BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team hopes to break a two-game losing streak by traveling to a place it’s very familiar with and successful at, the New Orleans Arena, as the Tigers take part in the annual Nokia Sugar Bowl Basketball Classic here Thursday night against Florida State.
The Tigers (5-3) and the Seminoles (7-5) meet in the second half of the doubleheader beginning at approximately 9 p.m. CST. Mississippi State and Virginia Tech meet in the first half of the doubleheader at 6:30 p.m. Both games will be televised by Fox Sports Net (Ch. 38 in Baton Rouge). The radio broadcast will be heard on the LSU Sports Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. Tickets remain available for the doubleheader at TicketMaster locations and on game night at the Arena box office.
This is the sixth straight year for LSU to serve as the unofficial host for the event with Mississippi State joining the Tigers as SEC reps for the third straight year. The SEC is 9-1 in the 10 previous games in the event, although this will be the first time the SEC and the Atlantic Coast Conferences have matched up in the game. LSU is 20-5 in games played in the Superdome/New Orleans Arena venues.
The Tigers have been off since an 81-82 loss to Houston on Dec. 21 in Houston and the Tigers enter the game off consecutive non-conference losses to Southern Miss (Dec. 18) in overtime in Biloxi and the Houston game, the first time the Tigers have lost back-to-back non-conference games under John Brady.
While LSU’s up-tempo offense has put the Tigers at the top of the league in scoring, the struggle has been on the defense end as LSU has given up at least 79 points in each of the last three games.
This is the third of five games in 30 days away from the Pete Maravich Center, as LSU doesn’t play at home again until Jan. 12. After the Sugar Bowl, the Tigers come home to Baton Rouge for one day before flying to Salt Lake City to take on Utah on Jan. 3.
Florida State has won two straight at home, 101-57 to Jacksonville (12-21) and 71-61 against Stetson (12-23) prior to coming to New Orleans. The two wins came after the Seminoles lost a heartbreaking 90-88 loss in College Park in their ACC opener to Maryland, 90-88. Leonard Hamilton is in his third year as the head coach at Florida State.
The Tigers have been back at practice after Christmas break since Dec. 26 and practiced twice on the 27th and 28th in preparation for the game. LSU hopes for the continued play of sophomore Brandon Bass who has had two straight double doubles — 13 points and 11 rebounds against Southern Miss and 22 points and a career high 15 rebounds against Houston. Bass is shooting 67.5 percent from the field after the first eight games.
The Tigers are expected to go with the three guards, Tack Minor (11.8 points per game, 5.5 assists per game), Darrel Mitchell (13.1 ppg) and Antonio Hudson (13.8 ppg) with Bass and Glen Davis (12.3 ppg) at the forwards.