The final match-up in the opening round of the 2011 SEC Basketball Tournament, whose complete bracket you can see right here, is a match-up between LSU and Vanderbilt. On paper, this game could be the most lopsided match-up of the first round pitting the Commodores who are a twenty win team against an LSU club that has just three conference wins this season.
Of course these sorts of things aren't played out on paper and Vanderbilt comes into the tournament losing three of its last four games. Those three losses were to three of the better teams in the SEC in Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The only win for the Commodores in that four game stretch was a 90-69 victory over these same LSU Tigers that they will face on Thursday. Vanderbilt finished as the third seed in the East and is led by the SEC's leading scorer John Jenkins who is averaging 19.4 points per game this season.
It has been a lost season in Baton Rouge for LSU coach Trent Johnson. His Tigers at one point lost ten consecutive conference games and finished with just one win in LSU's last 14 games. The Tigers are led by All-SEC freshman guard Ralston Turner who averaged 12.8 points per game in his first season in the bayou.
Tip off for this game is scheduled for 10 p.m.