It may be desperation Saturday in Stegeman Coliseum.
Both LSU and Georgia are off to 0-3 starts in the Southeastern Conference, which some call the worst power conference in college basketball.
“Every game we play is a must-win game,” said LSU sophomore forward Johnny O’Bryant III. “This is a must-win game. We have to go down there and get this one.”
Each team’s road to the bottom of the standings, however, couldn’t be more different.
The Tigers (9-5, 0-3 SEC) have shown moments of brilliance, highlighted by a 16-point comeback in a nationally televised victory against Seton Hall and rallying from 21 points down at now-No. 25-ranked Marquette, only to fall 84-80 in the waning minutes.
A plethora of poor shooting nights and difficulty handling a zone has plagued first year coach Johnny Jones, who’s still in search of his first conference win at his alma mater.
“If we continue to play hard and keep battling, some great things will happen for us and some games will start falling in our favor,” Jones said. “We just have to stay the course until then.”
On the other hand, the Bulldogs (6-10, 0-3 SEC) have looked lifeless in their 16 games this season, losing contests to Youngstown State and Iona and scoring only 54 points in a win against East Tennessee State, showing why they rank No. 318 in the country in points per game.
Coached by Mark Fox, a protégé of former LSU coach Trent Johnson, Georgia’s offense mirrors LSU’s of last season — a deliberate, half-court style O’Bryant said he remembers.
“We know a lot of their sets,” O’Bryant said. “They ran the same exact offense as Coach [Johnson] last year. We’re going to try to speed them up and get them at our pace.”
The Tigers will need more production out of junior guard Andre Stringer, who was 4-for-13 from the field last time against South Carolina, including an 0-for-5 performance from the 3-point line.
Stringer, who has had his fair share of streaky shooting in his career, acknowledged he had to righten the ship if LSU was to get back on the winning track.
“We’re not playing the way we normally play,” Stringer said. “[Other teams] know the shots we’re used to taking. … We need to get better shots.”
It’s a one-man show for Georgia as former McDonald’s All-American guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope averages 16.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game — the only Bulldog averaging double figures.
Jones warned against paying too much attention to Caldwell-Pope, as it could cause another Georgia player to have a career night, much like South Carolina’s Michael Carrera did to LSU on Wednesday when he exploded for 23.
“We have to make sure we try to contain him,” Jones said. “He’s one of the guys they really look to to get them going.”
Contact Chandler Rome at [email protected]
Twitter: @Rome_TDR
LSU sophomore guard Anthony Hickey (1) scores Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 after a steal during the 73-82 loss to the University of South Carolina in the PMAC.
