BATON ROUGE – The battle for seeding in both an upcoming Southeastern Conference tournament and an NCAA Tournament puts the spotlight here Saturday as LSU and No. 16 Tennessee battle at 1 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Tigers and the Volunteers are both 7-4 in the league standings, part of a three-way tie for second with Arkansas.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN with Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes on the call. The Voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair, and former LSU head coach John Brady will be on the call for the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Baton Rouge flagship for Guaranty Media, Eagle98.1 FM).
Coach Brady’s 2006 NCAA Final Four team will be honored at halftime in a virtual video presentation to celebrate 15 years since a mostly homegrown Tigers team won NCAA games over Iona, Texas A&M, Duke and Texas.
LSU is 12-6 on the season while Tennessee is 14-4 overall. LSU was a 94-80 winner on the road at Mississippi State on Wednesday night, while Tennessee was a winner against Georgia, 89-81.
LSU showed the offensive balance against State that the Tigers have shown when it has been successful this season.
Cameron Thomas led LSU with 25 points with Javonte Smart adding 22 points and 11 assists. Darius Days returned after an ankle injury, scoring 16 points with 11 rebounds and Trendon Watford scored 14.
The Tigers shot 61.3 percent from the floor, making 38-of-62 field goal attempts. It was the fourth time in the Coach Will Wade tenure that the Tigers shot 60 percent or more from the field. It was LSU’s highest percentage in a road game since the John Brady coached Tigers shot 62.0% at Ole Miss on Feb. 15, 2000.
LSU took advantage of 15 Mississippi State turnovers in the game, getting 26 points off turnovers, compared to three for the Bulldogs off seven LSU miscues.
Freshman Jaden Springer led Tennessee in the Georgia win with 30 points. Sophomore Josiah-Jordan James dropped in a career-high 18 points. Sophomore Santiago Vescovi also added 19 points.
Springer leads the team, averaging 11.7 points for the season, Victor Bailey is at 10.2, Keon Johnson at 10.1 and John Fulkerson 10.0.
Coach Wade did say in his Friday media session that Mwani Wilkinson is scheduled to be back for the Tennessee game after missing Wednesday’s game for LSU with the (non-COVID-19) flu. Shareef O’Neal will miss the game because of his lingering foot problems.
{Press release courtesy of LSU Athletics}