BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team takes to the court Saturday night against the Tennessee Volunteers at 7 p.m. in what will be a sold-out PMAC for the first time since 1995.
The final tickets were sold just after 1 p.m. in the 14,164 arena which was last filled to capacity on Jan. 21, 1995 when 14,799 (the eighth largest crowd in PMAC history) watched LSU beat Ole Miss.
To help with the large amount of will call pickups which are expected on game day at the Assembly Center, the box office at the arena will open at 4 p.m., one hour earlier than normal. However, the gates to the Assembly Center will open at the normal time of 5:30 p.m. Tipoff is set for just after 7 p.m. and there is no television for the contest.
The radio broadcast of the game will be carried on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 in Baton Rouge) and at www.LSUsports.net on the Internet. Subscribed members of the official LSU website can see live video of the game at that site as well. A Real Player plug-in is necessary to see the video and can be downloaded directly from the Internet free of charge.
For those driving to the game, there will be a high school indoor track meet in the Field House which will not end until 7:30 p.m. so parking lots such as Bernie Moore and the area around the Field House will be congested.
Fans coming to the game should use the Alex Box, South Stadium, ROTC or Kirby Smith lots to park for the game. Paid parking permits in Lot A are still available for the remainder of the basketball season through the Athletic Ticket Office.
LSU fans are also advised to purchase tickets in advance for the remaining seven games of the 2000 season. The remainder of the home schedule is as follows: Jan. 19 — Georgia; Jan. 26 — Arkansas; Jan. 29 — Arizona; Feb. 9 — Auburn; Feb. 13 — Kentucky; Feb. 26 — Mississippi State; and, March 4 — Ole Miss. All games are 7 p.m. starts with the exception of the Arizona game at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays or by phone at 225-388-2184.
Tennessee, ranked 15th by the Associated Press, enters the game with a 13-1 overall record and stands atop the SEC Eastern Division at 1-0 along with Vanderbilt. LSU leads the West with a 1-0 record along with Mississippi State and Arkansas.
Back to the game, LSU head coach John Brady evaluated Tennessee before the big matchup.
“Tennessee is extremely talented, they match us in athleticism, they have more depth and they have more experience,” said Brady. “We’ve got to be more concerned with what we do. We need to defend them without fouling, rebound the ball, take our opportunities in the break when we get them and make sure we get some quality shots.”
The Tigers are coming off of a come-from-behind win against Alabama Wednesday night in the SEC opener for both schools. Freshman Torris Bright led LSU in scoring with 21, while four of the five Tiger starters scored in double figures. It also marked the second straight game that Bright played all 40 minutes.
Despite practicing on Thursday afternoon, Jermaine Williams is still questionable after spraining a knee against Howard University on Dec. 27. Collis Temple III is also questionable after an ankle sprain in practice on Monday.
The Tigers will go with its normal starting five with Torris Bright and Lamont Roland at the guards, Stromile Swift and Brain Beshara at the forwards and Jabari Smith at center. All five Tiger starters are averaging double figures in scoring. Ronald Dupree and Brad Bridgewater will be the key reserves for LSU.
Vincent Yarbrough is the Vols leading scorer averaging 15.6 points per game. Tennessee is also led by junior point guard Tony Harris, one of only 25 players selected as a preseason candidate for this year’s John R. Wooden Award. Harris is second on the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game and is averaging over 5 assists per game.
Three-year starter C.J. Black also returns for his senior season as the school’s all-time leading block leader with 192, 35 of those already this season. As a team, the Vols average 42.2 rebounds per game and have shot over 300 three pointers in just 14 games connecting for just under 40 percent.
Following the Tennessee game, the Tigers travel to Florida on Wednesday night and then to Vanderbilt on Saturday morning. The Vanderbilt game will be televised by ESPN beginning at 11 a.m.