BATON ROUGE — Highlighted by 11 teams that made the 2003 NCAA Tournament, the LSU Lady Tigers 2003-04 schedule is loaded with talented opponents from the opening game to the final game of the regular season.
The Lady Tigers, who posted a 30-4 record in 2002-03 and made the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, open the 2003-04 season against BIG EAST power Villanova in the Women’s Sports Foundation Tip-off Classic In Eugene, Ore., and finish the regular season at national runner-up Tennessee in Knoxville.
In between, LSU has nine other schools that made the Field of 64 last season as well as the 2003 WNIT Champion.
“This is a highly competitive schedule,” said LSU head coach Sue Gunter, who is set to begin her 40th year of coaching and her 22nd at LSU. “This is a schedule that will give us a high strength of schedule and that is an important part of what the NCAA committee goes by for seeding purposes for the tournament.”
After opening the season in Oregon, LSU will travel almost the entire distance of the country to visit national power Penn State in November before opening the home schedule with another BIG EAST power Rutgers in December.
A solid field for the annual www.WOMENSCOLLEGEHOOPS.com Classic of Richmond, Arkansas State and Kent State adds to the Lady Tigers home schedule as well as hosting Atlantic-10 foe Temple before the holiday break.
Following the break, LSU will play ACC contender Florida State in the annual Peach Bowl Classic in Atlanta and then visit Tulane at New Orleans Arena before returning to Baton Rouge to face one of the best teams in the Pac-10 in Arizona as a final tune-up for the Southeastern Conference schedule.
The 2003 WNIT Champion, Auburn, invades the PMAC to open SEC play, while Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Ole Miss also visit Baton Rouge for conference battles.
“I hope folk will realize how really tough our schedule is,” Gunter added. “We have some great games and some great games in the PMAC.”
The Lady Tigers are scheduled to be on television five times during the season, including a nationally televised ESPN2 game at Georgia at the end of January. LSU’s Florida State game in Atlanta, the SEC opener with Auburn at home, the Vanderbilt game in February and the regular season finale at Tennessee are all scheduled to be on SEC-TV (Fox Sports Net).
Season tickets for 2003-04 are available by contacting the LSU ticket office at (225) 578-2184 or by going on-line to www.LSUsports.net.