Saturday night the PMAC will play host to a Southeastern Conference battle between two teams vying to get back in contention for the SEC West title. LSU (14-9,3-8 SEC) takes on Arkansas (7-15, 2-9 SEC) at 7 p.m. in a non-televised game.
Previously Arkansas snapped a five-game losing streak by defeating the Tigers in Fayetteville, Ark., 73-65. The Razorbacks outrebounded LSU in that game, 44-22. Arkansas leads the SEC in offensive rebounding, averaging 14.77 offensive boards a game.
“They rely on a lot of team work, easy baskets and offensive rebounding,” said senior forward Ronald Dupree.
Arkansas is known as a young team that shoots poorly. In last week’s game against Kentucky, they shot only 36.4 percent from the field. But they are also known as a team that puts in maximum effort, allowing them to stay close in most games.
“We’re a team that’s fighting and scrapping and trying to get a win whenever there is an opportunity,” said Arkansas head coach Stan Heath.
The rebounding contest promises to be a key to winning the game for both teams.
“If we stop them from getting offensive rebounds and rebound like we can and play good defense, we win,” said sophomore guard Xavier Whipple.
Other than winning the rebounding war, Dupree believes the Tigers must come out and put the Razorbacks out of the game quickly.
“We need to beat this team early,” Dupree said.
LSU is currently tied for fourth place in the SEC West with rival Ole Miss. A few wins could easily propel the Tigers into a battle for first place. Only five games remain for LSU seniors to lead the team on a run and senior guard Collis Temple III feels that the Tigers are primed to win.
“It’s still wide-open, the West is real wild,” Temple said. “I think we’re about to come together because we’ve put ourselves in the position where we have to win to get into the postseason.”
With a limited number of games remaining, LSU is staring down the barrel of the possibility of not going to the postseason. Dupree feels it is imperative for the Tigers to win if they hope to go on a roll and increase their chances of a NCAA tournament birth. He also said that the seniors have to lead the team so they will finish their career on a high note.
“In order for us to get this streak going, we’re going to have to start Saturday,” Dupree said. “It’s time for the seniors to step it up and let it go our last five games of our career here. From my point of view, the seniors will definitely do that.”
With two days off this week and no mid-week game, the Tigers had all week to practice and prepare for Arkansas. The team rested Sunday and Tuesday while practicing the rest of the week. Temple feels confident about this week’s practice.
“We’ve had some good practice, and we’re looking forward to Saturday,” Temple said.
Whipple feels the team is going to concentrate on the game at hand and not succumb to the pressure of winning the game for possible postseason play.
“We’re just going to come out and play hard and see what happens,” Whipple said.
A large turnout by the students could make a big difference for the team according to Dupree, but they realize large crowds only turnout when the team is winning.
“We would be happy with 5,000, but nobody is talking about the crowd just winning the game,” Dupree said. “We will play just as hard if only two people are here.”