Martin to return from suspension

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 6, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:45 a.m.

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Today marks the end of what turned out to be a four-game suspension for LSU senior guard Terry Martin. It’s not clear how much playing time the 6-foot-6 senior will receive.

LSU went 4-0 without him, including its signature win of the season so far, over Washington State at home.

LSU coach Trent Johnson and Utah coach Jim Boylen go back a few years and their friendship led to the current home-and-home series that continues with a game scheduled for next season in Baton Rouge.

Boylen was an assistant coach in the early 1990s with the Houston Rockets while Johnson was also in the Bayou City as an assistant coach for Willis Wilson at Rice.

“That’s where I met Trent and we built a relationship from there,” Boylen said. “We actually have had some cookouts together and I have met his family. He’s a good, solid guy and a heckuva coach and he’s become a friend.”

That friendship led to a meeting at an AAU tournament last spring where the old friends talked about playing a home-and-home series. A week later, it was done.

“Next year, we go (to Baton Rouge) and hopefully we can keep the series going after that.”

The game will be available locally only to subscribers of DirecTV, which will have the game on the Mountain West Conference’s TV network.

LSU’s first road trip of the season covers two time zones. After today’s game, the Tigers will go to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for Sunday’s SEC opener against the Crimson Tide. It will be the seventh time in eight seasons that LSU opened SEC play on the road.

Releasing “The Hounds”