The LSU men’s basketball team will finally play a game against a team not among the top 25 in the nation on Saturday.
The Tigers’ last three games have been against ranked opponents, two of which LSU played away from the PMAC. The third was the No. 1 team in the country, Kentucky.
LSU has lost five of its last six games, but it won’t get any break when unranked Arkansas comes to Baton Rouge. The two met Jan. 14, when LSU fell, 69-60.
Despite the loss, LSU coach Trent Johnson said he wasn’t unhappy with the Tigers’ effort in Fayetteville, Ark.
“For us to be in a situation where they were held to about 69 points at home when I think they were averaging 85, I thought we we’re doing a decent job,” he said. “They just went on a spurt in the second half and got on us.”
The Razorbacks are known for their probing press that yields plenty of takeaways, which hurt the Tigers in the first meeting.
In steals per game, Arkansas is first in the Southeastern Conference and No. 13 in the country, averaging nine steals per game — 1.6 more than the next-closest SEC team.
Johnson said LSU didn’t do a good job of handling the press during the teams’ first encounter of the season, but improved throughout the game.
“At their place, they just got us sped up to where I think we had 11 turnovers in the first half,” he said. “In the second half, we got slowed down and ended up with four and 15 for the game … which I thought was unbelievable.”
While the Razorbacks are known for their intense defensive pressure, Johnson said they’ve shown talent offensively as well.
“It’s a combination of their offense and their defense,” Johnson said. “As soon as [the press] is drawn up, they’re coming at you defensively with multiple types of pressure, and offensively, they’re always on attack mode.”
The Tigers will have a tool they didn’t get to use in their first tilt with Arkansas in freshman forward Johnny O’Bryant III, who missed most of January with a broken hand.
O’Bryant made his first start since returning from his injury Jan. 28 against Kentucky, when he led LSU with 12 points and nine rebounds.
“Before he got hurt, he was starting to figure things out a bit in terms of his attention to detail offensively and defensively,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he was encouraged by O’Bryant’s play against Kentucky.
“He was very aggressive in our last game out versus Kentucky in terms of trying to take the ball to the rim against a very, very talented team,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said O’Bryant’s return would help against Arkansas’ pressure.
“When you go up against Arkansas’ press on the back end, you need somebody that can bring the ball down and be able to get to the rim off of one or two dribbles,” he said. “He should be able to help us in that regard.”
 
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Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]