BATON ROUGE, La. — It's the place ex-Jazzman Pete Maravich made famous with his 44-point-per-game average in the early 1970s. It's where Shaquille O'Neal used to terrorize college opponents much as he does in the NBA today. It's the school where former Utah State assistant Dale Brown became a legendary coach, winning 448 games in a 25-year career.
Welcome to LSU basketball.
The University of Utah also has its own strong basketball tradition, but during its 95-year history, it has never played LSU.
That will change tonight as the 6-2 Utes play the 4-0 Tigers at 7 p.m. MST at the 14,164-seat Maravich Assembly Center. The game will be carried live on ESPN-TV.
Utah coach Rick Majerus and his players are anxious to show what their team is really about after getting embarrassed the last two times the Utes were on national TV in
their losses to Texas Tech and Connecticut in the Preseason NIT.
They also know LSU isn't another San Diego or Savannah State, which the Utes have beaten by 43 and 48 points in the past 10 days.
"I know we are going to play a very good team," Majerus said. "They're undefeated, they've had a couple of terrific recruiting classes and have an all-SEC player in (Jaime) Lloreda."
The 6-foot-9, 245-pound Lloreda is a former JC Player of the Year for Dixie College who is one of the nation's leaders, averaging 26.3 points and 12.7 rebounds per game. Other starters include 6-5 guard Antonio Hudson (13.3 ppg), forward 6-8 forward Brandon Bass (12.3 ppg), 6-9 Regis Koundjia (7.3 ppg), 6-2 guard Xavier Whipple (6.5 ppg).
Bass and Koundjia are both freshmen who are part of a recruiting class ranked in the top five in the country.
The Tigers haven't even played a game since Nov. 29 when they beat Louisiana-Monroe 96-65, and the Utes will be their first major opponent of the season. Every year the Tigers take a couple of weeks off for final exams in early December. While the Tigers may be a bit stale with so much time off, the Utes had better beware. Last year in their first game back following a big layoff, they knocked off No. 1 Arizona.
On Saturday, the Tigers even held a full 45-minute scrimmage complete with officials. LSU coach John Brady said the time off has been good.
"We've had time to work on specific things we need to work on," said Brady. "We've put in some new plays, and we've worked on our conditioning. We've run a lot after practice and played a lot of five-on-five. At the same time, because of our young players, it's not an ideal situation to have not played in awhile because we were improving."
GAME NOTES: After tonight's game, the Utes return home to play Cal State Northridge Friday night at the Huntsman Center . . . The Utes have allowed just 42 points per game over the past three games . . . Josh Maravich, a 6-3 sophomore walk-on for LSU, is the son of Pete Maravich but rarely plays . . . Three players — Tim Bush, Mildon Ambres and Tony Gipson — have quit the LSU team this year . . . The Tigers are one of just 22 Division I teams still undefeated . . . Next year the Tigers will play in Salt Lake City in the second half of the home-and-home series . . . The first college postseason bowl game will be tonight just down the road: North Texas meets Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl at the Superdome.
Utes on TV
Utah (6-2) vs. LSU (4-0)
Tonight at 7 MST
Maravich Assembly Center (14,164)
TV: ESPN
Radio: KALL 700 AM
E-MAIL: sor@desnews.com