BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Southeastern Conference Western Division Co-Champion men’s basketball team received a No. 6 seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament and will face No. 11-seeded UAB in the opening round on Thursday at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho.
LSU (20-9) has won seven of its last eight games, including taking fourth-ranked and No. 2 seeded Kentucky to overtime in the SEC Men’s Tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon. The Tigers are 11-3 in their last 14 games.
The Tigers are the No. 6 seed in the Chicago Regional. No. 1 overall seed Illinois, No. 2 seeded Oklahoma State, No. 3 seeded Arizona, No. 4 seeded Boston College and No. 5 seeded Alabama are also in the Tigers’ bracket. Paired with LSU in Boise are Arizona and No. 14 seeded Utah State.
UAB, members of Conference-USA, received an at-large bid. The Blazers are 21-10 overall (10-6 in C-USA) and made it to the semifinals of the C-USA tournament before losing to eventual champion Louisville, 74-67, on Friday.
This will be the first appearance in the NCAA tournament for the Tigers since 2003 when they lost to Purdue in the first round, 80-56. UAB was a sweet-sixteen team in last year’s tournament.
This game has been scheduled as the last game of the day in Boise, with tip-off set for 8:50 p.m. CST.
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY
On his reaction to LSU’s seeding and first-round game against UAB…
“I don’t really have an opinion. A No. 6 seed is fine. I thought we’d probably be a No. 6. They’re sending us way out to Boise. We’ve gone to Albuquerque and Salt Lake, now Boise. We play UAB who we played a year ago. UAB is a pressing team and shoots a lot of 3s. We are excited about being in it, we’re excited about playing and our team is looking forward to it. I think what we’ve been through recently will help us.”
FORWARD BRANDON BASS
On his thoughts of LSU’s seeding in the NCAA Tournament…
“I thought we were going to be a No. 4 seed because Alabama was a No. 5 seed, but a No. 6 seed is cool for my first trip to the NCAA Tournament. I’m just excited that we’re in the tournament. I’m ready to play.”
On how the team is playing right now…
“Right now I think we’re playing at our best. We’re just going to go over there to Boise and just bring our “A” game.”
FORWARD GLEN DAVIS
On the focus of the team entering the NCAA Tournament…
“We just want to get mentally focused that will and determination to play. It helps us all around. This is going to build so much character for us so we can be able to compete in the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully we can carry that competitiveness that we had in the SEC Tournament into the NCAA.”
On what the Kentucky game can do for the team…
“It gave us confidence — confidence and just a more family atmosphere with the team. It builds a lot of character for us. It was just a big game that we lost, and we’ve grown from it already. Hopefully we’ll play real hard and really tough and determined.”