LSU @ Tennessee

Who will WIN this matchup?

LSU Tigers (8-4)

@ Tennessee Volunteers (8-4)

Current odds:

LSU Tigers: (-110)

Tennessee Volunteers: (-110)

• The line for this game is even.

Tennessee continues life without Lamonte Turner when it hosts LSU on Saturday in the SEC opener for both teams. Turner, who was averaging 7.1 assists, announced after the Volunteers’ 75-53 victory over Jacksonville State on Dec. 21 that he would not play the rest of the season because of a lingering shoulder injury and Tennessee lost to Wisconsin 68-48 on Dec. 28 in the first game without their star point guard. “We didn’t know he was going to do what he did,” Volunteers coach Rick Barnes told reporters, “but he did what he felt at that point and time he needed to do, so with that, we’re going to support him with whatever he has to do going forward.”

• Tennessee has lost three of its last four games while the Tigers snapped a two-game slide with a 74-57 victory over Liberty on Sunday. LSU coach Will Wade has been encouraged by the play of freshman forward Trendon Watford, who’s averaged 13 points and 9.0 rebounds in his last two games. “He’s playing harder,” Wade told the media. “He’s got a nose for the ball. … He’s coming on and now we’ve got to keep him consistent and keep him hungry and keep him urgent and keep him moving along the same path. He’s certainly coming into his own and is playing quite a bit better.”

• Senior guard Skylar Mays averages a team-best 15.8 points but has reached that number only once in the last seven games, and shoots 51.9 percent from the field and 86.7 from the free throw line. Sophomore forwards Emmitt Williams (13.9 points, 7.5 rebounds) and Darius Days (13.2, 7.8) pace the club in rebounding despite combining for only nine versus Liberty. Watford (12.6 points) and sophomore guard Javonte Smart (10.2) are the other double-figure scorers while Smart averages a team-most 5.2 assists.

• Freshman guard Davonte Gaines made his first career start against Wisconsin and recorded six points, two steals and one assist in 26 minutes. Junior forward John Fulkerson averages 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds and shoots better from the floor (68.3 percent) than the free throw line (67.5). Yves Pons, a 6-6 junior guard, averages 11.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, and has blocked at least one shot in every game this season.

• Three of LSU’s losses have been by two points.

• Tennessee, which was eighth nationally entering Friday in fewest points allowed at 58.1 per game, has won 17 straight SEC contests at home.

• LSU has won three of the last four meetings, including an 82-80 overtime victory last season behind a career-high 29 points from Smart.