John Aiken isn’t expecting any friends and family discount tonight in Baton Rouge.

The first-year McNeese State head basketball coach is taking his team to LSU, where good friend Will Wade and the 3-0 Tigers will be waiting.

Aiken and Wade go back years through the coaching ranks and tonight find one another on opposite benches for the first time.

“A great test for us, a great opportunity,” said Aiken, whose team is coming off its first win in three tries. “Will and I have been friends for years and I’m looking forward to seeing him again.”

But there is little hope his friend will take it easy on the Cowboys, as LSU has gotten out of the gate strong.

“They are the best team we are going to play,” Aiken said. “They are a team I think could end up as a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament; they are that good.”

McNeese is still learning under Aiken but is coming off a 116-66 win over Champion Christian on Monday. The Cowboys set a school record with 22 steals as all 11 players scored against the Association of Christian College Athletics school.

“They play extremely hard,” Wade said of McNeese. “They really get after it and use their defense to get into their offense. That will be a challenge.”

Darius Day leads the Tigers, averaging 24.3 points a game. He has hit on 64 percent (16-for-25) of his 3-point shots.

“Day is a problem,” Aiken acknowledged. “We are going to have to get out on him and not let him have the open looks. He will knock shots down.”

McNeese, which lost its first two games at Southern Methodist and Texas Christian, has gotten sold shooting from T.J. Moss and Harwin Francois, both of whom have hit 40 recent from beyond the 3-point arc. Moss, a transfer guard from South Carolina, will be asked to control the tempo against LSU.

“T.J. has played in the SEC and against LSU so he knows what to expect,” Aiken said. “They will try to stress you out so it is important we control our composure. T.J. can do that.”

Seven-foot-1 center Brendan Medley-Bacon, a transfer to McNeese, has Wade’s attention.

“The big kid is a problem,” Wade said. “He is good, he is huge and they play through him.”

Medley-Bacon leads McNeese in scoring at 13.7 a game. Myles Lewis is right behind at 11.7.

“We are not scared to play anybody,” Medley-Bacon said. “We want to go in there and give them our best shot. It’s tough because they are a good team, but we just want to play basketball.”

The Tigers have been down in the second half in each of their last two games, but have made big runs to put both Liberty and Texas State away down the stretch.

In its first three games combined, LSU has outscored opponents by 103 points, an average of 34.3.

“They are able to put runs on you so quick,” Aiken said. “You have to be ready for it, have to be in your game.

“The key is, can we manage the atmosphere and manage the environment?”