With LSU traveling to Starkville, Miss., to face No. 22 Mississippi State Saturday at 2 p.m., the Tigers and the Bulldogs stand in similar positions.
Both teams shot out to stellar non-conference records, LSU started out 11-1 and MSU was right behind at 10-1.
Both went into the Southeastern Conference expecting big things, with MSU being ranked as the No. 7 team in the country and LSU also cracking the Top 25 at the No. 24 spot.
And both have stumbled out of the blocks in the early conference schedules with 1-3 records.
MSU picked up its first conference win Wednesday against South Carolina in Starkville, Miss., while the Tigers have lost two consecutive games- to Ole Miss in the PMAC and to Arkansas Wednesday in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We just have to come back,” said LSU coach John Brady. “We have some tough games ahead of us, and we have to play the best we possibly can. We have to get back to really defending as well as we can and try to rebound the ball a little bit better.”
In the 73-65 loss to Arkansas, the Razorbacks outrebounded the Tigers, 44-22, and LSU allowed a normally dismal shooting Arkansas team to shoot 49 percent from the field. The Razorbacks also shot 9-of-19 from behind the 3-point line when they were previously just shooting 28 percent from behind the arc.
“I am not really concerned about our offense,” Brady said. “My concern is that we are going to defend as we should and as we are capable of doing. The thing that I can do is make us defend a little bit better, hopefully. That is what we are going to have to do on the road, particularly at Mississippi State.”
LSU played one of its best games in recent memory Jan. 11 in the PMAC, when it was able to shoot 62.7 percent from the floor and defeat the Bulldogs, 85-72.
Senior point guard Torris Bright played one of his finest games at LSU as he shot 7-for-7 from the field, scoring 17 points, dishing out ten assists and making three steals.
In that game, LSU made MSU star center Mario Austin expend a lot of energy on defense as junior Jaime Lloreda worked Austin over for 19 points.
Brady does not plan to change much from that first matchup.
“Why change,” Brady said. “It won. The thing that we did against Mississippi State here was we played a perfect game. Torris Bright was phenomenal. We shot 66 percent the second half. We did a lot of positive things in that game. Hopefully we can do that again on the road because we certainly are going to need it because I know they are waiting for us.”
Senior forward Ronald Dupree hesitated to call the game Saturday a must win but knows how important the game is.
“It definitely is a statement game,” Dupree said. “It is hard to play them up there. For them it is probably a must win, because they are at home and they are 1-3 (SEC).”
Dupree says MSU will come with their “A-game” this weekend.
“We are going to get their best shot,” Dupree said. “Just like when we play Ole Miss and Arkansas again, we are going to be revved up and ready to chop their heads off. It is just our conference. It is tough playing on the road.”
It has been especially tough for the Tigers on the road under Brady. LSU is 0-2 this year away from the PMAC and 12-39 all time under the sixth-year coach.
Dupree leads the Tigers in scoring, contributing 15.2 points per game, with Lloreda close behind at 13.2 points per contest.
Bright ranks second in the SEC with 5.6 assists per game. Bulldogs junior All-American Austin leads MSU in scoring at 18.2 points per game and pulls down 8.1 rebounds per game.