LSU Hoops (16-10, 9-4) @ Tennessee (12-14, 5-8) - 4:30pm - ESPNU

This weekend officially marks the greatest time in all of South Louisiana; The merger of LSU baseball and basketball season! As LSU proudly takes the field in the friendly confines of Alex Box, the basketball team will go to the hostile home of the Tennessee Volunteers.

Tennessee is only 12-14 overall, but do not let their overall record make you feel like this game is a cake walk. Home Tennessee and road Tennessee are two different animals.

At home Tennessee is 11-1 with wins over Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky. Their lone home loss came to Vanderbilt a month ago.

Defensively, Tennessee is worse than LSU, but in their three big home wins, they held 2 of the three to under 70 points. Really looking at their stats overall doesn't paint the real picture of the challenge LSU faces. On offense, the Vols rarely turn the ball over and shot the ball well at the FT line.

From St Jean The Baptiste:

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Channel 208 on DirecTV

New Orleans---WWL 870 and 105.3FM
Baton Rouge---WDGL 98.1FM
Shreveport---KWKH 1130AM
Beaumont---KLVI 560AM

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From KenPom.com:



From LSUbutt:

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They are a heavy guard oriented team. Their best interior player is 6'4, but he's a bull. They have a 6'9 player (Alexander) who will most likely start but he may not even play double digit minutes. They have 2 other 6'7-6'8 guys in Kasongo and Reese that will play, but again, they may only play a few minutes. UT will want to push the tempo, shoot 3's, try to create turnovers.

The scary part is that they are abysmal on the road, but actually quite good at home. They have wins against UK, South Carolina, and Florida at home. They had a player that got hurt Thursday night against UK and I'm pretty positive it was Baulkman. Not sure if he will play, but he averages 9 a game and is a solid player.

Really though, LSU is a far superior team. UT beat Kentucky because Kentucky jumped out to a 21-point lead, got lazy, and started fouling. UT is an exceptional FT shooting team, one of the best in the nation. Against South Carolina, they were 30/32 from the FT line. They're just a super scrappy, hustling team. Their guards like to shoot the 3 or drive aimlessly to the goal. You won't see a lot of post entries or inside out type of play.

Kevin Punter is their main threat, he drops 22ppg. Armani Moore is their best 'big man' and just has a knack to find the ball for rebounds and put backs. This is the one game that Bridgewater can contribute very well in.

Overall, game makes me very nervous because it's @UT which is a difficult place to play. But we do well in bounce back games and this is a must win.

LSU - 78
Tenn- 74

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Personally I didn't think LSU had much of a chance before the Bama game, but I'm feeling the Tigers have something to prove in this one. Since having our full team available, LSU has played particularly well following a loss and I think LSU does it again. I'm gonna go LSU 83, Tennessee 78 in this one.