LSU center Jaime Lloreda is back off suspension. Four Tigers freshmen have seen extensive playing time. LSU’s record so far is 2-0. So what comes next for the Tigers?
“We’re just coming together,” said point guard Xavier Whipple. “We’re getting an identity. We’re seeing what kind of team we want to be. Now we’ve got everybody together, and we’ve just got to work hard at getting better and see what happens.”
Coming together and gelling as a team will be imperative when the Tigers face Troy State tonight in the PMAC at 7 p.m.
The Trojans will present LSU with its stiffest early season test as Troy State was an NCAA Tournament team last year that compiled 26 wins and an Atlantic Sun Conference title.
“I think they’ve got four starters back from a year ago,” said LSU coach John Brady. “They won at Arkansas and you know it’s going to be a good game. They’re wild. They’re going to press us full and play some kind of trapping zone, and they may expose us some ways. So we’re going to have to be ready for them.”
It may not be the Trojans’ trapping defense LSU has to worry about.
In Troy State’s game on Nov. 24 against Oakwood College, the Trojans scored 140 points and knocked down 26-of-52 shots from behind the 3-point line.
That performance was two 3-pointers shy of the NCAA record and Troy State shot 56 percent from the field.
“They’re real talented,” said LSU guard Antonio Hudson. “They’re guard-oriented with one especially good big man down low. We’re going to have to get out and guard. They’re like a run-and-gun-type team. They scored 140 points, and we haven’t scored 140 points in two games.”
While Troy State does score a lot, it is a relatively small team, with its tallest starter measuring up at 6-foot-7.
That may present an opportunity for another big game for LSU’s inside tandem of Lloreda and Brandon Bass, who combined for 45 points and 33 rebounds against the smallish McNeese State Cowboys on Monday. LSU won that contest 87-77.
“[Getting it to the big men] is going to be our game plan for the whole year,” Hudson said. “They’re kind of small. They’ve got one big man who’s pretty physical. But you know that’s only one and we’ve got two of them.”