Veteran Vols against youthful Tigers

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First place in the Southeastern Conference will be on the line when LSU plays host to Tennessee at the PMAC on Saturday (11 a.m. Central/ESPN).

This game could have been a matchup of SEC co-leaders except the Tigers were beaten at home in overtime by Florida earlier this week. So, LSU must be happy to have simply a share of the conference lead if it can knock off the Vols.

Tennessee is certainly equipped for a big-game atmosphere. All five starters from last season’s Volunteers team which whipped the Tigers by 23 points are back. In addition, Tennessee returns its sixth man from the team which was SEC co-champion with Auburn.

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Meanwhile, LSU returns only two players from last season – Tremont Waters and Skylar Mays. In last year’s game at Tennessee, Waters and Mays were a combined 2-of-16 from the field, including 1-8 on 3-pointers. The Tigers’ talented newcomers will have quite a challenge going against the experienced Vols.

According to coach Will Wade, LSU’s players are very enthused about facing the Volunteers. He wished his team was in the same frame of mind against Florida.

“They’re all excited about this game,” Wade said. “But, all the games are important. The Florida game was important. The Arkansas game was important. Everybody’s all excited about this, but every single one of them is important.

“That’s why Tennessee is so mature. They don’t lose any games they’re not supposed to lose. The teams they are supposed to beat, they handle their business. Then, they’ll show up in the big games and see what happens. That’s when you have a top-five or top-ten team and that’s what they have.”

Wade acknowledged that his team is not in the same situation as the Volunteers. However, that’s usually the case when half of the players in your eight-man rotation are freshmen.

“We have a team that’s trying to get (where Tennessee is),” Wade said. “We are a team that gets excited for big games and one that doesn’t have any consistency when we play teams we should be able to beat.”

Five Tennessee players are averaging at least ten points per game. The unquestioned leaders are post player Grant Williams (19.1 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) and wing Admiral Schofield (16.5 points, 6.3 rebounds per game). Wade believes Jordan Bone (13.2 points, 6.5 assists per game) is the Vols’ catalyst.

“Their point guard (Bone) gets them going,” Wade said. “They’ve got everything you want. They can pound the paint and they’ve got efficient 3-point shooters. Obviously, Williams is the odds-on-favorite for Player of the Year in the league. Schofield is just an animal.”

Both LSU and Tennessee want to do their damage inside. It will be quite a challenge for the Tigers post players to be successful in the lane.

“The battle in the paint will be extremely important,” Wade said. “The only difference between their offense and our offense is that they shoot a little bit higher percentage from 3 and they don’t turn the ball over as much as we do.

“Tennessee gets the ball in the paint and that’s why they’re the third most efficient offense in the country. Being able to get in the paint and win the paint war is going to be a big part of the game.”        

After losing at home to Arkansas last month, the Tigers responded with their three best victories of the season – against Mississippi State, Auburn and Kentucky. Wade definitely wants a similar occurrence following the loss to Florida.

“We’ve been pretty good at adjusting when we’ve had to make adjustments,” Wade said. “Hopefully, we’ve made the right adjustments and we’ll be able to get into the game and execute. We’ve been sharper with our focus the last two days. Hopefully, that will also carry over to the court.”

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