BATON ROUGE — After six weeks and 12 wins, the LSU men’s basketball team received its first national ranking since 1993 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, coming in at No. 21 and joining four other Southeastern Conference teams.
The Tigers vaulted into the rankings this week after last Thursday’s 63-53 victory over then-11th ranked Oklahoma State. The Cowboys, which lost its first game of the season to the Tigers, fell to No. 16, the biggest drop in this week’s poll.
LSU remains unranked in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ poll, receiving 55 votes for the Top 25 that was released Sunday.
The Tigers are joined by No. 4 Auburn, No. 6 Florida, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 25 Kentucky, as SEC schools that are ranked.
After Marshall lost to Eastern Michigan last night, 66-57, the number of undefeated teams in Division I fell from four to three. LSU (12-0) is joined No. 1 Stanford (12-0) and No. 7 Syracuse (9-0) as teams with no losses entering Monday evening’s competition.
LSU takes on Alabama Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in the opening game of the Southeastern Conference season.
Tickets for the game are available at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office which will be open both Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The ticket windows at the Assembly Center will open Wednesday at 5 p.m., a half-hour earlier than normal for LSU home games. All tickets are $10 for the game.
Because of the heavy walk up crowd expected for the game on Wednesday, fans are being urged to purchase their tickets prior to coming to the arena for the game. Tickets may be ordered through the LSU Athletic Ticket Office at 225-388-2184.
Although there is no television for the game, members of The Official Site of LSU Athletics, LSUsports.net, can watch the action and listen to the “Voice of the Tigers”, Jim Hawthorne, live beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Live statistics from the game with be available beginning at 7 p.m.
Also on Monday, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association announced that guard Lamont Roland was named this week’s Louisiana College Basketball Player of the Week for his efforts against Oklahoma State.
Roland had a career-high 22 points against OSU, including 17 in the second half. He sank 8-of-11 shots, including 5-of-7 from three-point range. He scored nine of LSU’s last 11 points to preserve the victory by the undefeated Tigers.
LSU will also play at home on Saturday at the Assembly Center against Tennessee at 7 p.m. The Volunteers are ranked 15th.