The grind of the Southeastern Conference season has taken its toll on the LSU basketball team, and it could not come at a worse juncture.
The Tigers (17-5, 7-4 SEC) travel to Nashville this weekend and will face Vanderbilt (16-6, 5-6 SEC) at 5 p.m. in the Memorial Center where the Commodores are 13-1 on the season. LSU will then travel to Mississippi State for a game Wednesday.
LSU’s leading scorer and rebounder Jaime Lloreda is hobbled with a right ankle injury and a left foot injury, while starting forward Regis Koundjia sat out Wednesday’s Auburn game with a knee injury. Neither player has been able to practice, and their status for Saturday’s game is not promising, though not set in stone. Both players will travel with the team no matter what.
“As of right now, it looks like they’re not going to play,” said LSU coach John Brady. “But we don’t know that for sure yet. It’s day-to-day. Jaime was better today, but he still can’t put full weight on the back of his heel.”
Lloreda’s and Koundjia’a defensive efforts were sorely missed in Wednesday’s 80-68 loss to Auburn, when the “other” Tigers shot 65.4 percent from the field in the second half and 55 percent for the game. LSU was also outrebounded by 12 boards. Lloreda did play but was extremely gimpy.
“We just need to play with a little more effort, concentration and execution,” Brady said. “I don’t know why our team, after what we’ve done in 10 SEC games, all of a sudden just got pounded on the board and couldn’t stop anybody. I think what contributed to it was not having Regis and Jaime in practice after coming off maybe one of our better performances of the year at Florida. It hurt our continuity and preparation.”
The Tigers will have to be at their best on defense to slow down the SEC’s leading scorer in Matt Freije, who averages 18.8 points per contest.
Freshman forward Darnell Lazare, who scored 10 points against Auburn in an increased minutes role because of Lloreda’s injury, may start off guarding Freije. He said that is something he is used to and embraces.
“In high school, I was put in position to guard some of the best players in the state,” Lazare said of his days at Woodlawn High School in Baton Rouge. “And over the summer I played some of the top players in America. I’m real confident in my defense, you know in practice, going against Jaime and Brandon [Bass] everyday.”
Lazare may also play more of an offensive role with the possible absence of Lloreda.
Brady said Lazare’s performance against Auburn impressed him.
“He did play extremely well and I was happy for him,” Brady said. “I know it gave him some confidence and it was good he was able to score the ball as he did.”
Point guard Xavier Whipple said LSU’s loss to Auburn is behind the team, and the Tigers just want to concentrate on the Commodores.
“We dwelled on that loss yesterday and up to practice time today,” Whipple said. “But once we came around today to practice time, we need to put that one behind us and focus on Vandy. In that arena, they play well all the time. They’re always in the game and this year they’re playing better than they’ve been playing.”