• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 27, 2009 - UPDATED: 7:02 a.m.

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When LSU boards the plane to fly to Kentucky today, Garrett Temple will be on board, healthy and ready to play Saturday against the Wildcats.

LSU officials moved quickly Thursday night to dispel an Internet rumor that Temple had broken his jaw at Thursday’s practice and wouldn’t play Saturday. According to LSU spokesman Kent Lowe, the rumor was not true.

“He bumped heads with a teammate at practice,” Lowe said. “He had minor swelling under his left eye and not a broken jaw. But he’ll practice at 7 in the morning (today) and he’ll be on the plane and he’ll play.”

Temple has started in all 28 of LSU’s games and he is averaging 7.4 points per game. Temple, often noted for his defense, is coming off a career-high 21 points in Tuesday’s 81-75 win over Florida.

Not head-to-head

LSU and Kentucky have the Southeastern Conference’s most noted duos in Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson of Kentucky and Marcus Thornton and Tasmin Mitchell of LSU.

Meeks, who leads the SEC in scoring at 25.1 points per game, is the Wildcats’ outside threat while Patterson, at 18.3 ppg and 9.1 rebounds per game, is the inside guy.

For LSU, Thornton is the outside scorer at 20.9 ppg and Mitchell averages 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds a night.

But there’s a problem with those head-to-head matchups. They won’t be head-to-head, at least when Kentucky has the ball.

Meeks will be guarded by Temple (“Our best defender,” Thornton calls him) while Chris Johnson, who is second in the SEC in blocked shots, will get the initial assignment on Patterson, LSU coach Trent Johnson said.

Back to the ‘80s

LSU’s last win at Rupp Arena came on Jan. 14, 1989, 64-62.

Lately, the Wildcats have owned LSU. UK leads the series 78-22 and has won 18 of the last 20 meetings.