BATON ROUGE — Three games in three nights await the LSU Tigers and three other teams as they begin play Wednesday in the round-robin Hispanic College Funds Classic at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The 17th-ranked Tigers take on Wright State in the nightcap of the opening doubleheader with tip off set for 7:30 p.m. Samford and Mississippi Valley State meet in the 5 p.m. opener. Tickets for both games (one session) are $11 each with upper level tickets available for youth (3-12) for just $5. There is no television for the tournament and LSU games will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and at www.LSUsports.net in the “Geaux Zone powered by USAgencies.”
The Tigers are 7-3 on the season after a 68-52 Saturday over Louisiana Tech, while the Raiders come in at 5-5 after a 63-62 win over Chicago State in their last game on Thursday.
LSU will face Mississippi Valley on Thursday and then Samford on Friday night in the tournament finale. The doubleheaders start each night at 5 p.m. with LSU’s game scheduled each night at 7:30 p.m.
Coach John Brady‘s Tigers practiced Christmas night and again mid-day Tuesday in preparation and Brady feels the Tigers are ready and resilient enough for the challenge ahead.
“We’re just going to play it like we normally do it. I don’t think we’re overworked, and I don’t think we’re fatigued,” said Brady. “We’ve had a couple of good practices. We’re just going to try to manage the game as best we can. My main concern is just to win the first game. I’m not worried about the other two. I’m going to do everything we can to win the next game we play and that just happens to be Wright State (Wednesday) night.”
Wright State from the Horizon League will enter on a two-game winning streak.
“They are 5-5,” said Brady. “They had a good win over Miami. We’re just going to have to play well. I’m really more concerned about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to defend them and rebound the ball and how we execute offense.”
Mississippi Valley is 3-6 on the year but comes into the tournament with a two-game winning streak over McNeese State (76-45) and Central Arkansas (66-51). Samford is 5-4, but 3-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference after a 55-44 win over Murray State. Samford is the school LSU coach John Brady coached at before coming to LSU. Jimmy Tillette, a New Orleans native, and Brady’s top assistant at Samford, is in his 10th year as the head coach of the Birmingham school.
This is the third Hispanic College Fund Classic presented this year by Russ Potts Productions with the others held in November at Arizona State and Connecticut. The Hispanic College Fund provides talented and underprivileged Hispanic youth with vision, mentors, resources and scholarships. The HCF’s mission is to develop the next generation of Hispanic professionals through partnerships with business, government and foundations that are making this a reality.