BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach John Brady announced his team’s schedule for the 2001-2002 season which will include a trip to Hawaii and six games against in-state competition.
The schedule is still tentative and must be approved by the LSU Athletic Council at its next meeting in August. The Southeastern Conference has announced only a few of the television dates for the conference season, with a final television schedule expected around Sept. 1.
“Our basketball schedule for the 2001-2002 season is a good one that will be a challenge for our team,” said Brady. “It will challenge our seven returning players, who know what is expected of them, and it will challenge our newcomers as we try to incorporate our returning players with the new ones that we are adding to our team. We are also looking forward to having quality depth which will make our substitutions more effective.”
LSU opens the season on Saturday, Nov. 17, against Campbell University, following exhibition games on Nov. 5 and 12. The Tigers will play Southern University on Monday, Nov. 19, before leaving on Tuesday, Nov. 20 for Hawaii and the 2001 Big Island Invitational hosted by the University of Hawaii-Hilo, Nov. 23-25.
The Tigers are scheduled to meet Weber State in the opening round on Nov. 23 before facing either Wisconsin or Hawaii-Hilo on Nov. 24. The Tigers will face either Pepperdine, Colorado State, the University of Hawaii or Mercer on the final day, Nov. 25.
“We will play in the Big Island Invitational for the first time, which gives us three exempt games that will help us prepare for the challenges ahead. We open with Weber State and could face the University of Wisconsin in the second round, the team which defeated us in the Sweet 16 two years ago,” added Brady.
LSU’s December schedule opens with a Sunday afternoon game against NCAA participant Northwestern State on Dec. 2. The Tigers will face the University of Louisiana-Lafayette for the first time since 1945 when the Ragin’ Cajuns visit for a Dec. 4 game at the Assembly Center.
The Tigers will make two appearances in New Orleans in December, traveling to Lakefront Arena to play the University of New Orleans on Dec. 18. LSU and Alabama will represent the SEC on Dec. 27 in this year’s Sugar Bowl Classic at the New Orleans Arena. Alabama will take on Notre Dame and LSU will meet Miami (Fla.) in the SEC-Big East match-ups.
“I like our schedule in terms of the local flavor it has,” said Brady. “We play Southern University at home and we play the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1945. We also meet the University of New Orleans for the first time in Lakefront Arena since 1983. Also on our home schedule is Northwestern State, which went to the NCAA Tournament last season with the addition of Houston coming to Baton Rouge, which is a good team from Conference USA.
“Counting our two exhibition games, we will have 18 home games and I believe that we should always play between 16 and 18 home games to give our fans ample opportunity to see us play a number of times,” said the fifth-year LSU coach. “We are excited about the challenges ahead for us in this schedule.”
LSU opens Southeastern Conference play on Jan. 5 at Alabama before its conference home-opener on Jan. 13 against Arkansas in a game that will be televised by JP Sports.
Besides the five SEC Western Division foes at home, this is the year LSU plays host to Tennessee (Jan. 30), Kentucky (Feb. 9) and Georgia (Feb. 23) from the Eastern Division while traveling to Vanderbilt, Florida and South Carolina.