BATON ROUGE, La. – The last time LSU and Arkansas faced off on the hardwood, the Tigers edged the Razorbacks 79-77 thanks to two late Trendon Watford’s two late and-1’s at the PMAC. In the January win, Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe was just 4-13 from the field for 13 points, but after returning from a February knee surgery, the sophomore guard has averaged 23 points over the last three games.
“They’ve obviously been a lot better. He just looks like the freshest guy on the court. I know you never want to lose guys for extended periods of time, but he’s so fresh. Offensively, everybody knows what he brings with his shooting, but he really helps them out defensively too with his energy,” LSU head coach Will Wade said.
The Razorbacks defense forced LSU into 13 turnovers, while Arkansas only committed seven. Coach Wade highlighted the Tigers’ ball movement as an area of improvement they’ll need in order to perform better offensively on Wednesday.
“You got to keep the ball moving against them. I thought the ball was too stagnant the first time. You can’t turn the ball over. We did a great job of handling the ball against Texas A&M, and ball security’s going to be huge going in there. If you go in there and start turning it over, Bud Walton starts going wild. They start calling the hog. It can spiral.”
LSU’s bounce back win against the Aggies Saturday places them third in the SEC with an 11-5 conference record, and Coach Wade is feeling positive about his team as the regular season closes.
“I feel as good about our team as I have in about six weeks, today. Moving forward, I feel like we’re in a good place. I feel like we’re starting to play better. Feel like we’re starting to do some good things. You can feel it within our group…I’m hopeful that I’m not feeling indigestion or something,” Coach Wade said.
LSU and Arkansas tip-off at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday.