There will be no Sylvia Fowles post moves or Candace Parker transition layups.A No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament won’t be on the line, and neither team will win the regular season Southeastern Conference championship for the first time since 1997.But none of those things matter to LSU junior guard Allison Hightower as LSU (15-9, 8-4) hosts archrival No. 18 Tennessee (19-8, 8-4) at 8 p.m. in the PMAC.”When you face Tennessee, it just pumps you up,” she said. “I know that we’re going to be ready to play.”LSU and Tennessee have played 11 times in the last five  seasons with Tennessee holding a 7-4 advantage in the series.But the Lady Vols have done the most damage in the postseason during that span, winning five of their six games against the Lady Tigers in the SEC and NCAA tournament, including last season’s 47-46 Tennessee win in the Final Four.”We’re very bitter,” Hightower said. “It was a heartbreaker that ended our season … The whole LSU and Tennessee rivalry is a great rivalry.” This season will mark a new chapter in that rivalry as LSU and Tennessee lost a total of 13 players and a combined 113.4 points per game and 57.6 rebounds per game from their 2008 Final Four teams.”Last year on senior night, I was so proud that I was fortunate enough to be their coach,” said LSU coach Van Chancellor. “Then when I turned around, and I looked at the four I had returning, and I said, ‘Oh my God, I better be a better coach than I thought I am next year.'”One of the new faces in the rivalry is LSU freshman forward LaSondra Barrett.The three-time SEC Freshman of the Week said she is ready for an opportunity to put her fingerprints on one of the conference’s biggest rivalries.”I know I was watching on TV when we lost on that last-second shot [last year],” she said. “I know it didn’t affect me as much as it affected them … but I’m excited to play and am ready to play them.”But with both teams having freshmen-filled rosters, the stakes are not quite as high nationally as some LSU and Tennessee games of years past.LSU’s nine losses are its most since the 2001-2002 season.The Lady Vols have also not been able to avoid the woes of having an inexperienced team and have lost four SEC games this year, falling to No. 18 in the ESPN/USA Coaches Poll — their lowest poll position since the 1985 season.From 1997-2008, the Lady Vols lost only eight SEC games combined.Things have gotten so testy for the Lady Vols that Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt banned her team from using their locker room for the remainder of the season following the team’s 66-55 loss at Kentucky on Feb 19.The Lady Vols players have also lost the right to wear Tennessee attire during practices for the remainder of the season.”Since they like to do their own thing, we thought we’d let them wear their own stuff,” Summitt said last week.But Chancellor said he knows the magnitude of Thursday’s game in the LSU community despite Tennessee not being the powerhouse it usually is.”I went to a baseball game [Friday],” he said. “I went to a men’s basketball game [Saturday] night. And they all told me, ‘Hey coach, I’ll go to one women’s basketball game a year, and that’s the Tennessee game.'”—-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]