LSU defeated the Auburn basketball team twice last year, winning 75-58 at home and 59-54 on the road, and will travel to Alabama to face the Tigers of Auburn Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Tigers return three starters, including All-Southeastern Conference performer Ronald Dupree, and also added 2002 Junior College Player of the Year Jaime Lloreda and the 2002 Louisiana Mr. Basketball, Darrel Mitchell.
Auburn returns all five of its starters from a team that went 12-16 and 4-12 in the Southeastern Conference last year.
Advantage LSU, right?
Not according to the SEC West standings. Auburn sits atop of the conference with a 5-3 record in the league and a 16-5 overall mark.
LSU remains in the cellar, despite Wednesday’s 71-58 victory over South Carolina, with a 2-6 conference mark and a 13-7 overall record.
“I think they are a totally different team now,” said senior guard Torris Bright. “They are a little bit tougher, and they are a great rebounding team and a great defensive team. I think it is going to be a battle of the defenses over there.”
Auburn’s toughness is marked by its defense and rebounding. AU’s defense is allowing 63.6 points per game and forcing its opponents to shoot 39.4 percent from the floor. Auburn also owns a rebounding advantage of 5.6 board per game over its opponents.
LSU is allowing its opponents to score 63 points per game, while making them shoot 41 percent from the field,and records 3.7 more rebounds then its opponents per game.
“Whoever plays the best defense and also can make some shots will win the game,” Bright said.
Auburn senior forward Marquis Daniels has been rather effective at making shots, hitting on 55 percent of his attempts. He leads the team in scoring, throwing in 18.6 points per contest and also leads the team in rebounds, pulling down 6.6 boards per game.
LSU senior guard Collis Temple III acknowledges this is not the same Auburn team as 2002, in wins or confidence.
“At this point in the SEC season, this team [Auburn] has more confidence than the last team had,” Temple said. “They started off 4-0, and after that they were expected to win. We are going in playing a totally different team than the team we went and played last year, simply because they won more games.”
LSU looks different than last year’s National Invitational Tournament team, especially as of late.
Sophomore guard Xavier Whipple, who before the second half of a Feb. 1 loss at Alabama was relegated to strictly mop-up duty, saw his first start of his career Wednesday against the Gamecocks, playing 13 minutes and scoring four points on 2-of-4 shooting.
To cater to the change in the lineup, Bright, the usual starter at the point, moved to the shooting guard position, with sophomore Antonio Hudson coming off the bench.
Bright scored six points and dished out six assists in 39 minutes. “I liked the change,” Bright said. “It gave me the opportunity to create more and enables me to score more if I have a chance to.”