BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s head basketball coach John Brady announced the 2005-06 LSU men’s basketball schedule Saturday afternoon, featuring 10 opponents ranked in the top 50 in RPI a season ago.
The schedule also includes games against 12 teams that went to post-season tournaments, 16 televised games and a unique holiday classic in Las Vegas that begins with a home contest in Baton Rouge three days prior to the Tigers traveling to Las Vegas.
LSU will host NCAA Tournament team Northern Iowa (21-11 last year) in a Dec. 19 game in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic at 7 p.m. in the Maravich Assembly Center before heading to Vegas for games on Dec. 22 and 23. The Dec. 23 matchup will be against another NCAA team from last year, Cincinnati (25-8).
Teams ranked in the top 50 in RPI from last year (LSU was ranked 25th) that LSU will face include: Alabama, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette, Mississippi State, Northern Iowa, Ohio State and West Virginia.
The Tigers were 20-10 a season ago, advancing to the NCAA Tournament after sharing the SEC Western Division title with a 12-4 record. LSU has been to post-season play for the last three seasons and five of the last eight years.
“Our schedule this year is by far the most challenging we have had,” said Coach Brady, who is entering his ninth season as the coach of the Tigers. “A total of 14 teams on our schedule were ranked in the top 100 RPI, with 10 of those teams in the top 50. We are playing 12 teams that made post-season play with nine of those going to the NCAA Tournament. Our road games against West Virginia, Ohio State and Connecticut will be great for our young team and will prepare them for the always difficult play in the Southeastern Conference.”
The Tigers travel to West Virginia on Nov. 26 and to Columbus to take on Ohio State on New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31). Both those games are the back end of home-and-home contests. Last year, LSU defeated Ohio State, 113-101, in a wild double-overtime affair at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The Connecticut game on Jan. 7 will be played in the Hartford Civic Center and will be televised by CBS Sports, making a unique afternoon in both a men’s and women’s game will be televised by the same network on the same day. The LSU women’s team will play Minnesota earlier that day on the network. That will be the first half of a home-and-home contract in which Connecticut will come to Baton Rouge during the 2006-07 season.
LSU will continue its long-standing series with Houston, the final year of a second four-year agreement, playing in the Maravich Assembly Center on Nov. 29.
“We will have 16 home games, along with two exhibitions which will give our fans many opportunities to see us play in the newly renovated Maravich Assembly Center. We have made a commitment to improve our schedule and we continue to do so,” said Brady. “With only one senior in Darrel Mitchell, we will have to grow up in a hurry, but we have some young, athletic, exciting players on this year’s team anchored by SEC Freshman of the Year Glen Davis.
“We are extremely optimistic about this year’s schedule and the opportunities it presents. We are looking forward to watching this team grow and develop into one of the most exciting teams we have had and one our fans will enjoy watching play.”
The Tigers will open up with exhibition games against Global Sports (Nov. 10) and LSU-Shreveport (Nov. 15) before putting its 52-game home winning streak (dating back to 1988) against Louisiana schools on the line in the season opener against Southern University on Dec. 18. LSU will also play host to Nicholls State, McNeese State, New Orleans, Louisiana-Lafayette and Tulane in the non-conference schedule.
In conference play, LSU, 8-0 at home in league play last year, will host the five SEC Western Division schools and Tennessee (Jan. 14), Georgia (Jan. 25) and Kentucky (Feb. 25). The Kentucky game will be televised by CBS.
The Tigers will have a minimum of 16 games on television this season with Cox Sports TV and Jefferson Pilot Sports each televising five games, Fox Sports Net three games, CBS two and ESPN one, the Feb. 28 game against NIT Champion South Carolina as part of the league’s Super Tuesday package.
Season ticket renewal letters are in the process of being mailed to season ticket holders with a renewal deadline of Oct. 14.