BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball coach John Brady on Wednesday unveiled the 2002-03 men’s basketball schedule which will feature an LSU hosted tournament for the first time since 1987 and a December match up at the Maravich Assembly Center with preseason No. 1 Arizona.
In all, LSU will play a school record tying 20 home games at the Maravich Assembly Center, including two exhibition games on Nov. 7 and 15. The season opens with the LSU-hosted Hispanic College Funds Classic, the first tournament hosted by LSU since the 1987 LSU Invitational. The tournament, to be played around the LSU-Ole Miss football game will feature Southern and South Alabama, and Nicholls State and LSU in the opening night games on Nov. 22 with the consolation and championship games set for Nov. 24.
The Tigers will play in Houston on Nov. 30 as part of the Sports Classic tripleheader to be held at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. LSU will play Texas A&M in the middle game of the event.
December will find the Tigers with six home games, highlighted by the Dec. 21 game with Arizona. The teams have met five times with the home team winning every game in the series. That game will be televised nationally at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 from the Assembly Center.
The lone trip away from Baton Rouge in December will be to the New Orleans Arena for the annual Sugar Bowl Classic on Saturday, Dec. 28. The Tigers will face Tulane in the first meeting of the two teams since the 1982 post-season NIT.
“We are excited about the challenges our schedule for this season provides for our team,” said Brady, who enters his sixth year as the head coach of LSU having taken two of his last three teams to postseason play despite scholarship limitations. “With 18 regular season home games, plus two exhibitions, it gives our fans many opportunities to see our team play. The home schedule includes preseason No.1 Arizona, the University of Houston from Conference USA (Jan. 8) along with the Hispanic Fund Classic that will be played on Friday and Sunday surrounding the Ole Miss football game.
“In addition, we will play Texas A&M in Houston and Tulane for the first time since 1982 in the Sugar Bowl doubleheader in the New Orleans Arena.”
The Tigers will get a jump on the rest of the league in opening Southeastern Conference play as CBS-TV has moved the LSU at Georgia game to a showcase spot on Jan. 5. It will be LSU’s first regular season appearance on CBS since March 1996. The Tigers will also be featured on the ESPN Super Tuesday package at the Maravich Assembly Center, hosting Florida in an 8 p.m. game on Jan. 28. Two years ago on Super Tuesday, LSU’s squad of just five scholarship players took the Gators to overtime before falling.
In all, LSU has 11 games scheduled for regional or national television broadcasts, including two on the ESPN family of networks, one on CBS, four on Jefferson Pilot and four on Fox Sports, including the league’s SEC-TV package.
“Combine our non-conference games with the always competitive Southeastern Conference and it makes for one of the most difficult schedules we have had,” said Brady. “We trust our fans will also be excited about the opportunities our schedule presents and make plans to come out and support this team.”
The Tigers were 19-15 a season ago and advanced to the second round of the Owens Corning NIT, defeating Iowa in Iowa City before losing at home in the second round to Ball State in front of crowd of just under 13,000. Four starters – Torris Bright, Collis Temple III, Brad Bridgewater and Ronald Dupree – return to the team this season along with a talented group of recruits including national junior college player of the year Jaime Lloreda and Louisiana’s Mr. Basketball, Darrel Mitchell from St. Martinville.
This will mark the first time in Brady’s tenure that he has had a full compliment of 13 scholarship players on his squad and the blend of experience and youth should provide a perfect combination for plenty of excitement this coming season.
Ticket information regarding the complete basketball scheduled will be announced shortly.