BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team has accepted a bid to face Iowa in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament, which begins this week.
The game is slated for 8:30 p.m. CST on March 13 at Iowa City, Iowa. It will be broadcast nationally by ESPN2.
The postseason appearance is the first for the Tigers since 2000 and just the second since the 1993 season. LSU (18-14, 6-10 SEC) has not been to the NIT since a 1983 trip when it lost to New Orleans in the first round.
From 1984-1993, the Tigers made 10 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances as well as in 2000, when they won the SEC Championship.
Iowa (19-15, 5-11 Big Ten) finished eighth in the Big Ten before making an improbable run through the Big Ten Tournament to reach the final before falling to Ohio State on Sunday, 81-64.
In its conference tournament, LSU reached the semifinal after upsetting Southeastern Conference Eastern Division champion Georgia.
The winner of the Saint Joseph’s-George Mason game will face the winner of the South Florida-Ball State game, with the winner of that game squaring off with the LSU-Iowa victor. That second round game would be on either March 18 or 19.
Should LSU advance with a win over the Hawkeyes, the Tigers could host the second round game. However, ticket information for that game is not available presently.
Ticket Information From www.hawkeyesports.com
Tickets for a first round event will go on sale Monday, March 11, at the Iowa Athletic Ticket Office in Carver-Hawkeye Arena and through TicketMaster. The UI ticket office will open at 7:30 a.m. for walk-up ticket sales and TicketMaster outlets will have tickets available after 9 a.m.
Ticket prices have been set at $19 for general public. Tickets may be ordered via the web at www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling TicketMaster.
All tickets that are ordered, either by phone or via the internet, may be picked up after 2 p.m. CST on the day of the first round contest, at the South Entrance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. TicketMaster can send tickets for overnight delivery and tickets may be picked by at TicketMaster locations.
LSU head coach John Brady
“Playing at Iowa on their home court is going to be challenging. I just talked to Coach (Kermit) Davis and Coach (Butch) Pierre and we are going to try and get some tape together as soon as we can and get some ideas about how to guard them.
“Being able to play at this time of the year, the NIT for us, we are excited about it. It is a positive step for our program. Before the year started, we thought 17 wins and a postseason berth would be good for this team to be able to do and we were able to do that without having Collis for a number of games.
“I complement our team and our players and we are looking forward to the challenge of going to a good Big Ten school and see what happens.”
All Times CST
Opening Round
Tuesday, March 12
Montana State (19-9) at Utah State (23-7), 9 p.m.
South Florida (19-12) at Ball State (20-11), 6 p.m.
St. Joseph’s (18-11) at George Mason (19-9), TBA
Wednesday, March 13
Georgia St. (20-10) at Tennessee Tech (24-6), 6 p.m.
Wagner (19-9) at Richmond (19-13), 6:30 p.m.
Detroit (18-12) at Dayton (20-10), 6:30 p.m.
Louisiana-Lafayette (20-10) at Louisiana Tech (20-9), 7 p.m.
Houston (18-14) at Vanderbilt (16-14), TBA
First Round
Tuesday, March 12
Princeton (16-11) at Louisville (18-12), 8 p.m.
Arizona State (14-14) at UNLV (20-10), 10 p.m.
Wednesday, March 13
South Carolina (18-14) at Virginia (17-11), 6:30 p.m.
New Mexico (16-13) at Minnesota (17-12), 7 p.m.
LSU (18-14) at Iowa (19-15), 8:30 p.m.
St. Bonaventure (17-12) at Syracuse (20-11), 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 14
Bowling Green (24-8) at Butler (25-5), TBA
UNC-Greensboro (20-10) at Memphis (22-9), TBA
Manhattan (20-8) at Villanova (17-12), TBA
Yale (20-10) at Rutgers (18-12), 6:30 p.m.
UC-Irvine (21-10) at BYU (17-11), 8 p.m.
Temple (15-14) at Fresno State (19-14), 11 p.m.
First Round (Opening Round Game Winners ) Dates TBA
Wagner-Richmond winner vs. Montana State-Utah State winner
South Florida-Ball State winner vs. St. Joseph’s-George Mason winner
Louisiana-Lafayette-Louisiana Tech winner vs. Houston-Vanderbilt winner
Detroit-Dayton winner vs. Georgia State-Tennessee Tech
Second Round
March 18 or 19
Dates and Times TBA
Third Round
March 20-22
Dates and Times TBA
Semifinals
At Madison Square Garden; New York
Tuesday, March 26
6:30 and 9 p.m.
Championship Round
Thursday, March 28
At Madison Square Garden; New York
Third Place – Semifinal losers, 6:30 p.m.
Championship – Semifinal winners, 9 p.m.