With Kentucky basketball set to take on LSU in its first true road game of the 2017-18 season here are 10 things to know about Will Wade's Tigers in his first year as the head coach in Baton Rouge.

LSU's been pretty good at the Maravich Center.

If you're wondering how Kentucky will fare in its first true road game, all bets are off. We'll find out soon enough. But we know LSU has been pretty good at home in games played at the Maravich Center this year. LSU is 9-3 overall and that record has largely been padded by a 7-1 home record. While the Tigers lost neutral site games against Marquette and Notre Dame, their only home blemish was a 1-point defeat at the hands of Stephen F. Austin in the middle of last month. Then again, the home schedule has been a cakewalk thus far.

Offense has carried the Tigers thus far.

LSU's defense was anemic in the Johnny Jones era and Will Wade has obviously needed to improve that, but so far it's been offense that has carried the day for LSU. The Tigers are 25th in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency ratings. LSU is fourth in the country shooting 51.5-percent from the floor and they're knocking down 38-percent of their long range shots in '17-18 so far. LSU's 84.7 points per game ranks 21st nationally. This will be the third time Kentucky has faced a top 25 scoring team this season (Virginia Tech 8th, Kansas 15th).

Cats must slow down Tremont Waters.

LSU has leaned heavily on the offensive production of freshman guard Tremont Waters so far this year. He's easily the Tigers leading scorer at better than 17 points per game. Waters has been one of the best freshman guards in the Southeastern Conference. He's knocking down 45-percent of his three-point attempts, is shooting close to 50-percent from the field overall and is dishing out more than six assists per game. Waters has been playing some of his best basketball recently with 18 assists over his last two games. He can be turnover prone at times however. Waters had one of his worst games of the season against Notre Dame but dropped in 39 against Marquette.

He's got the green light.

So long as Waters is making three-pointers, Will Wade isn't going to tell him to tap the brakes. While Oklahoma freshman guard Trae Young is getting all the national attention for his impressive range, and rightfully so, Waters is "is as good of a contested shooter as there is in the country, and the numbers bear that out. He makes almost 40 percent of his contested shots," Wade pointed out this week.

That means Waters will test Kentucky's perimeter defense in a way few other players have this year. The Wildcats did show signs of improving their three-point defense against Louisville and Virginia Tech but this could be a new challenge.

Waters is surrounded by a more experienced supporting cast.

While ultra-young college basketball teams are more common they were in previous eras, LSU's star freshman is surrounded by experience rather than more youth. Senior forwards Duop Reath and Aaron Epps, junior guard Brandon Sampson, sophomore forward Wayde Sims and sophomore guard Skylar Mays all have extensive game experience and are LSU's biggest contributors by minutes and across the board production after Waters.

The Tigers were embarrassed by Notre Dame.

While there have been clear improvements and signs of life early in the Wade era it's impossible to escape the fact that the Tigers lost to the best team on its schedule, Notre Dame, 92-53 in embarrassing fashion. It was a perfect storm for a blowout with the Irish knocking down 15 three-pointers and carving up LSU's defense. In that Maui Invitational game, LSU had its worst offensive game of the year as well. On the very next day LSU lost to Marquette by 10 with the Golden Eagles shooting a scorching 58-percent from the field. Marquette was 31-35 from the line in that game. LSU didn't stop the bleeding until returning to Baton Rouge and facing much lesser competition.

"Know your role," Wade emphasizes.

First-year Tiger coach Will Wade is emphasizing that his LSU players have to know their role and not play beyond that role, especially against a talented team like Kentucky. "All we need you to do is do your job. Do it completely and stick with our plan," Wade said this week.

Defense still struggling.

As good as LSU's offense has been, the defense has been just as bad. The Tigers rank 215th in defensive efficiency according to KenPom. The Tigers' 73.4 points per game allowed doesn't look too horrific but in context it's a bad number because they aren't playing at a very fast pace and opponents are shooting 44-percent overall and 35-percent from long range. They aren't especially good at forcing turnovers (13.9/gm), they foul quite a bit (top one-third of NCAA in that category) and they block fewer than four shots per game. The one defensive category where LSU does excel is steals. They rank in the Top 25 in that category.

A tale of two ends of the court on the glass.

LSU is one of the nation's best offensive rebounding teams, ripping down an impressive 35.6-percent of its own misses (14th in NCAA). But they rank 270th in defensive rebounding percentage. When you consider how many offensive boards the Tigers are grabbing and how few shots they're missing, it's easy to understand why they rank so high in offensive categories. There's no one player on LSU's team that dominates the glass so it has been a group effort on the offensive end. But the Tigers have struggled mightily to clean up the defensive glass.

LSU is still largely an unknown.

While it's easy to point to improvements after last year's 2-16 SEC debacle, it's worth remembering that LSU is still largely an unknown. They have feasted on poor competition and struggled against most of the better teams on its schedule. This is still a team with serious deficiencies defensively, and they have not faced many teams with the length or defensive prowess of Kentucky, which can throw their offensive plays for a loop. LSU ranks 94th in the current RPI rankings in part because they own the 273rd non-conference schedule by the same metric. They have not faced any top 25 teams though it is worth noting that Michigan and Houston, two teams LSU defeated narrowly, are ranked in the top 50.