Mississippi State hosts LSU at Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday. Tip-off is at 5:30 EST and you can catch it on FSN. The Bulldogs are 5-4 against the Tigers over the last four years. They lost 69-67 the last time they played (2/14/2012).

Mississippi State is tied with LSU for 10th in the conference. Mississippi State is looking to recover from having lost five games in a row.

In their last outing, despite 14 points from Gavin Ware, the Bulldogs fell to Texas A&M 55-49 on January 30th. He leads the team in rebounds per game with 6.8 while also putting up 8.6 points per game. For the Tigers, Johnny O`Bryant III finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the 73-70 win over Missouri on January 30th. He is averaging 11.9 points per game and leads the team in rebounds with 8.3 per game.

LSU has a statistical edge over Mississippi State in two specific areas. One concern is assists, where the Tigers hold the advantage over the Bulldogs, 14 per game to nine per game. Additionally, LSU has an edge over Mississippi State in scoring, 72 points per game to 60 points per game.

LSU StatSmack

  • How does our back look? Mississippi State is ranked higher than LSU in the SEC (#8 vs #14).
  • We're so much better than you, we get lazy. Mississippi State has come back to win after being down at half against LSU 4 times since 1996.
  • LSU has to pay up to win. The coach for Mississippi State has a much lower base salary than LSU ($1,274,583 vs $1,500,000).
  • Fred Thomas is ranked 7th in the SEC in steals.
  • At least you keep showing up. Mississippi State has an average margin of victory of 9 over LSU in 37 wins since 1980.
  • Mississippi State has a better overall winning percentage over the last 20 years (62.38% to 52.99%).
  • You'll do better on next semester's exams, right? Mississippi State currently has a higher Academic Progress Rate (965 to 911) than LSU, per the NCAA.
  • Craig Sword is ranked 5th in the SEC in steals.
  • AP voters think more highly of Mississippi State and have put us in the AP Top 25 more often over the past 10 years than LSU (69 vs 37).
  • Mississippi State is a better free-throw-shooting team (67.6% vs 61.1%) than LSU this season.
  • Mississippi State is better under pressure, and has defeated LSU in 8 out of the last 13 games decided by 5 points or fewer.