BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, still looking for a couple of victories that might propel them into post-season play, close out the regular season Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center against the University of South Carolina.
The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and there is no live or tape-delayed telecast of the contest. The game will be available on the affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network (Eagle 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge) and at LSUSports.net in the “Geaux Zone.”
The game will feature the annual Senior Night ceremonies at 6:48 p.m. for the team’s lone senior on the 2007 squad, Baton Rouge forward Darnell Lazare. Lazare is expected to make his 46th career start and play in his 118th career game for the Tigers. Senior Night games have been good for LSU, as the Tigers have won the final home game each of the last eight seasons.
Lazare comes in having recently scored a career high of 22 at Ole Miss and is averaging 6.8 points per game and 4.3 rebounds. He will have played on teams that won two SEC Western Division titles, one regular season overall Southeastern Conference championship and at this point, advanced to three post-season tournaments, including the 2006 NCAA Final Four.
“Darnell’s career has been exemplary in every way, from what he tried to do as a player to what he did as a student,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “He brought to the team what it needed. He started when we needed that and he would come off the bench when we needed that. He never complained. I respect him for what he’s done and how he’s handled things. He’s got a great family. His mom and dad have been terrific. He’s had some real good moments. His best was probably the 10 points he scored in the first half against Duke last year.”
Junior forward Glen Davis practiced again with the Tigers after working out on his own Thursday on the Tigers off day. It is expected that he will dress and be available for the contest after going through the entire session showing no sign of any lingering effects of the strained quad muscle from last month.
The Tigers are 15-14 on the season, 4-11 in the Western Division, with South Carolina, the two-time defending NIT champions, standing at 14-14 and 4-11 in the East. LSU has won the last two meetings in the series, but South Carolina still leads the overall series, 11-8.
LSU will be the sixth seed in the Western Division entering the conference tournament Thursday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The Tigers will play the Eastern Division’s third seed, Tennessee or Kentucky, at 9:45 p.m. EST in the final game of the tournament’s first day.