Preview: LSU Hoops vs McNeese St - PMAC - Sat 7pm - CST

Who: McNeese St Cowboys (2-9) @ LSU Tigers (8-2)
When: Saturday, December 28th - 7pm
Where: PMAC (13,215, 47th largest) - Baton Rouge
How:TV: CST, Radio: 98.1FM, Stream: ESPN3.com

After taking off a few days for the holidays, LSU gets back to work against Southland Conference foe, McNeese St. The Cowboys are 0-9 against D1 competition but have two wins over lower division foes Louisiana College (92-83) and Stillman (81-72). This one certainly won't do LSU any favors in the RPI category, however, it will be nice to get back on the court after letting the team go home for the holidays.

McNeese has three players averaging double digit points and two averaging over 7 rebounds per game. They average 64 points a contest. While they only shoot 37% from the field (28.6 from 3 and 38.7 from 2), they shoot 70.5% from the free throw line. They aren't a very big team and only have 3 players over 200 pounds (LSU has 6).

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With only two games remaining before SEC play, LSU must continue to grow as a team. They had easily their best performance of the season last game against UAB. They must continue to improve before hitting the meat of their schedule. After LSU's contest with McNeese they host Rhode Island next weekend as their last tuneup game before hosting Tennessee on national television (ESPN).

In this game, LSU should take advantage of their inside presence against a team that scores a large portion of their points from outside. The Cowboys are 18th in the NCAA in Percent of points scored from 3 point land. That being said, McNeese is out-manned and out-matched.

I want to see Tim Quarterman build on his impressive 9 assist 0 turnover game last week as well as see Martin continue to look comfortable shooting like he did against UAB. It will also be nice to see John Odo down low. He was needed in the Texas Tech game and he will be needed in SEC play so getting him some quality minutes are important.

We know Mickey and O'Bryant can control this game. The Cowboys are undersized, however, both players need to continue to improve on the turnover front. Both should be using this game to protect the ball and to work on their footwork inside. Stringer and Hickey need to continue to shoot the way they have. They are 1 and 2 in the SEC in ast:to ratio so we know they protect the ball well. The Tigers just have to clean up the turnovers in the paint.

Prediction:

LSU 85, McNeese 52