Preview: LSU Basketball Hoping Recent Defensive Improvements Are a Trend, Not an Outlier Against Arkansas

It's been nearly two months since LSU last played Arkansas and both teams have gone through a whirlwind of changes.

The Tigers used a 79-77 home win as a springboard for starting conference play 8-0 before dropping five of their next seven. Arkansas on the other hand, started SEC play 4-4 and then lost leading scorer Isaiah Joe to knee inflammation for three weeks, losing five straight and pretty much ruining its chances of an NCAA tournament bid.

However, since Joe's return to the lineup, the Razorbacks have won two of three contests with their leading guard averaging 23 points a game. LSU coach Will Wade says what makes Arkansas and Joe so tough this go around, is that the Razorbacks' guard is so fresh after just recently coming back from his injury.

"We played Arkansas on January 8, so it’s been almost two months since we played them. They have been up and down with Isaiah Joe out. I think having (Isaiah) Joe back, they obviously have been a lot better," Wade said. "He just looks like the freshest guy on the court; I know you don’t want to lose guys but he’s so fresh. Offensively, everybody knows what he brings with his shooting, but he really helps them out defensively with his energy."

With Joe's injury, it's allowed guard Mason Jones to ascend as he's playing some of his best basketball of the season. Jones leads the SEC in scoring at over 21 points a game, and most recently dropped 26 against Georgia and 38 against Tennessee.

Wade said Jones and senior Jimmy Whitt, who went for 22 against the Tigers back on Jan. 8, are two players outside of Joe that LSU will need to key in on defensively.

"You look at their team and Whitt is a prolific scorer from mid-range, Joe is a prolific shooter, Jones does it from anywhere so if all three of those guys go off you’ve got zero chance of beating them," Wade said.

It will be a huge test for an LSU team that was able to hold Texas A&M to its second lowest scoring output of conference play on Saturday. The Tigers held the Aggies to 50 points but the real challenge comes Wednesday on senior night in Fayetteville.

Wade said schematically Arkansas does a much better job at manipulating matchups and taking advantage of defensive rotations, which has been the main issue for the Tigers lapses on defense this season.

"It’s a much, much different (offense compared to Texas A&M). A&M is trying to feed that ball underneath to Nebo,” Wade said. “Arkansas won’t throw it in the post as many times in the whole game as A&M did in the first four minutes of the game. How they spread the court, how they drive us, we’ve got to do a great job of guarding without fouling. I’m really worried about going up there and getting in foul trouble and fouling."

In the team's last meeting, back-to-back three-point plays from freshman forward Trendon Watford ended up being the difference in what was one of the more exhilarating games of the season. In enemy territory, Wade said the most important key on the offensive side is ball security.

The Tigers coughed the ball up a season low four times against the Aggies and on senior night for the Razorbacks, it'll be important not to give the Arkansas faithful any extra ammunition.

"If you go in there and start turning it over, you know, Bud Walton (Arena) starts going wild, and they start calling the hogs, it can spiral really quick in a bad way," Wade said. "We’ve got to go in there and value the ball."

Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. Wednesday and can be seen on SEC Network.