BATON ROUGE — The return of the LSU-UNO series in men’s basketball has drawn the interest of state college basketball fans, but the first meeting on Saturday between the two schools since 1986 will also be the site of the jersey retirement ceremonies for former LSU All-American Shaquille O’Neal.
The former collegiate Player of the Year and NBA MVP will be honored in ceremonies at halftime of the 7 p.m. contest between the Tigers and the Privateers. Tickets for the game remain on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and on line on the Internet at
The tickets are $10 each and some 3,400 remain available for the UNO contest.
The game will be broadcast live on the LSU Sports Network on radio and on the Internet. There will be no live television coverage of the game.
The ceremony will feature LSU Chancellor Dr. Mark Emmert, Athletic Director Joe Dean and former LSU men’s basketball coach Dale Brown, along with a video presentation on the big-screen scoreboards. The jersey will take its place on the LSU ring of honor in the Assembly Center with the other two retired numbers of Bob Pettit and Pete Maravich.
This will be the fourth jersey number officially retired by the school’s Athletic Department and Hall of Fame committee, joining Billy Cannon in football. This will be the first ceremony to officially retire a jersey since the final home game of Pete Maravich’s career in 1970.
O’Neal will be in Baton Rouge on Friday as well to participate in two other ceremonies at the Maravich Assembly Center in conjunction with commencement exercises as the center for the Los Angeles Lakers receives his degree in General Studies. O’Neal is expected to be part of the on stage procession for the main ceremony at 8:45 a.m. and will officially receive his diploma at the 4 p.m. Arts and Sciences ceremony.
LSU and UNO will be meeting for the ninth time in school history with LSU holding a 5-3 advantage it the series. The teams are expected to meet next year in New Orleans before the third game of the three-game series takes place back in Baton Rouge.
LSU will go on the road following this game for a Wednesday night, Dec. 20, contest at Arizona on Fox Sports Net, before closing out the pre-Christmas schedule with a Dec. 22 game at the Maravich Assembly Center against Nicholls State.