LSU Basketball vs. Texas A&M Aggies Tipoff Time and TV Channel for SEC Opener

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Tigers open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday at Bryan-College Station as LSU faces Texas A&M at Reed Arena.

The game is set for 3 p.m. on ESPNU with Mike Morgan and Mark Wise on the call. The radio broadcast will be on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Guaranty Media flagship affiliate in Baton Rouge, Eagle 98.1 FM) with the “Voice of the Tigers” Chris Blair and former LSU head coach John Brady.

The Tigers are 12-1 on the year with four straight wins coming into the contest. It is the eighth time the Tigers have posted a record with no more than one loss since the start of the 1999-2000 season. LSU is coming into the game off a strong 90-62 home win over Southern Miss on Monday night.

Texas A&M is 10-3 on the season, coming off a 111-82 win over Prairie View, also on Monday night, at Reed Arena. Texas A&M scored 60 points in the first half of the win and the team was led in scoring by Rashaun Agee with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Marcus Hill added 16 points and Ruben Dominguez scored 14. Pop Isaacs added 13 and Josh Holloway 10.

“This Texas A&M team is really, really good,” said LSU Coach Matt McMahon in his Wednesday media session. “They average 96 points a game and some change offensively. They are really explosive there. On the defensive side of the ball, they turn you over at a high rate, as Coach (Bucky) McMillan’s teams have always done. They score a lot of points off their defense. (They have) an older, really experienced team.”

The Aggies have won three straight games and topped 100 points in all three – 112-75 over Jacksonville, 118-77 over East Texas A&M and the 111-82 win over Prairie View. Dominguez leads the team in scoring this season at 13.7 points, with Agee at 12.8 a contest. Hill puts it in at an average of 12.5 a game.

Coach McMillan is in his first year as head coach at Texas A&M. He was the head coach the past five seasons at Samford in Birmingham, taking the team to one NCAA and one NIT in time there.

“I do think you are looking at one of the top 10 fastest playing team in the country,” said Coach McMahon of A&M. “They are really explosive from the three-point line, one of the best shooting teams in the country, making almost 12 a game at 38 percent. Yet, if my match is correct, that’s only a third of the pints they score, so they (can) hurt you in a lot of other ways.

“I think Hill and Agree are really good inside the three-point arc. Hill is a combo guard and then Agee at the four and the five spot for them can really hurt you. And then, because of their ability to turn you over, their multitude of presses that they employ, they get some easy baskets off your turnovers. So ball security will be at a premium …”

The Tigers were led in the Southern Miss game by both point guard Dedan Thomas Jr., and inside starter Mike Nwoko. Both had 22 points in the game, the second straight game Thomas has scored in the 20s. He also had his third double figure assist game this season for the Tigers with 12.

Also, Pablo Thomas (15) and Marquel Sutton (11) had double figure rebounds for LSU as the Tigers shot over 51 percent for the game, the eighth time this year the Tigers posted over 50 percent shooting in the first 13 games.

Of non-conference play, Coach McMahon said he was “really pleased” with how this portion of the season has gone. “Considering 12 newcomers of our 14 (players), (I’ve) been very pleased with how quickly the group has come together and connected, not just on the court, but especially off. I think we adjusted fairly well to the major curve ball we took with the Jalen Reed unfortunate season ending injury. We’ve had a little time to make some of those adjustments.

“We had a couple bad halves that cost us in the non-conference, but overall to be at 12-1 … So we’ve got a lot of getting better to do, certainly, but all-in-all, (I’m) pleased with where we’re at as we enter league play.”

The Tigers will open SEC home play on Tuesday (Jan. 6) against South Carolina at 6 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

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