LSU vs. KENTUCKY PREVIEW

After the second half meltdown against Alabama, Kentucky looks to rebound against LSU Saturday at 4 p.m. I'm not gonna waste my time talking about the Alabama game, everyone knows what happened and I'm sure had the same sinking feeling I had. 

LSU comes into the game with a 10-6 (1-4) record while the Cats have fallen to 12-6 (3-2) and in desperate need of wins and now. 

Kentucky and LSU have a long history with some great battles, but Kentucky holds a 82-24 record over the Tigers. One of the best games (if your a Kentucky fan) between these two is known as "The Mardi Gras Miracle", where in 1994 Kentucky overcame a 31 point deficit in the second half to win 99-95. There have been other great games between these two, but ask any Kentucky fan about LSU and I guarantee this game comes up in your conversation at some point. 

For those who don't know much about LSU, here's a quick look a the history of Louisiana State University....

EST: 1860

LOCATION: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NICKNAME: Fighting Tiger, Bayou Bengals (unofficially)

MASCOT: Mike The Tiger

COLORS: Purple/Gold

NOTABLE ALUMNI:

Hubert Humphrey (38th United States Vice President)

James Carvillei (Presidential campaign adviser to Bill Clinton/ CNN political correspondent)

Shaquille O'Neal (NBA)

Pete Maravich (you should know him if you know ANYTHING at all about basketball)

This is the point where I usually give my opinion on Kentucky's chance to pick up a W, but with their performance against The Tide, I'm gonna just get right into the numbers comparison and you can be the judge. 

                  LSU               UK

PPG:          72                  76

RPG:         40                  39

APG:         15                  15

SPG:          11                   7

BPG:            4                   8

TPG:          16                 13

FG%:         42                 48

FT%:          60                64

3P%:           33                36


There's a couple things that sticks out according to these numbers. First, with LSU averaging 11 steals per game and Kentucky averaging 13 turnovers, it goes without saying Kentucky has got to limit their turnovers. They cannot give it away as easily as they did Tuesday night and expect to win this one.

The other is three point shooting and limiting LSU's looks from beyond the arc. Sure "Pistol" Pete Maravich isn't suiting up Saturday, but if you're a Cat fan you know all to well how often an opposing player catches fire in Rupp Arena (Hello Mr. Elston Turner).


While the Cats will have to keep the Tigers' shooters in check, the other thing to watch for will be rebounding.  LSU's bigs do an amazing job  rebounding the ball and always seem to get easy put backs on the offensive end of things. Kentucky will have to have more people crash the boards other than Noel, the kid can't do it all, but he sure as hell tries to. Hopefully Willie Cauley-Stein will be able to provide Nerlens some help in the post given that he's healed enough to compete. 

With the loss to Alabama Tuesday night, every home game has now become a must win for the Cats. Any slip up's at home and an NCAA birth quickly fades. We will see if this team can find it within themselves to respond to the uncertainty that faces them going forward.


By the way, Duke lost and how did they respond? With Coach K committing what seems to be an NCAA violation by having his team practice from 1:45 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. when the rules clearly state that "athletic activity cannot take place between midnight and 5 a.m." You just know the NCAA will respond in the proper manner like they did in the UNC (academic scandal) and Miami (recruiting violations in football) debacles.