BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tigers will face Iona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday at 6:10 p.m. CT in the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
LSU is in the Atlanta, Ga., regional that is led by the overall number one seed in the tournament, Duke.
The Tigers, the champions of the SEC with a 14-2 record, are 23-8 overall after going 1-1 in the SEC Tournament in Nashville. LSU is expected to have SEC freshman of the year Tyrus Thomas back at full strength for the tournament after sitting out four games with a high ankle sprain.
Iona College is 23-7 and 13-5 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, advancing with the automatic bid after defeating St. Peter’s, 80-61, in the championship game at Albany, N. Y. on March 6. For Iona, this is their eighth NCAA Tournament bid.
For LSU this will be their 19th NCAA Tournament appearance, second straight and LSU’s sixth post-season appearance in the last seven years. It is the third time the Tigers have been given a fourth seed along with 1985 (a first round loss to David Robinson’s Navy team) and 2000 (when LSU advanced to the Sweet 16 in John Brady‘s first NCAA appearance).
The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena is sold out for the event, but the LSU Athletics Ticket Office will take requests from men’s basketball season ticket holders from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday for the public portion of the LSU allotment. Season ticket holders can request tickets over the phone by calling 225-578-2184 or 800-960-8587 and in person at the Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Athletic Administration Building.
The LSU coaching staff will decide when LSU will leave for Jacksonville once the practice times and game times are announced late Sunday or early Monday.
After the selection show, Coach John Brady offered the following comments to local media members:
NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday
March 12, 2006
LSU HEAD COACH JOHN BRADY QUOTES
On what his team has accomplished and moving on to the NCAA Tournament…
“Anytime you win the Southeastern Conference championship, it’s a significant accomplishment. I’m proud of our players for the way they played, how they’ve improved and how well they’ve played together. There hadn’t been a lot of Southeastern Conference championships won here in basketball at LSU, and we’ve been able to win two of them. This year was really special because of the type of people that we have on the team. I’m just really excited and happy for our players, but that part of our season is over. The mini three games in three days session in Atlanta is over and now a new season starts in way so to speak. That’s the NCAA Tournament. We’ve still got some work to do in terms of getting our team as healthy as it needs to be, particularly Tyrus Thomas. If we can do that in the next two or three days — get him some contact and get him running up and down the floor — it will enhance our chances of not only winning the first game but winning several games in the tournament beginning Thursday.”
On being a No. 4 seed and the status of Tyrus Thomas…
“It doesn’t matter — a No. 3 or No. 4. It really wasn’t a big issue with me. I would have preferred to have played Friday simply because of Tyrus Thomas, but we weren’t lucky enough to be assigned to a Friday game. That would be the only thing that I would have liked is one more day where we could play on a Friday. We’re playing Thursday, and Tyrus worked out today with Coach (John) Treloar and did a nice job. The biggest thing with Tyrus may be his conditioning as opposed to his ankle by game time on Thursday. We might just have to play Tyrus in short stretches. As opposed to playing 12 or 14 minutes straight, maybe he can just go five and take him out, let him rest and put him back in. The more he plays, the better he’ll feel and the more comfortable he’ll feel. We’ll make more of a determination of that as the week goes on.”
On playing No. 13 seed Iona…
“I don’t know anything about them. I’m sure being where they’re located that usually those teams have good guards. They may not have the size or the athleticism, but teams at that mid level usually have good guard play. Anytime you have good guard play, you have a chance to have a very good basketball team.”
On LSU’s draw in the Atlanta region…
“If you’re going to go to a Final Four you’ve got to beat the No. 1 anyway unless you’re the No. 1 seed. That just takes care of itself if we can win a game or two. The first game for us is the most important game and for me to look ahead, I don’t think it would be prudent for me to do. We need to win the first game. Texas A&M and Syracuse are on the board and they’re both quality teams or they wouldn’t be in the tournament either. Our concentration and our focus needs to be on that first game. That’s what we really need to do is to do everything we can to get healthy, learn as much as we can about Iona tonight and have a couple of good days of practice and play our best in our first game on Thursday.”
LSU in the NCAA Tournament
Harry Rabenhorst
1953 – beat Lebanon Valley 89-76; beat Holy Cross 81-73; lost to Indiana 80-67; lost to Washington 88-69. Final Four.
1954 – lost to Penn State 78-70; lost to Indiana 73-62.
Dale Brown
1979 – beat Appalachian State 71-57; lost to Michigan State 87-71.
1980 – beat Alcorn State 98-88; beat Missouri 68-63; lost to Louisville 86-66.
1981 – beat Lamar 100-78; beat Alabama 72-56; beat Wichita State 96-85; lost to Indiana 67-49; lost to Virginia 78-74. Final Four.
1984 – lost to Dayton 74-66.
1985 – lost to Navy 78-55.
1986 – beat Purdue 94-87, 2OT; beat Memphis State 83-81; beat Georgia Tech 70-64; beat Kentucky 59-57; lost to Louisville 88-77. Final Four.
1987 – beat Georgia Tech 85-79; beat Temple 72-62; beat DePaul 63-58; lost to Indiana 77-76.
1988 – lost to Georgetown 66-63.
1989 – lost to Texas-El Paso 85-74.
1990 – beat Villanova 70-63; lost to Georgia Tech 94-91.
1991 – lost to Connecticut 79-62.
1992 – beat Brigham Young 94-83; lost to Indiana 89-79.
1993 – lost to California 66-64.
John Brady
2000 – beat Southeast Missouri State 64-61; beat Texas 72-67; lost to Wisconsin 61-48.
2003 – lost to Purdue 80-56.
2005 – lost to UAB 82-68.