With LSU basketball and Georgia currently on opposite ends of the SEC standings, the Tigers are a home favorite Wednesday night over a one win Bulldog team that has lost three straight.
LSU (14-3, 4-0) is currently on a seven game win streak and is ranked in the top-25 for the second time this season after a road win over Ole Miss and a decisive 89-67 win over South Carolina. With a bottom of the pack SEC team coming to the PMAC, where LSU has won 17 straight, it could conceivably be hard to wake up for one-win Georgia.
Wrong.
Coach Will Wade and the players have all the motivation they need as LSU has not defeated the Bulldogs in its last three attempts, something Wade said the players are well aware of.
"We don’t have anybody in that locker room that’s beaten Georgia," Wade said. "We didn’t beat them two years ago. We got blasted at their place last year. We lost here. We are 0-3 against Georgia. If you can’t get excited to beat Georgia – that should be motivation. They have a lot of guys in their locker room that have beaten the hell out of LSU a few times."
The Bulldogs have one of the larger front-courts in the league with their three, four and five men standing at 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-11. The challenge, Wade said, will be to keep the long, athletic bigs off of the boards, alluding to last year with Georgia out-rebounding LSU 38-27.
One aspect that's easy to overlook is the preparation for a game and Wade said through four SEC matchups, the scouting department has done some phenomenal work including junior Marshall Graves, sophomore Will Reese and red-shirt players Courtese Cooper and Aundre Hyatt.
These are guys who don't see the floor very often, or at all in the cases of Cooper and Hyatt, but their contributions in the film room and the practices doesn't go unnoticed.
"Those guys understand what it takes to help our team prepare," Wade said. "Those scout team guys have done a phenomenal job. I said that in front of our team the other day. I thought they got us ready to go against Arkansas. They had us as prepared as we could have been for Arkansas, including Coop looking like (Daniel) Gafford in practice."
Wade said the team had an extremely difficult time guarding Cooper in the practices leading up to the Arkansas game and the players echoed those sentiments.
Senior big man Kavell Bigby-Williams, who sat out last year after transferring from Oregon, knows exactly how it feels to sit and watch the team play in games, knowing there's nothing he can do out on the floor. Bigby-Williams said in the off year, he was able to develop his IQ for the game while making not only himself but his teammates better.
"I looked at it as practice was my game," Bigby-Williams said. "Practice is a time where you can work on your game and show what you can do. I was able to go against some good post players in Duop (Reath) and Aaron (Epps) and made myself better while also making them better."
Bigby-Williams' hard work paid off in the off year as he most recently won Conference Player of the Week after averaging 13.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and three blocks per game in the two wins over Ole Miss and South Carolina last week.
Freshman forward Naz Reid said it's like playing against another SEC team in practice and believes Cooper and Hyatt have bright futures with the program.
"They prepare us so well," Reid said. "They compete and come ready to play. I couldn't be more thankful to them. The sky is the limit for them. Aundre can handle the ball, shoot the ball really well and Courtese has length, can shoot, dunk and rebound. They have something coming next year where it could be scary."
