LSU starters putting in plenty of minutes

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 2, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:30 a.m.

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LSU has used the same starting five all season and the lineup of Tasmin Mitchell, Chris Johnson, Bo Spencer, Marcus Thornton and Garrett Temple is starting to log a lot of minutes.

In the Tigers’ 79-69 win over Arkansas Saturday, the Razorbacks bench played 53 minutes to 30 for LSU’s bench. That’s been the case throughout SEC play. In all six of its SEC games, the Tigers’ opponents have had the bench in the game longer than the Tigers’ bench. In SEC games, LSU opponents have logged in 343 minutes off their benches to 246 for LSU.

With its win Saturday, LSU (17-4, 5-1) moved into first place in the SEC for the first time since its last Final Four season, 2006. That team went 14-2 in conference play.

The Tigers entered Saturday one of four SEC teams with one conference loss. But Kentucky and Florida, both who had a half-game lead over LSU because they had played one more game than the Tigers entering the day, both lost, as did Mississippi State, which was tied with LSU atop the Western Division.

LSU is 15-1 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which has sold out for the last two games. There were only a little more than 10,000 fans actually in attendance, however. LSU uses tickets sold for its attendance figures, not the number of people actually in the arena.

Coaches from both teams wore sneakers, the symbolic gesture coaches use on the Coaches vs. Cancer Awareness Day. The officiating crew used pink whistles. … For the occasion, LSU coach Trent Johnson and his staff left their suits in the closet and instead wore purple LSU golf shirts. … All season, LSU has been designating honorary captains for its games. For the Centennial Game, it picked the family of Pete Maravich and Bob Pettit. Maravich and Pettit are two of the three Tigers on the NBA’s list of the top 50 players of the leagues first 50 years. … The Razorbacks and Tigers will rematch Feb. 18 at Fayetteville, Ark. … Bo Spencer has hit 3-pointers in 12 straight games for LSU.