LSU’s men’s basketball team will be looking to get off to a good start in more ways than one when it opens the Southeastern Conference play tonight at Missouri.

If it’s going to be a breakout season for Johnny Jones in his third year in charge, the Tigers probably need to avoid the sluggish opening of the conference schedule.

To do that, they’ve probably got to come out the gates better than they have. It’s been a sticking point, although LSU brings an eight-game winning streak into SEC play.

“We need to make sure that we come out with that edge that we need with being on the road,” Jones said. “ It’s going to be important to get off to a great start. You really don’t want to be playing from a big deficit out there on the road and allowing teams to have a great deal of confidence.”

The Tigers (11-2) could use a confidence boost, too. They’ve been 9-2 heading into conference the last two seasons but opened 1-2 in league play last year and 0-4 the previous season.

LSU finished 9-9 in the league both seasons, but more is expected out of this team now that Jones has put together consecutive years of nationally recognized recruiting classes.

Overall, however, Jones said was pleased with the nonconference portion of the schedule.

“We never really had a barometer of what our record would be,” he said. “I was hopeful that we would be able to continue to improve and get better each night. We knew that we had a tough schedule in front of us with the opponents that we were playing.”

LSU and Arkansas were tied for the second-best record in the SEC heading into conference play behind national No. 1 and unbeaten Kentucky.

Arkansas, the only other ranked team in the SEC at No. 23, opened conference with a win at Georgia Tuesday night.

Kentucky (14-0) found it might get more competition than most expected when the Wildcats were taken to the limit at home before beating Ole Miss in overtime Tuesday.

The Tigers can keep one odd streak alive tonight. They are unbeaten on the mainland, with both losses (to Old Dominion and Clemson) coming at the Paradise Jam played on the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The most impressive win was a 74-73 road victory against No. 14 West Virginia, the Mountaineers’ lone loss.

“I think they’ve continued to improve each week,” said Jones, who despite the talent influx has had to get a feel for a team with two true starters returning.

“We look forward to a very challenging conference schedule,” he said. “The 18 games — it’s going to be very important for us. We understand that the level of play, the intensity level, how it will raise and how much more competitive it will be night in and night out.

“To have fared the way that we have, especially with the consistency that we had over a period of time … the way we have played down the stretch in games with this young team, the inexperience that we’ve had. It was going to be interesting. I am really pleased at the efforts and where we sit right now, especially with the way we are playing.”

LSU is led by its M&M inside duo, 6-foot-9 Jordan Mickey (16.34 points per game, 10.3 rebounds per game) and 6-10 Jarell Martin (18.2 ppg, 8.9 rpg).

They’ve been dominant enough inside that Jones has asked well-traveled Lake Charles native Josh Gray to concentrate on distributing the ball more than scoring.

“He’s turned down scoring opportunities to make sure that our post guys got touches and finish in there,” Jones said. “That was great for us. Now we are about to get into situations … playing like-sized teams, and we may not be dominant inside. We may have to make sure that we are scoring from some other areas as well to loosen up some things. He has the ability to do that.”

Missouri is 6-7 under first-year head coach Kim Anderson but has played a more challenging schedule than LSU, including the likes of Arizona, Purdue, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Illinois.

(MGNonline)