Eager for rematch with LSU

Published 7:00 pm Saturday, February 3, 2018

Arkansas will present several challenges for LSU today, but the hardest thing for the Tigers to guard against may be the chip on the Razorbacks’ shoulder.

“I don’t think we’ll catch them sleeping,” LSU head coach Will Wade said.

That may have been the case on Jan. 10 when the Tigers waltzed into Bud Walton Arena and devoured the Hogs 75-54.

At the time, Wade made a rare admission for a head coach when he said “I thought we played about as well as we could play. 

“We just came in here hoping to hang around, keep it close and give ourselves an opportunity there at the end … it was our night tonight.”

It’s been arguably the highlight of the Tigers’ season.

The Razorbacks … not so much.

It’s Arkansas’ lone home loss and the Razorbacks (15-7, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) are 4-2 since.

“We just played so bad,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson remembered before heading to Baton Rouge. “That’s got to be the first thing on our guys’ minds. We were flat. They came out and went up 20 points in the first half.”

“We just caught them on an off night the first time we played them,” Wade said.

It was a second consecutive road win for the Tigers, who improved to 2-1 in the league.

But since then LSU (12-9, 3-6) seems to have hit the wall, going 1-5 in the tough SEC.

Most losses were close.

But the last two games, both on the road, LSU lost 95-70 to then-No. 19 Auburn last week and 84-61 to No. 18 Tennessee on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to play more physical than we did at Tennessee on Wednesday night,” Wade said. “Our biggest weak spot is our rebounding and our lack of physicality. Our second biggest issue is our 3-point defense.”

The Tigers have been outrebounded by 24 over those last two games, while Auburn opened its game against LSU canning its first seven shots, including five consecutive 3 pointers.

For the game Auburn 14 of 32 from 3-point range while Tennessee was 12 of 25.

On the other hand, LSU was 7-for-37 combined over the two losses and, according to Wade, is shooting 25 percent from out yonder in SEC play (34.3 overall).

“You have to make open shots,” he said. “You want to play in the SEC, you’ve got to be able to stick open shots.”

Arkansas certainly hopes those struggles continue.

“The kind of took it to us … beat us in all phases,” Anderson said of the first meeting. “We’re looking forward to putting on a better showing. They were a much better team than we were at that time.”