BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers put their 8-1 record on the line for the first time in 2001 when they play host to Wyoming Wednesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will start an hour earlier than normal, 6 p.m., so as to allow fans to attend the game and get home to watch the majority of the national championship football game between Florida State and Oklahoma.
The LSU-Wyoming game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. College Sports Southeast in those markets where the regional sports cable entity is available will also televise the game.
Tickets will be available at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office during the day on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Tickets will go on sale at the Maravich Assembly Center two hours prior to game time.
This is the second straight year the two teams have met and a lot of the same characters are in place, but two of the most prominent are missing for LSU: Jabari Smith and Stromile Swift who played a big part in the 103-86 victory in the semifinals of the Hawaii Pacific Tournament in Honolulu in November, 1999.
In that win, LSU hit 51.6 percent from the field with Swift getting 33 points and 13 rebounds, while Smith added 17.
The Cowboys are 9-2 on the season, equaling the best start in Coach Steve McClain’s tenure at the school. Wyoming is picked second behind Utah in the Mountain West conference pre-season poll, behind Utah with Josh Davis and Ugo Udezue both named to the pre-season Mountain West team.
Davis comes in averaging 13.5 points per game and 9.8 rebounds, while Udezue averaging 7.1 points. The big scoring comes from sophomore guard Marcus Bailey, who averages 17.0 points per game and 6-10 center Uche Nsonwu-Amadi (11.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg).
LSU puts a 13 game home-court win streak on the line dating back to last year, tied for the sixth best in the 30-year history of the Assembly Center. The Tigers have also won 24 straight non-conference games in the building, dating back to the only loss in 30 non-conference home games in the John Brady era, Dec. 1, 1997, against Lamar.
The Tigers are coming off a 78-68 win over Oregon State on Dec. 28, in the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic at the New Orleans Arena. Collis Temple tied his school career high with 22 points in the game, while Ronald Dupree doubled up again with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Torris Bright, who did not start because of a team rules violation, came in and missed his first three long-range shots, before hitting 5-of-6 three-point attempts to finish with 15 points and six assists.
LSU will open conference play on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against Alabama at the Assembly Center. That game will be televised as the opening game of the 2001 league packaged syndicated by Jefferson Pilot Sports.