The LSU basketball team will try to win its third consecutive game Saturday when it faces Tennessee (15-9, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) in Knoxville, Tenn., at 6 p.m.
The Tigers are currently 5-8 in conference and probably will need to win their remaining three games to be considered for an at-large birth in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers also can earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of an automatic bid earned from winning the SEC Tournament in New Orleans, which starts March 13.
LSU faces the conference’s leading scorer this weekend in Volunteer forward Ron Slay. Slay averages 21.9 points per game and also is fifth in the SEC in rebounding, pulling down 7.8 boards per game.
Slay, who is 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, usually presents a matchup problem to his opposition.
“He is all over the place,” LSU head coach John Brady said of Slay. “He is on the post, he is on the perimeter, they step him out high, they screen for him to get him to the post and he comes out and sets ball screens. He just does a variety of things. I would like him to stay on the perimeter all the time.”
Brady said LSU senior forward Ronald Dupree will start out on Slay, but he also said numerous other players may guard the Tennessee senior.
“We are going to guard him with different people and throw different people at him,” Brady said. “He won’t play against less than two people Saturday. So we are going to have to really pay attention to him.”
Dupree said he is weary of guarding Slay, who owns a 30-pound advantage in the weight department.
“You know he’s a big man,” Dupree said laughing. “I don’t really enjoy guarding to many big men. And he’s 240 [pounds], so he’s got me by like 30 pounds. But I am going to do my best with help from double teams and see what happens.”
Offensively the Tigers are coming off the best 3-point shooting night in school history. LSU nailed 16 threes in Wednesday’s 94-63 win over Auburn in the PMAC.
Dupree hopes some of that offensive momentum carries over to Saturday’s game.
“The patience, the unselfishness, the extra pass, the defense, the rebounding, that is what it comes down to,” Dupree said. “We are going to take our shots, and hopefully, we can make half of them.”