BATON ROUGE — LSU’s pre-Christmas men’s basketball home stand continues this week with two games on the slate where fans could shoot for $10,000 and they could see the first visit by the nation’s No. 1 team in over eight years.
LSU will host Prairie View A&M on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and then will face Arizona in an ESPN2 televised game Saturday at 7 p.m. The Wildcats will be the nation’s No. 1 team when they come to Baton Rouge if they best Texas Sunday afternoon at Arizona.
Tickets are available for both games, including some 3,800 tickets remaining for the contest with Arizona. Tickets can be purchased through the LSU Athletic Ticket Office, by phone at 225-578-2184 or on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net.
In both games, one lucky fan will get to come on the court to shoot for $10,000. In the Prairie View game, the fan will have to make two shots, one at each end from various distances to win the money, while in the Arizona contest, one made shot from half court will make some LSU fan $10,000 richer.
Prairie View, although not a winner record wise, has been a problem for opponents this year, most notably Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Against Oklahoma, the Panthers had a two-point lead with 11:23 to play and the margin was just three in the final six minutes before the Sooners finished up with a 12-point victory. A&M needed two overtimes before dispensing of Prairie View, 83-78, in the Panthers last game on Dec. 7. Their one win in three games is over Houston, 78-75.
Arizona, if they hold the No. 1 spot in the AP poll, would be the first top-ranked team to come to Baton Rouge since March 2 1994 when LSU lost to top-ranked Arkansas, 108-105, at the Assembly Center. LSU has one victory over a number one ranked team in the Assembly Center, a 95-94 victory over Kentucky on Feb. 11, 1978.