Preview: LSU Basketball Faces Stiffest Matchup to Date With No. 18 Alabama Coming to Town
Before every season, Will Wade breaks down the SEC schedule into thirds. It's the way he's always broken the schedule down but there's no doubt that LSU enters it's most difficult stretch of basketball over the next three weeks.
The Tigers have two games scheduled with No. 18 Alabama, a road game at Kentucky, a non-conference game with No. 12 Texas Tech and a road game with Texas A&M. It's a five game stretch that will tell a lot about where this LSU team will finish in the conferece but coach Will Wade doesn't like to think of it that way.
"No matter how the Alabama game goes, the next game is really important to. If you lose it, you gotta bounce back and don’t wanna lose two in a row so that makes it an incredibly important game," Wade said. "The whole thing is you want to play in important games and that’s why you come to this level, it’s why you come to LSU and Tuesday night’s an important game."
LSU (10-2, 5-1) will start its difficult five game stretch by welcoming the Crimson Tide to the PMAC on Tuesday night, a team that Wade said is playing some of the best basketball in the country. In the latest AP top 25, Alabama was ranked No. 18 in the country after a 6-0 start to SEC play, the first time the Crimson Tide have been ranked in the top 25 since the 2007 season.
Alabama features one of the better offenses in the country because of its ability to get out in transition and it's offensive rebounding is among the tops in the conference. Wade pointed to transition defense, not turning the ball over and defensive rebounding as the three areas LSU will need to be better at if it hopes to end the Crimson Tide's undefeated streak through conference play.
"We’re gonna have to get back in transition defense, they’re so good. Auburn took the lead on them twice and before the scoreboard operator could flip the score, Alabama went out and got an and one both times," Wade said. "We’ve got to get back in transition defense, we’ve got to get into our style of play."
Alabama returns a veteran unit led by sharpshooter John Petty and big man Herb Jones, who have both given the Tigers fits in recent years. Petty just recently broke the program's all time three-point record while Jones is top 10 in the conference in rebounding.
The Crimson Tide have taken a league high 417 three pointers and are shooting it at a 40% clip in SEC play alone so on-ball defense and perimeter rotations will need to be sound if LSU wants to keep this one close.
"They’re playing as well as anybody in the country. They’re playing phenomenal basketball, shooting the ball really well, shooting the ball 40% from three in league play," Wade said. "They’ve got tremendous talent, a tremendous team and it’ll be a very stiff test for us. Our defense will have to be better, our offense will have to be crisper and we can’t turn the ball over as much."
Tip-off between the Tigers and Crimson Tide is scheduled for 8 p.m and will be aired on ESPN2.
