It’s only fitting that a game which features Southeastern Conference championship aspirations, NCAA tournament hopes and four of the SEC’s top 10 scorers will take place in Rupp Arena.No. 18 LSU (24-4, 12-1) travels to the conference’s largest and most notorious venue Saturday to face the league’s most historic program, Kentucky (19-9, 8-5) on Saturday. The Wildcats boast a home record of 415-54 with seven national titles, but this weekend it will be the Tigers hoping to secure an outright conference title.”There is a sense in a little corner of my heart that this is neat,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson. “It’s one of the premier venues in the country, and it’s one place I haven’t been. Haven’t had a chance to coach — haven’t had a chance to be in there period … I’m looking forward to that.”Johnson actually has coached in Rupp. His third Stanford team faced Louisville there in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals blew the Cardinal off the court, 78-58.”I was sitting there for every bit of those 10 seconds — that game was over in 10 seconds,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wasn’t in Lexington because I wasn’t there. That was a dream — a nightmare.”The Tigers average 77 points per game behind the efforts of junior forward Tasmin Mitchell and senior guard Marcus Thornton, so their chances of topping 60 points in Johnson’s second go-around are much higher. Thornton is the conference’s No. 2 scorer with 20.9 points per game, while Mitchell sits at No. 8 with 16.6.”We’re a team — there is no Thornton and Mitchell,” Mitchell said. “We might be on top of the scoring lists … but it’s not about us. We need our teammates to be successful.”Kentucky guard Jodie Meeks has led the SEC in scoring throughout the year with an average of 25.1 points per game. His teammate, sophomore forward Patrick Patterson, averages 18.3 points and 9.1 rebounds.”I’m not keyed on [Meeks],” Thornton said. “He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like I do. He’s a great player and hats off to him, but I play for LSU, and we’re going to try to go in there and win.”Thornton called his first trip to Rupp “a dream.””It’s a historic place to play and I’ve never played in there before,” he said. “Just to go and see what the atmosphere is like — I’m ready to get down there and wrap up the SEC.”Mitchell, on the other hand, doesn’t have such fond memories of his last trip to Lexington — although he hasn’t quite blocked them out.”Last time I went to Rupp I was a sophomore,” he said. “I had a real good game, and we had a chance to beat them. But Kentucky is basketball. Rupp Arena is a very historic place, and it’s hard to play there.”Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie would disagree with Mitchell.”The best teams win on the road and at home,” he said. “No matter how good your home court advantage is, the biggest challenge you face is the team itself.”Gillespie’s Wildcats were mathematically eliminated from SEC championship contention Wednesday night, but Johnson’s Tigers have a chance to make history of their own in the league’s most historic location.And maybe Johnson will remember it this time.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]