First in a series of press releases about the 1986 LSU men’s basketball team’s run to the Final Four, re-written by the LSU Sports Information Department for LSUsports.net.
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By Kate Doll
LSU Sports Information
BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s basketball head coach Dale Brown and his team have had an interesting season, and it keeps getting better. From a team chicken pox outbreak, to a disappearing act by one of the players, LSU has received just as much coverage off the court as on it.
On Sunday the Tigers finally got the break they deserve, an invite to the NCAA basketball tournament. LSU, the No. 11 seed, is not only included in the 64-team field, but they will also be playing host to the first round of the Southeast Regional at the Assembly Center against the No. 6-seeded Purdue Boilermakers. Thursday’s game will also mark the first time these two teams have ever met.
This will be the Tigers third-consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, sixth overall during head coach Dale Brown‘s 14-year tenure. Purdue will be making their fourth-straight trip to the tournament as well.
“I’m just extremely happy for the players. (LSU assistant coach) Ron Abernathy kept saying that if we just keep on believing in each other something good is going to happen to us sooner or later. And something good has happened,” LSU coach Dale Brown stated.
Coach Brown believes that playing at home is a distinct advantage for the team. However, he believes that it will take more than that to beat Purdue.
“We have to show the same tenacity that we showed in the two games in Lexington,” Brown stated, referring to the Southeastern Conference tournament last week.
In that tournament, LSU beat Florida by six points and then lost to the eventual tournament champion, Kentucky, by three points.
At several different points throughout the season, it appeared that making it to the NCAA tournament would be out of the question for the Tigers. Center Zoran Jovanovich went down with a knee injury, starting forward Nikita Wilson failed out of school, and John Williams and Bernard Woodside were hospitalized with the chicken pox. Despite their many adversities the Tigers reached one of their pre-season goals, to play in the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve had a lot of strange things happen to us this year, it is just one knock after another,” senior guard Derrick Taylor said, “Maybe, the man upstairs evened things up for us. Now, we got to make it happen.”
Last year both squads lost in the first round. Purdue fell to Auburn, 59-58, and Navy upset LSU, 78-55. Taylor, however, said that they are not going into Thursday’s game expecting an easy victory over Purdue.
“We know we’ll have to play 40 minutes of basketball. If we’re not ready to play, they could come in here and blow us out,” Taylor said, “We won’t go into the game overestimating anybody. We know we are playing a legitimate team. Hopefully Purdue will bring the best out in us.”
LSU’s impressive home record against non-conference opponents, 67-9, will hopefully continue with a first round victory over Purdue Thursday.
The Tigers will tip off against the Boilermakers at 9:37 p.m. in the Assembly Center following Memphis State and Ball State, who tip off at 7:07 p.m.
1985-86 RECORD: 26-12, 9-9
Coach: Dale Brown
Date
Opp.
11-15
Brewster Heights (H)*
W, 131-82
11-22
Montana State (H)
#14
NR
W, 84-59
11-27
Washington (A)
#12
NR
W, 70-61
11-30
BYU-Hawaii (A)
#12
NR
W, 89-71
12- 1
Hawaii-Pacific (A)
#12
NR
W, 101-89
12- 2
Hawaii-Loa (A)
#12
NR
W, 77-68
12- 3
Hawaii-Hilo (A)
#11
NR
W, 70-61
12-14
Hardin-Simmons (H)
#11
NR
W, 87-71
12-16
Lamar (A)
#11
NR
W, 74-57
12-17
Texas (A)
#9
NR
W, 72-65
LSU Invitational (two games)
12-20
SE Louisiana (H-LSUI)
#9
NR
W, 82-61
12-21
Southern (H-LSUI)
#9
NR
W, 91-83
12-30
Oral Roberts (H)
#9
NR
W, 82-64
1- 2
Georgia (H)
#8
NR
W, 85-73
1- 4
Miss. State (H)
#8
NR
W, 90-74
1- 9
Alabama (A)
#8
NR
L, 67-83
1-11
Tennessee (A)
#8
NR
L, 77-88
1-13
Ole Miss (H)
#8
NR
W, 86-68
1-18
Vanderbilt (H)
#14
NR
W, 84-67
1-22
Florida (A)
#14
NR
L, 65-74
1-29
Kentucky (H)
#17
#8
L, 52-54
2- 1
Georgia (A)
#17
NR
L, 76-92
2- 2
Georgetown (A)
#17
#12
L, 72-74
2- 4
Auburn (A)
NR
NR
W, 63-61
2- 5
Miss. State (A)
NR
NR
W, 68-62
2- 9
Alabama (H)
NR
#20
L, 71-80
2-12
Tennessee (H)
NR
NR
W, 75-50
2-15
Ole Miss (A)
NR
NR
L, 57-58
2-20
Vanderbilt (A)
NR
NR
W, 74-68
2-22
Florida (H)
NR
NR
W, 80-69
2-26
Auburn (H)
NR
NR
L, 86-92
3- 1
Kentucky (A)
NR
#5
L, 57-68
SEC Tournament – Lexington, Ky.
3- 6
Florida (N)
NR
NR
W, 72-66
3- 7
Kentucky (A)
NR
#4
L, 58-61