Trae Hannibal shares first impressions of Vanderbilt

Trae Hannibal and LSU are riding high after defeating Georgia in their first test at the SEC Tournament, but now the Vanderbilt Commodores loom large.

On Wednesday, the Tigers defeated the Bulldogs by a score of 72-67. Hannibal scored 14 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and was enthusiastic as anyone about forgetting about all that and moving onto Thursday. The Commodores will be a tough task, as Hannibal recognized, sharing his first impressions of Vanderbilt with the media afterwards.

“Vanderbilt’s a tough team,” stated Hannibal. “They’re well-coached. They really play hard. Like tonight’s game is over-with. We’ve got to put it behind us. Our main focus now is on Vanderbilt.

“Going out there, 40 more minutes. Give it our all. Stick to the game-plan. I think we’ll be fine.”

Moreover, LSU had been on a tremendous losing streak before last night’s game, only winning one showdown since Jan. 3 before the victory over Georgia. Coincidentally, that win came against the Commodores, who the Tigers defeated 84-77 on Feb. 22.

During that showdown, it was forward KJ Williams leading the charge with 35 points, desperate to put an end to his team’s losing streak. As for the aforementioned Hannibal, he scored just three points in 22 minutes off the bench in that contest, but he’ll be hoping to make his presence felt on Thursday.

The Commodores will enter the showdown on a three-game winning streak, hoping to make a little run at the SEC title in the next week. It’ll all start for them with the Tigers, who they’ll be hoping to avenge their earlier loss to.

It’ll all commence on Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network. The Commodores are a four-point favorite over the Tigers, but we’ve seen that not matter over the course of conference tournaments around the nation. Time will tell, but both teams want this victory bad.