LSU flies to Nashville, Tenn., today trying to get well – not literally, but figuratively – against No. 16 Vanderbilt on Saturday at noon. The injury-plagued Tigers (7-10, 0-3) go into Saturday’s game knowing junior forward Tasmin Mitchell will not be back this season and junior center Chris Johnson is still a few weeks away from his return. The latest hits to the Tigers’ roster are junior forward Quintin Thornton and senior guard Dameon Mason. Mason, who was recently declared academically ineligible, is now finished for the season. “The NCAA rejected his appeal, so we’re where we are with our team where it is,” said LSU coach John Brady. “But Dameon Mason is on scholarship. He’s 12 hours short of graduation. We’re going to do everything in our power to graduate him this spring.” After missing the first 14 games of the season to undergo surgery on a torn pectoral muscle, Thornton missed practice Thursday with a strained shoulder muscle. He is expected to play Saturday. The team will have a chance to cure a six-game losing streak and a winless start to Southeastern Conference play when they face Vanderbilt (16-2, 1-2). “You can’t just say it’s one thing that’s wrong right now,” said sophomore guard Alex Farrer. “There’s a few – giving too many points up in the paint, too many uncontested shots, transition defense.” The talk nine days ago was that the Tigers needed to improve their shooting after Mississippi State held LSU to 39 points on 21 percent shooting in the PMAC. But the focus has changed after two more losses in which the Tigers averaged 69 points per game.
Everything seemed to be clicking for LSU as the momentum from finishing on a 10-1 run at No. 18 Ole Miss (15-1, 2-1) spilled over into a 17-2 start against Auburn (10-5, 1-2). But that notion proved to be fool’s gold as Auburn finished the first half on a 21-4 run and utilize 46 second-half points to leave LSU and its largest home crowd of the season stunned. “They didn’t do anything differently, I don’t think,” said junior guard Garrett Temple. “I think they just began to penetrate by us a little more.” Even if Auburn didn’t do anything differently, the outcome certainly changed. After holding Auburn to seven points through 13 minutes, LSU allowed 67 points the rest of the way. “For some reason, when we don’t shoot the ball well, we have a lull on defense also,” Temple said. “That might just be our immaturity or inexperience, but we have to find a way to still guard as tough as we can.”
While Auburn was missing one of its top players in junior forward Korvotney Barber, the Commodores will have their standouts on the floor Saturday in senior guard Shan Foster and freshman center A.J. Ogilvy, the SEC’s first and third leading scorers, respectively. “Vanderbilt is a great team,” Temple said. “Ogilvy, a freshman coming in, that’s going to be a main point that we have to guard inside because that’s something that we’ve lacked a lot.” The young, inexperienced Australian will be the biggest player on the court Saturday afternoon, standing 6-feet-10-inches and weighing 250 pounds. “Ogilvy’s a big body, and our post men are kind of slim,” said junior guard Marcus Thornton. “We’ll have to get tough on him, push him out the lane and make him shoot some 15- and 17-foot shots.” One positive to be taken from the Tigers’ recent disappointment at home may be the team’s rebounding. LSU won the rebounding battle Wednesday for the first time since Nov. 30 against Southern. Vanderbilt, the league’s sixth best rebounding team, is also second in the SEC in field-goal percentage. If he is healthy enough to play, Quintin Thornton will likely be a key in that aspect of the Tigers’ game. “It’s easy to have him out there because he doesn’t worry about anything except getting rebounds and defending,” Temple said. “Quintin’s not a guy who wants to score all the time, but he provides us with exactly what we need right now.” In three games this season after returning from injury, Quintin Thornton is averaging 3.3 rebounds in only 20 minutes per game, including eight rebounds in 27 minutes at No. 18 Ole Miss.
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