NEW ORLEANS — The hype and history of the LSU-Tulane basketball series may out rival the actual game when the two teams meet Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the second half of the annual Nokia Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic at the New Orleans Arena.
Two nationally ranked teams, Mississippi State and Oklahoma will play the opening game at Noon. Fox Sports Net is televising both games in the South with the radio broadcast of the LSU-Tulane game carried on the LSU Sports Network and the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Tickets are still available for the doubleheader at the New Orleans Arena box office.
The Tigers and Green Wave will meet for the first time since March of 1982 in what was a first-round NIT game at the Maravich Assembly Center, a game the Wave won. The last regular season meeting was the season before in December 1980, when LSU won for the 18th consecutive time.
The Wave enters the contest 5-5 after a 94-70 win over Jackson State Monday night at Fogelman Arena, while the Tigers are now 7-1 after a 66-65 win over No. 1 ranked Arizona last Saturday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
That win put the Tigers back into the Associated Press Top 25 poll at No. 24 for the first time since LSU was in the final seven polls of the 1999-2000 season, but if LSU fails to defeat Tulane on Saturday, the Tigers time in the Top 25 will be short-lived.
The Tigers practiced Wednesday night and Thursday at home in Baton Rouge before traveling to New Orleans Thursday evening to eat at a local restaurant and check into their downtown hotel headquarters. The team practiced Friday morning at the New Orleans Arena prior to another team lunch and the annual party for the four teams in the Quarter Friday evening.
The Tigers are 2-1 since the Sugar Bowl Classic went to its present doubleheader format involving two SEC teams in 1999, with LSU defeating Oklahoma State and Oregon State, before losing last year to Miami. This will mark Mississippi State?s first time to participate in the present format. This is LSU?s 10th Sugar Bowl appearance dating back to 1936.
LSU has won 21 of its last 25 games in New Orleans and is 16-4 in the Superdome/New Orleans Arena venues that are adjacent to each other in the Central Business District. Despite the long break between games, LSU and Tulane will be meeting for the 203rd time since 1911 with LSU holding a 119-83 lead.
LSU is expected to use the lineup it has used for its last five wins (Torris Bright, Collis Temple III and Antonio Hudson at guards and Ronald Dupree and Jaime Lloreda at forwards). Hudson had a breakout game for LSU against Arizona with 20 points and a career high nine rebounds, while Lloreda had his second consecutive double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds, earning Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors.
Lloreda is second in the league in rebounds at 9.1 boards a game and leads the league in field goal percentage.
The Tigers return home after the Saturday afternoon game and must quickly prepare for the University of New Orleans, which comes to town for a 7 p.m. game on Monday at the Maravich Assembly Center. Tickets for that game are on sale on the Internet and will be on sale Monday at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office from 1-5 p.m. and at the upper ticket windows at the Assembly Center starting at 5:30 p.m. on game night. That will be LSU?s final game of 2002 before opening SEC play on Sunday, Jan. 5 at Georgia in a game regionally televised by CBS Sports.