BATON ROUGE — This was the week the LSU basketball team was supposed to be thinking about taking final exams and taking a lot of time away from the basketball court.
But the 10-day break between games without exams has given the LSU men’s team plenty of time to practice in preparation for a string of games that begins Saturday night at 7 p.m. against McNeese State University. The game, scheduled for the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, is the first of four men’s games to be played over the next 10 days in the building.
Tickets for the game are $11 apiece and available beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Assembly Center. Youth tickets for those 12 and under are also on sale for $5 on game night. There will be a youth clinic for dancers interested in learning from the Tiger Girls basketball dance team, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the auxiliary gym of the Maravich Center.
The game will be televised regionally by Cox Sports Television (Ch. 37 in Baton Rouge), the first of five games the network will televise this season. The radio broadcast will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and to Geaux Zone subscribers through LSUsports.net.
The scheduled exam period for this week was postponed one week because of Hurricane Katrina, but the basketball schedule was already set, forcing LSU to play next week twice while finals are in progress. The delay also keeps point guard Tack Minor from making his first appearance until the Louisiana Lafayette game on Dec. 17, just hours after the last final exam has been given that day.
LSU is 3-1 on the year, coming off a loss to Houston, 84-83, in the Maravich Center 10-days ago. McNeese is 2-2, coming off losses at Richmond and Auburn prior to coming to Baton Rouge. Tic Price in his fifth year as the head coach at McNeese.
The Tigers hope to continue to keep their advantage they had in the first four games in rebounding the ball as they hold a 28.8 advantage to the plus in rebound margin, best in the nation. The Tigers also hope to keep turnovers and points off turnovers to a minimum after both West Virginia aHouston scored 20-plus points off LSU turnovers in the last two games.
The Tigers are expected to go with the same starting lineup of Darrel Mitchell and Garrett Temple at the guards, Darnell Lazare, Tasmin Mitchell and Glen Davis at the forwards with Tyrus Thomas, leading the nation in field goal percentage at 82.4 percent, coming off the bench. Darrel Mitchell is leading the team in scoring at 19.3 points per game, while Glen Davis is averaging a team best 11.3 rebounds a game.
After Saturday’s game, the Tigers host UNO on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center.