BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach John Brady released the 2000-2001 basketball schedule for the defending Southeastern Conference champions.
The Tigers, who advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 a season ago, will have 18 home games and a 19th game in Louisiana as LSU makes a second straight appearance in the Sugar Bowl Classic at the New Orleans Arena.
LSU’s first game in the Maravich Assembly Center will be an exhibition contest on Monday, Nov. 6, against an all-star team sponsored by Global Sports. The Tigers will open the regular season at the Assembly Center on Monday, Nov. 20 with a 7 p.m. game against Louisiana-Monroe.
LSU will have two non-conference road trips in November and December, traveling to Houston on November 28 and to Tucson to take on Arizona on Dec. 20. In December, the Tigers will also renew a series with the University of New Orleans in the first game of what is tentatively scheduled to be a three-year series.
The Tigers will return to the New Orleans Arena for the Sugar Bowl Classic on Dec. 28, this time to take on Oregon State of the Pac-10 in a nationally-televised contest on Fox Sports Net. Last year’s inaugural Classic in the new arena drew a Sugar Bowl basketball record crowd of almost 13,000. LSU’s win over Oklahoma State in the Arena a year ago was the game which many felt was LSU’s coming out party because of the national exposure the Tigers win received.
“Our schedule for this season will be challenging one for this year’s LSU basketball team,” said Coach Brady. “Our pre-conference schedule includes road games at Houston and Arizona, home games with the University of New Orleans and Wyoming, in addition to a game with Oregon State in the Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans.”
LSU’s SEC slate begins on Saturday, Jan. 6, with an afternoon televised game with Alabama at the Assembly Center and will feature the first appearance by LSU on the Tuesday night ESPN SEC package since 1996 when LSU hosts Florida on February 13. LSU will also make its first regular season appearance on CBS in several years in the season finale March 3, at Tennessee.
“When you include the always tough Southeastern Conference games,” Brady said. “It will make for a schedule full of opportunities for our team to have an exciting year. The strength of our team will be in the play of its perimeter, so our fans will see some different ideas of offense and should look forward to watching this team develop.”
LSU will host the other five teams from the Western Division of the SEC as usual and this season will host Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Florida from the Eastern Division. This year’s SEC Tournament will be held in a new location for the first time since 1998 as the tournament goes to the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn.
(END OF STORY – SCHEDULE AGATE TO FOLLOW)
NOVEMBER
Mon. 6 – GLOBAL SPORTS (EXB), 7 p.m.; Mon. 13 – SPORTS TOURS (EXB), 7 p.m.; Mon. 20 – LOUISIANA MONROE, 7 p.m.; Sat. 25 – NORFOLK STATE, 7 p.m.; Tues. 28 – at Houston, TBA.
DECEMBER
Sat. 9 – TEXAS SOUTHERN, 7 p.m.; Wed. 13 – MCNEESE STATE, 7 p.m.; Sat. 16 – NEW ORLEANS, 7 p.m.; Wed. 20 – at Arizona (Fox Sports Net), TBA; Fri. 22 – NICHOLLS STATE, 7 p.m.; Thurs. 28 – Oregon State (at New Orleans)(Fox Sports Net), TBA.
JANUARY
Wed. 3 – WYOMING, TBA; Sat. 6 – *ALABAMA (JP Sports), 12:30 or 3 p.m.; Wed. 10 – *VANDERBILT, 7 p.m.; Sat. 13 – *at Auburn (JP Sports), 1 p.m.; Wed. 17 – CENTENARY, 7 p.m.; Sun. 21 – *at Georgia (JP Sports), 11:30 a.m.; Wed. 24 – *at Mississippi State, 7 p.m.; Sat. 27 – *ARKANSAS (SEC-TV), 4 p.m.; Wed. 31 – *SOUTH CAROLINA, 7 p.m.
FEBRUARY
Sat. 3 – *at Alabama, 7 p.m.; Wed. 7 – *at Ole Miss, 7 p.m.; Sat. 10 – AUBURN, 7 p.m.; Tues. 13 – *FLORIDA (ESPN), 6 p.m.; Sat. 17 – *at Arkansas (JP Sports), Noon; Wed. 21 – *at Kentucky (JP Sports), 7 p.m.; Sat. 24 – *MISSISSIPPI STATE, 7 p.m.; Wed. 28 – *OLE MISS, 7 p.m.
MARCH
Sat. 3 – *at Tennessee (CBS), 11 a.m.; Thurs-Sun. 9-12 – SEC Tournament (Nashville, Tenn.) (JP Sports, CBS).
*Denotes SEC Games; Home Games in All Caps