis, Coastal Carolina, Wichita State, North Texas-all at home. Road non conference losses, Rice and Virginia. SEC home losses, Ole Miss, SCarolina, Miss State, Alabama, Florida and Vanderbilt. Road SEC losses, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas. Let's look at wins-non conference wins against somewhat name opponents, at South Alabama, Houston-that is about it. Other wins against teams like Northwestern State, Tenn-Martin, Centenary, McNeese State etc. SEC wins, home against Arkansas and at Auburn and Miss State. After they play us, they finish with Auburn at home. As you can see, this is a team we SHOULD handle and it should be much the same way as the South Carolina game. Let's hope that is the case, let's hope it doesn't resemble our home game against the other really bad SEC team, Auburn where we had to win in OT.
Looking at the LSU roster, leading the way is guard Ralston Turner, who averages nearly 13 pts a game, 3 boards a game, second is Andre Stringer, a 5'9" guard that averages nearly 12pts a game. Next is Malcolm White who averages 8pts and 5 boards a game. Next is forward Storm Warren-gotta love the name, who averages a little over 7pts and close to 6 rebounds a game. They have several other guys that are in the 6 pts a game, best of the bunch might be Garrett Green who is a 6'10" forward who averages nearly 7pts and 7 rebounds a game. Bottom line, they don't have any real offensive threats unless Turner gets going-neither Turner or Stringer shoot a great percentage from the 3pt line, Turner at 33.6%, Stringer 30.3%. Of the starters, Stringer has the highest FT% at 75.8%. If you look at the SEC games won, two guys I failed to mention led the team in scoring in two of those three games. One being Matt Derenbecker who on the season averages about 6.7pts, and Aaron Dotson who averages 7pts a game and is their best 3pt shooter, at 39.2%. If you look at their stats though, it is pretty obvious that coach Trent Johnson plays a lot of guys, probably trying to find someone who can consistenly score the basketball. It is pretty obvious by looking at their scores, they seem to have trouble putting points on the board. Other than the Miss State game where they won 84-82, most of their scores are in the 50's or low 60's. Against two of the best defensive teams in the conference, at Kentucky and at Bama, they scored 44 and 46 points respectively. Two of their wins in SEC play, 62-57 over Auburn, and 56-53 over Arkansas.
So, I think you can see we obviously have a lot more firepower than does LSU. That being said, we can't look at the stats and decide not to play aggresive defense. This is a game we do NOT need to mess around with. It is SR night for Jeremy Price and Chris Barnes, could very well be the last game for both Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie. We need to come out strong as we have done in the majority of our conference wins, set the tempo and control the game. We need to control the defensive boards and turnovers, if we can limit LSU's shots and avoid giving the ball away, I just can't see how this team can outscore us.
Last night I stayed up watching the Vandy/Kentucky game. Kentucky held on and remainded unbeaten at Rupp under Coach Cal-I think it is 33 or 34 straight. Vandy did a good job coming back in the game, really had the opportunity to grab that win and take second place in the east but now must beat UF to do so-but in Nashville. Kentucky has a road trip to Tennessee who really needs to beat the another quality opponent-bottom line, UF with their huge win over Bama last night has clinched the SECe, we still have a shot to get the bye with Vandy's loss last night but MUST win our next two and have Vandy lose to UF on Saturday. Kentucky also has a shot to get 2nd place, if they beat UT on Saturday, I am pretty sure they get the 2 over us or Vandy by virtue of record against the east. Still a lot to be determined for the conference seeding-obviously the worst we can do is 5th but it would be nice to get 2nd, 3rd or 4th. Tonight's game is on the SEC network, Peachtree TV in Atlanta.
One final note, the baseball team, currently 2-5 on the season, travels to Greenville, SC to take on Furman today. Furman is one of our two wins thus far on the season but with this being on the road, you never know what might happen. This weekend, the Dogs host FSU for a 3 game set. Wow, say one thing for Perno, he certainly isn't afraid to schedule quality opponents. Baylor was ranked 16th coming to Athens, FSU currently is ranked 10th per the information I could find. Hopefully playing these quality oponents early might pay dividends later in SEC play but for now, sure looks like a long year on the diamond.
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