KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 6 LSU (17-0, 2-0 SEC) will face a road test at No. 16 Tennessee (13-1, 1-1 SEC) at 5:30 p.m. CT in Thompson-Boling Arena.
With the College Football Playoff in action Thursday, the LSU-Tennessee game will only be streamed on the SEC Network+. Patrick Wright and Shaeeta Williams will call the action on the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Thursday will mark LSU’s first road game against a ranked team this season. Tennessee suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday at home against No. 9 Oklahoma. The Lady Vols trailed the Sooners by 16 going into the final quarter and nearly came back, but fell one point short. LSU is now one of five remaining unbeaten teams across the country and the Tigers own the nation’s longest win streak.
“Every game matters, but every game is not make or break,” Coach Kim Mulkey said about the SEC slate. “Here’s what you do; you win the games you’re supposed to win. You beat somebody you’re not supposed to beat; you shock them. And then you take care of business at home. If you do those things, you’re going to be one of the teams to host (NCAA Tournament games).”
Aneesah Morrow enters Thursday’s game 14 points shy of 2,500 in her career. She is 33 rebounds shy of 1,500 in her career. In NCAA DI history there have only been six players to reach both 2,500 points and 1,500 rebounds in their career. Morrow’s 15 double-doubles and 14.0 rebounds per game lead the nation.
Kim Caldwell has brought a new style of play in her first season as Tennessee’s head coach. The Lady Vols identity so far under Caldwell has been fast paced with heavy pressing and shooting a lot of threes. Their high-octane press has allowed the Lady Vols to rank No. 2 in the country with a +12.6 turnover margin; they lead the country forcing 27.6 turnovers per game.
“You cannot turn the ball over against their press,” Coach Mulkey said. “It’s more of a run and jump press with a lot of length coming at you and quickness. You can’t turn the ball over and you have to really, really work hard to keep them off the offensive boards.”
Tennessee’s fast pace has allowed them to lead the country scoring 97.3 points per game. LSU sits close behind at No. 3 nationally with 91.7 points per game. Tennessee also leads the country with 20.9 offensive rebounds per game and LSU is close behind in the top-10 at 17.4.
“The style of play is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Coach Mulkey said. “They score a lot of points and they make you play fast with their press. It’s going to be quite a challenge to keep them from scoring in the nineties. We score a lot of points too.
“I’ve got to stress defense. At some point we’ve got to try to stop them from scoring as much as they’d like to score.”
Defensively, LSU owns the best mark in the conference holding opponents to shoot 33.8-percent from the field while Tennessee’s 44.5-percent field goal defense ranks last in the conference.
With Tennessee’s press comes a lot of opportunities to score on the other end when a team beats the full court pressure. Tennessee has allowed 67.4 points per game which ranks No. 15 in the SEC. In the Lady Vols’ first loss of the season Sunday against Oklahoma, Tennessee forced 31 turnovers and surrendered 48 points in the paint.
The Lady Vols also take a lot of three pointers. Tennessee has taken 93 more three pointers than any other team in the SEC despite playing the fewest games. They make a nation-leading 12 threes per game on a nation-leading 37 attempts per game.
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