BATON ROUGE ? LSU capped one of the biggest weeks in school history in terms of national attention on Sunday when the sixth-ranked Lady Tigers posted a 57-55 win over 15th-ranked Georgia at the Maravich Assembly Center.
The first week of January had the Tiger football team on the national stage on Wednesday night as fourth-ranked LSU blasted No. 11 Notre Dame, 41-14, at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The victory came before a national audience that drew an estimated 14.5 million viewers, which is the most watched BCS game on FOX up to this point.
According to preliminary Nielsen Ratings, the Sugar Bowl on FOX carried a 9.0 rating, which easily beat out primetime programming that night on ABC, CBS and NBC.
Tiger junior quarterback JaMarcus Russell captured the attention and the respect of the nation in the Sugar Bowl, outplaying Heisman Trophy finalist Brady Quinn of Notre Dame during the game. Russell, who was named the game’s most valuable player, completed 21 of 34 passes for a career-best 332 yards and two touchdowns. Russell also scored on a 5-yard run just before halftime to put the Tigers up 21-14 at the break.
The victory sent the Tigers to an 11-2 overall mark and will have LSU ranked in the top five in the nation when the final polls come out on Tuesday. It will mark the first time since the 1958-59 seasons that LSU has finished ranked in the top five in the nation in back-to-back years.
Head coach Les Miles also became the only coach in LSU history to lead the Tigers to back-to-back 11-win seasons. Miles’ 22 victories in two years with the Tigers are the most of any coach during his first two seasons at the school.
Three days later, John Brady‘s 14th-ranked men’s basketball team hosted 18th-ranked Connecticut at the Maravich Assembly Center before a national television audience on ESPN. ESPN’s College Basketball Gameday was also on hand on Saturday, spending the entire day broadcasting from the PMAC.
Some of the top personalities in college basketball, including Dick Vitale, Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis and Andy Katz, were on hand to watch as Glen “Big Baby” Davis poured in 16 points to go with 10 rebounds to lead the Tigers to the 66-49 victory over the Huskies. The game was played before a season-high crowd of over 12,000 fans at the PMAC.
On Sunday, the sixth-ranked Lady Tigers, behind 20 points and 12 rebounds from All-American Sylvia Fowles, defeated Georgia, 57-55, in the Pack the PMAC XI. The game was played before over 7,500 fans at the Maravich Assembly Center and saw the Lady Tigers run their record to 15-1 overall and 1-0 in league play.