The Pinkie Previews: Kentucky (21-1, 6-1) at LSU (9-12, 0-8)

The Wildcats go on the road on Saturday to face the LSU Tigers who have yet to win a game in league play. The Tigers are a long way away from where they were last season, when they ended any chance of Kentucky making the NCAA Tournament by defeating them in the second round of the SEC tournament.

They lost Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple, and Chris Johnson from last year’s SEC Championship team and Trent Johnson was left with Tasmin Mitchell and a bunch of underclassmen. Needless to say the Tigers are struggling as they enter the UK game with only nine wins on the season. They have also lost ten strait regular-season conference games.

Of their eight league losses, only two have been by five points or less, including their loss on Thursday night to Tennessee, 59-54. In league play they are being outscored by an average of 12 points-per-game, shooting only 38-percent from the field and 24-percent from deep, and have only 80 assists to 104 turnovers.

Everything they do revolves around the play of senior Tasmin Mitchell. The 6’9″ forward, who seems like he has been at LSU forever, leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 17.6 points and 9.9 rebounds. He has ten double-doubles on the season and has scored in double figures in all but three games. Four of his double-doubles have come in the last five games.

Mitchell has a combo-forward skill set and is a very efficient scorer, shooting 47-percent from the field. Last season, when he was surrounded by help, he shot 52-percent from two and 53-percent from deep. He has a good frame, solid quickness and over the last couple of seasons has developed a face-up game. The senior can score the basketball in multiple ways, but is most comfortable operating from the post with turnaround jumpers and slashes to the basket. He has the ability to pull up and shoot from mid-range as well.

The problem hasn’t been Mitchell, it has been finding someone to step up and give him some help. The Tigers only have two other players averaging double figures in Bo Spencer, at 15.0, and Storm Warren, at 12.4. Their next leading scorer is Dennis Harris, who averages an unimpressive 4.3 points-per-game. It’s hard to win basketball games in the SEC when you have only three legitimate scoring threats.

One of the reasons why the Tigers competed with the Vols on Thursday was the play of the 6’1″ junior guard Spencer. He finished the game with 25 points and connected on four three-pointers. However, it did take him 19 shots to put up 25 points. Before his outburst against Tennessee he was struggling, scoring in double figures only twice in five games, shooting 18-for-63 during the span.

Jacking it up from three-point range is nothing new for Spencer as he has put up 144 shots from deep this season. Despite his propensity to throw it up, he is shooting only 29-percent from beyond the arc.

Warren, a 6’7″, 220-pound sophomore, started off the season with a jolt of energy. He scored in double figures in each of the first ten games, while also recording seven double-doubles. It has been a different story in league play as he has scored in double figures only three times and has recorded only one double-digit rebounding game. In his last two games he has seven points and four rebounds combined.

He does most of his damage underneath and has an impressive shooting percentage at 56-percent. He is also averaging 7.7 rebounds on the season.

Not to be too blunt about it, but the Tigers have less than a 2-percent chance of upsetting the #3 Wildcats on Saturday. They lack the shooting, the depth and the size underneath necessary to compete.

As a side note, remember when the ‘Cats and Stevie Johnson upset the #1 LSU Tigers at Commonwealth. It makes me smile.

Kentucky 84, LSU 62