BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team gets the chance to validate their No. 25 national ranking Tuesday night when they host the University of Houston in an 8 p.m. contest at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Tickets for the game will be on sale beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the upper ticket windows of the Maravich Center for $11 with youth tickets on sale for ages 12 and under for $5. Prior to the game, there is a special “Two for Tuesday” ticket promotion in which fans can go online to the LSU web site, LSUsports.net and purchase two tickets for the contest for the price of one ($11).
The game will be regionally televised by Fox Sports Net and carried in the Baton Rouge area on Cable Channel 38. The radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and for subscribers in the “Geaux Zone” online at www.LSUsports.net/GeauxZone.
The Tigers (3-0) moved into the national polls after a 71-68 overtime victory Saturday at No. 13 West Virginia in Morgantown before the first 10,000-plus crowd in November in the 35-year history of the WVU Coliseum. Darrel Mitchell, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week, hit three-pointers in the final 30 seconds of regulation to force the overtime and then hit the game winning three with less than six seconds left in the overtime five minutes.
The Tigers are ranked for the first time since being ranked No. 24 in the Feb. 17 poll of the 2003-04 season. It is the earliest in the year that LSU has been ranked in the Associated Press poll since being ranked in the preseason poll prior to the start of the 1991-92 poll.
Houston is 1-1 on the year after two home games: a 131-62 win over Virginia Tech and a Saturday, 62-61, loss to VCU. Tom Penders is in his second year as the head coach of the Cougars, after taking Houston to the NIT in his first year back coaching after a couple of years away from the court. Guard Oliver Lafayette of Baton Rouge Capital High School will make his return to his home city, averaging 15.0 points per game and 3.0 assists per contest.
“The pressure they apply, the pace of the game they like to play,” said LSU Coach John Brady in regards to what Houston presents to his young team. “Even though VCU held them to 61 at home, that was a significant accomplishment with how Houston likes to play. We’ve got to be able to handle the traps and handle pressure and make good decisions with the basketball. We’ve got to take care of the ball. We need to do what we’ve been doing to this point, throwing the ball inside and rebound. If we can make some good decisions, we ought to have a chance to win it. If we don’t, it will be like last year when we didn’t do any of those things (an 82-71 loss at Houston).”
The Tigers will be trying to advance a 13-game home winning streak at the Maravich Center that dates back to the last 11 games of the 2004-05 season and the first two contests of this season. An LSU victory would put the Tigers equal with the fifth longest win streak in the 35-years of the Maravich Center.
As part of the halftime for the game, one lucky fan will win a weekend getaway at R.W. Day’s South Gate Towers along with a chance to win free rent at an R.W. Day property for a year.
Five lucky fans that are at least 21 years of age will be selected at random during the first half of Tuesday’s game. Each will be given a key that will be used to attempt to open the R.W. Day prize door.
Each of the other four contestants whose keys do not open the prize door will win one night stay at South Gate Towers off Nicholson Dr. in Baton Rouge.
The fan with the key that opens the prize door will win the free weekend getaway, and will then have one shot from halfcourt to win free rent for one year courtesy of R.W. Day.
Following the Houston game, the Tigers are off for 10 days on what was supposed to be the dead week and final exam portion of the academic calendar. The Tigers play again on Dec. 10 at home against McNeese State. The Tigers will now play twice at home during final exam week Dec. 13 (UNO) and Dec. 17 (Louisiana Lafayette).